Up Fire Road 92

Heading North out of Butte, the first order of business was to hump it on over the Great Divide via Elk Park Pass on I-15.

Butte practically straddles the Great Divide and as far as I can determine, which is pretty far, is the largest American city so close to it (Silver City New Mexico gets 2nd place). The traffic was pretty light (re: nonexistent) that day, so luckily there was no one behind us to get mad at our 3rd gear, 45mph progress up the grade. Ludwig's climbed a lot of passes, but not all of them very quickly. The way the thing dangling from the rearview mirror is hanging at an angle is imparting some physics lesson or other.

Melissa was shooting the drive when we came upon a couple cows. I slowed down plenty, but the camera goes all Blair Witch Project at 0:46 when one of the cows freaks out and I have to slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid hitting it.

We found Whitehouse Campground nestled in a pine and aspen wood along the Boulder River. The mosquitoes were pretty nasty but our bug spray and the fire Melissa started kept them at bay.
We all took a stroll along the river. Not much of a river at this point, but then this is probably only about five miles from its source in the Boulder Mountains. I think those dead/dying trees are victims of the Mountain Pine Beetle.

I destroyed this whirling mound of foam right after this video was made, but it began to re-form immediately. Nature: 1. Man: 0. For some reason I found it to be really mesmerizing, like Lester watching the windblown plastic bag in American Beauty.


The camera caught us eating our hot dogs and "hot dogs" around the fire. Esmé really likes wearing her gnome hat while watching the fire.

On our walks that evening and the next morning Melissa took these flower pictures. Just like in Glacier National Park, the vegetation seemed dramatically different across the Great Divide. Normally we see a handful of different flower species, but the area was abundant with blooming flowers. There were more deciduous trees and bushes than we're used to seeing too.

The second to last photo is actually a bunch of seeds. The last photo is grass in bloom. Walking around our campsite, we noticed small puffs of "smoke". It was actually our legs brushing the pollen from the blooming grass. The photo belows shows how dense this grass actually was around Ludwig.

During the night we heard distant, approaching thunder. I looked out the window and saw a big moonlit anvil building up to the Southwest and was sure we'd get hit. It threatened and boiled for a long time, but skirted past us.

(miles 219,057-219,090)