Twisty Turns: Me and the Beartooth

The Beartooth!

In an effort to blog a bit.  I am gonna try to write a touch on some of the places I've been.  So as I might have mentioned ad nauseum I lived for 5ish years in Yellowstone National Park.  While in the park I had the privileged of visiting many of the country's gorgeous places.  Once of which is not that far from the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone.  The Beartooth Pass.

The beartooth pass links Yellowstone (Via Cooke City MT) to Red Lodge/Billings area MT.  It is only open from late May to ate October and is often called "the most beautiful drive in America".  It winds through Montana and Wyoming at an elevation of 10,947 ft.  (Really, really, really freakin high)

 

I've been on it several times over the course of my life, but have only driven it twice.  I must have been around age 10 when we first crossed it.  We camped a lot and my dad loves to drive through the mountains.  I am a little bit afraid of heights (and by a little bit I mean a lot).  I can't say I enjoyed the ride.  My siblings tried to scare the tar out of me.  My dad didn't help cause he kinda liked to freak us all out driving with out his hands on the wheel and whatnot.
 

   

But it was beautiful and there is almost always snow.  So even though it scares me silly, I love it.  Once you are up then it is the best place in the world, it's getting there that is the challenge.  The Red Lodge side is the scary side in my opinion.  Switchbacks galore.  Pretty much the entire way down.  The Yellowstone side is a little more sloped- less up and down..  It might be just my perception, but it works for me.  There is a little gas station and gift shop on the top, closer to the Yellowstone side called the Top of the World. It is pretty true, there are places on the top of the range that you feel like you are higher than anything else.

 

I drove it the first time in 2007 with my brother Bobby.  We didn't go all the way down the Red Lodge side, just as far as the overlook, because it is a days drive from where we lived in Yellowstone.  It was nerve racking, it is a fast road, even if you are trying to stay slow.  The nature of the beast an all. I felt good afterwards, I had conquered the Beartooth.

 

Two years later my friend Silke and I drove it.  She had never been over it.  We went to the overlook and back.  I could drive anything at this point.  The Beartooth was a stepping stone.  Hell, Yellowstone was, there are tons of mountains there that I once couldn't drive.  I've driven steeper, higher, twister roads since then.  I love them, I crave them, but for the most part, only if I am driving... it is a control issue.