Beartooths

So after the wheel-almost-falling-off-Sylvia fiasco, you can imagine that we may have some apprehension about heading out for long distances in her, especially in the direction of Butte. We waffled back and forth on whether to attempt an adventure to Seattle in her via Glacier/Waterton and then through Canada to the Pacific Northwest. In the end, just a day before our departure date, we wimped out. We opted instead to take her down to the Absaroka-Beartooths, over the Beartooth Pass, through Yellowstone and squeak back home again just in time to pack up my car to head to Seattle. On our way to Red Lodge it dawned on us that we should spend the first night in East Rosebud Canyon with its gorgeous Yosemite-esque scenery. The area burned about fifteen years ago clearing the trees and opening grand views of the looming cliffs above. We were treated to stunning scenery and loads of ginormous huckleberries as we hiked up to Elk Lake the following day. We spent that night outside of Red Lodge poised below the Beartooth Pass. The next day Sylvia pulled strong through thin air over the 11,000 foot pass as her passengers oohed and ahhed over the high alpine scenery. We settled into our 10,000 foot elevation campsite at Island Lake and then headed out on an oxygen-deprived hike along a chain of high alpine lakes across the Beartooth Plateau. The next day we stopped to check out an old fire lookout and its spectacular views where we jumped at the opportunity to look through a solar telescope. We could see sun spots and watched a solar flare grow over the hour we spent there. Very cool. We then buzzed through Yellowstone and rolled into our driveway with 36 hours left before we needed to hit the road to Seattle.

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