Beartooth Pass

Leaving Sheridan Campground the next day

Rock slide scar

Lady Pilot

Approaching the treeline

Ludwig and Unnamed 84 Hightop took a break at Rock Creek Vista Point.

That smear of white in the trees below the talus is Wyoming Creek.

She is officially too big to sit on the spare tire anymore.

Cresting the Plateau at about 9700 feet. No more trees.

Leaving Montana at about 10,240 feet (3121 m).

Windswept tundra.

The date was July 22nd. It can snow up there any day of the year.

We explored a meltwater pond not far from the road.

Unnamed 84 Hightop and Ludwig stood guard.

There was a mid-July snowball fight.

That spire back there is the Bear's Tooth itself. 

The road's high point, 10,947 feet.

The descent into Wyoming was very lakey, and not as steep.

Pilot and Index peaks

Unnamed 84 Hightop leading the way to Cooke City.

At Cooke City the Smaller One and E decided they'd had enough and called for help.

We wrapped up the day with pizza in Gardiner on the way home. Thanks for the great trip, L family!

Yellowstone Weekend with the Smaller One

The Smaller One and I went to Yellowstone last weekend (the other ladies were at a Girl Scout camp).

We got our spot, one of the last few at Mammoth Campground, and promptly climbed a big hill across the road. That orange thing just off center is Ludwig, of course.

We were in site 14. 

The Smaller One thought another walk/hike would be nice. We took the trail up through a lot of sagebrush to the visitor center area.

We watched some elk, explored the visitor center, checked out the inlaid wood map at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, ate a couple ice cream sandwiches, and headed back to camp.

Our bellies full of fireside pistachios, we slept pretty well.

The next morning we drove past some baby bison (not pictured) and Norris Geyser Basin (above) on our way to Artists Paint Pots.

Before the mile-plus walk we fortified ourselves with feta cheese smashbrowns. That table really needs a second strut if I'm gonna use the stove on it again.

She may look pretty tired, but the mud pots were a huge hit. 

Next stop, Gibbon Falls, where she ate her first of two apples.

Spring runoff had the falls raging.

The second apple.

For a moment it looked like this bison might charge the Old Faithful crowd.

The geyser was predicted to erupt 25 minutes after our arrival. As 25 minutes turned into 45, I suggested we just leave, as we've seen it erupt at least a dozen times already and would see it erupt at least a dozen times more. Literally just as we got through the crowd, it erupted.

Ludwig took us home via a new route for him, US 191, dipping back into the Park and Wyoming for a short stretch, then eventually emerging South of Bozeman here, facing the Gallatin Range.

miles 41760.0-42040.9