Driving the Scenic Routes of Red Lodge (23 July)

With a view to checking out the pass as a possible cycling tour for Emil, we drove the Beartooth Highway and the St. Joseph Scenic Byway today. "Dubbed the most beautiful roadway in America...the Bearthooth Highway climbs to an astounding 10,957 ft above sea level "(from 5,555 ft in Red Lodge). The brochure extolling the virtues of this pass continues "the Highway traverses an impressive range of ecosystems - from lush lodge pole pine forest to alpine tundra." Gorgeous blue lakes, wild creeks and abundant wild flowers make this roadway a pleasure to drive ... and the road itself, with its seven miles of switchbacks, is also an attraction!

At the Gardner Lake Pullout (elev.9,481), we spontaneously decided to hike down to the lake. It was only about 750 ft downhill and about 3/4 miles of trail, but coming back up we really noticed the altitude! The Lake was a wonderful deep blue and  surrounded by silky blue lupines on the one side and smaller snow fields on the other.

Driving on to the top of the pass, we really did encounter a tundra like vegetation and wonderful vistas into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area and Clarks-Fork Valley. Emil was quite pleased with the road, although the wind at the top was exceedingly strong. This could be the one element that would foil his attempt at crossing the pass by bicycle!

 At the foot of the Beartooth Highway another scenic route branches off and turns back towards Red Lodge: the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. The roadway is so named because in 1877, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, refusing to be removed from his ancestral lands, led his people, numbering at least 700 men, women and children and over 2,000 horses in a 1,170 mile retreat, attempting to reach Canada. Underway, closely followed by the U.S. Army near Clarks Fork, he had his men mill the horses around three roads, then took an unexpected route which the scouts could not find. Unfortunately, after months of fugitive resistance, his folk were so exhausted, ill and starving, that he surrendered shortly before the Canadian border. He believed they would be able to return to the reservation in western Idaho, but were instead scattered among reservations on the southern Great Plains. Chief Joseph is most remembered for his wise but sad words "I will fight no more forever".

Although Chief Joseph did not actually cross the pass here, but rather took a road leading below it, the views are stunning and worth the drive. Especially remarkable is the gorge of the Clarks Fork and Yellowstone Rivers and the panorama spreading along both sides of it. This is big, beautiful country!