Billings to Cody: Chief Joseph and Beartooth Redux

Last night I studied my Butler maps, lamenting the fact that I wouldn't get to ride Hwy197 from Bozeman, MT to West Yellowstone, MT along the Gallatin River through Big Sky, MT.  Or ride along the Grand Tetons beside the Snake River.  Those routes would have to wait for another trip.

It also occurred to me that KC and I hadn't really seen Beartooth Pass because the weather was so bad on the day we rode from Cody to Livingston.  I felt that heading to Riverton, WY today was premature and that doing so signaled the end of our great adventure.  I wanted to extend the ride, to see what I'd come to see...smelling the barn was way over rated.

So, I proposed that we ride Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway again, but this time in the opposite direction and then spend a night in Cody.  From Cody we could go to Riverton and then to Denver.  It took approximately 12 seconds to convince KC and our new plan was locked in.  It took some work, but we locked down a hotel in Cody.  We were cleared for takeoff.

We left the hotel at 8:20AM and rolled through Red Lodge, MT (a very unpretentious looking town...lots of old west vibe, 3 miles from a ski resort and directly in line with Beartooth Pass) around 9:30AM.  On the outskirts of town, we pulled into a gas station to fuel up and take a bio break.  When I found the men's room, KC was already using it and an older guy was standing outside the door.  I asked if this was the line and he said "Yes...you doing number one or number two?"  I said, "Number one".  He replied, "Then you go ahead of me." 

That's the difference between Red Lodge and Aspen.

Within minutes of leaving Red Lodge, the road pitched upward and the climb to Beartooth Pass was underway.  Red Lodge sits at about 5500' and Beartooth Pass is at nearly 11,000'.  As we climbed, the temperature dropped from nearly 70F to 42F.

Our second attempt at Beartooth was definitely worth the effort.  It is the most scenic ride I've ever done, with the exception of Going-To-The-Sun Road. These first shots were from Rock Creek Vista at about 9,200' which we rode through before hitting the pass.

The approach to Beartooth Pass from Red Lodge runs along the valley floor and offers tremendous views of the mountains.  The climb up to the pass scales the side of the mountain through a series of switchbacks.  The mountain sides were nearly vertical and at certain places, particularly along the switchbacks that make motorcycle travel possible, the debris fields from the rock slides were evident.  The highway guys had strategically installed huge heavy duty nets along the roadsides, like industrial strength chain link fences, to catch the massive boulders that could take out a Greyhound bus once gravity took hold of them.  Occasionally we'd see a refrigerator sized boulder trapped at the bottom of one of these nets.  I'd pay to watch a boulder fall down one of these fields.

In life, timing is everything.  And this is never more true than when riding a motorcycle over an 11,000' mountain pass.  A week earlier we were forced to turn around at 10,500', missing many of the views because heavy clouds were rolling in, making the ride pointless and dangerous.  As KC put it, it was IFR (instrument flight rules).  Had we waited another week, Beartooth would have been closed for the season (closing is scheduled for October 4th) and all access would have been denied.  But today, we nailed it...blue skies with a few Stratus clouds at 50,000'.  Conditions were, to borrow another aviation phrase, CAVU...ceiling and visibility UNLIMITED!!!!  When the mountains permitted it, you could see for-freaking-ever.  I could have spent all day riding this pass.

One of the most obvious differences in our second try, aside from the clear sky, was the presence of snow from last week's storm.  It was a perfect bit of spice to add to the mountain tops and helped to define their contours.  This trip we could see everything- the switchbacks, the rock slides, the alpine lakes, the glaciers, the snow capped peaks.

The tree line ends at about 9,500' and at this point the landscape becomes very barren...mostly rock and low shrubs.  You will see an occasional lone tree which must take a terrible beating during the winter.  The place makes me think of Mongolia...bare, wind swept, lonely.

 We found out that after the road opens in spring, the ski racers come here to train and use this ski lift to do so.

They take snow removal seriously out here....this thing looks like it could chew up a Volkswagen.

After we reached the pass and started down, the temperatures rose steadily and at the turn off to Chief Joseph and Cody the temps were nearly 70.  The views along the valley leading to Chief Joseph were beautiful, the Aspens were in full bloom...blinding yellow and orange.

This was my third time atop Chief Joseph, but it was the first time under such clear skies.  It is a magnificent place and one of my favorite places on Planet Earth.

By the way, the shots from Chief Joseph were taken with a different lens...this time its a Fuji 16mm lens...pretty sharp, eh?  I give up the flexibility of a zoom lens but the optics are sharper and the lens is MUCH faster (larger aperture...f/1.4).  I wish I'd have used the 16mm lens more often on this trip.