On Top of the World!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Our new home campsite at Perry's Campground in Red Lodge, MT is delightful!  And it's cool!! High 70s to low 80s during the day and high 50s at night. So much better!  It is now my 6th night in a row camping so I must be getting used to it, huh?  Our site is right next to Rock Creek and it is a wonderful, noisy, rushing creek.  It's one of my favorite sounds. The owner here says there are very few mosquitos because of the rapidly moving water.  

After a very late start close to noon, we headed out for the Beartooth Mountain Scenic Byway located about 5 miles from our campground. The entire highway, from Red Lodge to Yellowstone, is 68 miles but after about two and a half hours, we had only gone 30 miles!  We didn't realize how slow the trip would be with all the turns and switchbacks and that we would want to stop every 5 minutes to take pictures. We got as high as 10,975 ft. and yes...we were freezing!  The temperature on the bike said 55 and the wind was blowing like gale force so we decided to go back down and regroup for the next day. It was so beautiful we definitely want a do-over. 

We went for a late lunch in town and browsed some of the shops. Then back to the campsite to just enjoy and appreciate the beautiful day. The Canadian guy camped next to us probably described it best. He said they've been through Canada from coast to coast, up to Alaska, through Washington, Oregon and then here to Montana.  The drive through the Beartooth Mountains was the most beautiful of anything they had seen.  We would agree.  Happy trails.