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| The Beartooth follows Rock Creek
for a number of miles as the road climbs into the
mountains. Our campsite near Red Lodge is located on Rock Creek. |
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| The road eventually turned away
from the creek and suddenly the vista opened up toward the 1,800 foot
cliffs that bend around the head of the Beartooth valley in a tight semicircle. |
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| We would climb from an elevation
of 5,553 feet at Red Lodge to 10,947 feet at Beartooth Pass. At 9,190 feet, we arrived at the
Rock Creek vista point. Below, we could see the road we had
traveled snaking up the side of the mountain. From this viewpoint,
we could look across Rock /Creek canyon to the high, rolling country of
the Beartooth Plateau. |
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| There were wildflowers blooming
everywhere! |
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| Charles Kuralt, for those of us
old enough to remember him, called the Beartooth the "most beautiful
highway in America". He just might have been right. |
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| I remember, not long ago, when
the skies were clear and free of haze in the West and you could,
seemingly, see forever. Not so anymore .
. . anywhere in our country. |
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| As we continued climbing, the
trees gave out entirely as we crossed a landscape of low, rounded hills
covered with grasses, sedges, and lavish summer wildflowers. |
