After shopping and touring the town, we were back on the road, still headed west. By this time, we made the decision to head to Red Lodge about 35 miles away. Since we are so close, Red Lodge is to be a side trip before heading on to Cody. Why Red Lodge you ask? Well, Patti has been talking about the Prison Museum and Car Museum in Red Lodge ever since she picked up the brochure at the border. We thought for some reason that the museum was on the other side of the state and farther than we wanted to travel. Long story short, it is on the other side of the state and farther than we want to travel as the museum is actually in Deer Lodge, about 300 miles away, not Red Lodge. Red Lodge turns out to be a good mistake. The little ole lady at the Visitors Center convinced me that we had to take the road through “Bears Tooth Pass” to the northwest entrance into the Yellowstone. It will be a “mortal sin” if we missed one of – as Charles Kuralt described – the most beautiful drives in America. There is only one small problem, Bears Tooth Pass tops out at an elevation of 10,000 feet and the climb is brutal. She assures me that I am not the first to pull a trailer up the hill and the two lane road is in great shape. “Take it slow, pull over to let people pass and you will have no problem” she says. This advice is coming from a 5’2” little ole lady that probably has never towed a thing in her life. But what the heck, I’m a man, Big Red is running great, we have lots of food and water, the diesel tanks are topped off, how bad can it be?
Downtown Redlodge, Montana
Off we go and fortunate for me there is very little traffic. I only had to move over a few times let folks pass. Both Red and I are comfortable with the 25 mile per hour speed limit. The little old lady failed to mention that the road was under construction and although they have just paved most of it, there are no road stripes nor are there any barriers between Big Red and the shear drop off to the right. It was tense when we pulled as far right as possible to let on coming cars go by. Charles was right, the drive was breathtaking. The higher we climbed the more amazing it became. When we reached the summit, we could see across what seemed to be several mountain ranges, all topped in snow. The road was also in the snow level and some of the snow banks were as tall as the truck. We did not see any trees as we were literally above the tree line. The trees are too smart to go that high. Breathing is a little hard.
Heading down the other side posed its own problems as pulling a trailer down hill is more work that pulling up. The load tends to push you and the brakes can easily over heat if one is not careful. The farther we drive down the other side, the closer we come to viewing Bear Tooth Peak and yes it does resemble a bear’s tooth. The road turns to dirt for a while as we near the construction of a few new bridges. Except for kicking up some dust, we make it through ok. We have been following a large Air Stream for most of the way. We loose the Air Stream after stopping at a partially frozen lake to take some pictures. It is obvious from the snow mobile tracks across the lake, that this area as seen a lot of traffic. It is picture post card beautiful.
On down the road past the turn off to the Chief Joseph’s Scenic Highway – we will be visiting Chief Joseph’s Highway and it’s 8,500 foot pass soon – and to the little town of Cooke City. It was getting late in the day so we decided to try and find somewhere to camp for the night and enter Yellowstone early the following morning. All of the Forrest Service camp grounds outside the park have not opened yet for the season. The ultimate goal is to find a camp site inside the Park and use it as home base while we explore. We plan on spending at least two days in the Park before leaving for Cody via the east entrance. There are no RV sites in Cooke City so we drive through to the next even smaller community of Silver Gate, just four miles away.
Toby sitting next to some large animal Pelosi
Silver Gate consists on a small store, several rental cabins, a gift shop, a Bed and Breakfast Café, a hot-dog cart and that’s about all. Before I know it I am through the town but fearing that I will not find another place, I make a u-turn and head back to the Silver Gate Store. Bob was on duty and he and Henry, the owner, find a spot for us to park the RV for the night. It is next to their store room and in front of their garbage shack; the price is $25 without utilities. We took it and settled in for the night but up here night does not come until about 10:00 pm.
Patti and I explore, checking out the gift shop and Café across the street. The Café’s log building was constructed in the 1930’s and all of the furniture inside was hand made from pealed branches and timbers. Inside, it is exactly what we expected to find. On the wall there are 3 bear skins, a moose head, an antelope head and a mountain goat. The moose has flowers hanging from its mouth. We quickly decided to eat hot-dogs and pork’n beans in the trailer as the prices are too high for our budget.
The Store looks as though it may be one of the newer buildings in the town but it is still exactly what it should look like. The shelves are well stocked as they sell a little bit of everything. Both Henry and Bob spend much of their time talking at length with each customer and even stopping to show them, on the map, all of the neat places to see in Yellowstone. No one seems to be any great hurry. Everyone lets there dogs run wild and Toby’s smelled a lot of dog butts and made several new friends. In the front of the store there stands a tall metal fireplace with several wood benches and a few Adirondack style chairs. We will find out later that the store is the gathering spot for the folks staying in the cabins as well as the rest of the community. There are two spotting scopes trained on the mountains to the east of the store. On the porch there is a dry erase board with a list of the animals that people have seen through the scopes. You can rent one for $30 per day or just hang around the store and look through one when ever you like.
Silver Gate is on the main road leading to the entrance of Yellowstone and the mountains to the east of the road, behind the Café, are so close that it seems as though you can reach out and touch them. They rise to the sky. All of the crevasses are full of snow as well as the whole north face of the cliff that overlooks the valley. Running behind the Café and along the base of the mountain is a river. I wish I would have asked someone for the name of the river. There is a foot bridge across the river and a walking trail leading to a large water fall. On the west side of the road, behind the store and the rental cabins, the mountains also rises to the sky. We are located in a narrow valley between two mountains. Silver Gate is only about a mile from the entrance to the Park. We are only one mile from our destination and it is impossible to imagine that Yellowstone can be any more breath taking than where our RV is parked for the night.
After dinner, Mom, Patti, Toby and I sit in the grassy playground directly next to the RV. Toby is doing his “go Toby go” routine and running in circles as though he is being chased by a mountain lion. We are just waiting for him to fall in to one of the small creeks carrying water from the mountain behind us, but somehow he remains dry. It is so pleasant and relaxing just to sit a watch the sunset across these majestic mountain peaks. As the shadows begin to turn into dusk, we make some hot chocolate and walk over to the store where we sit around the fire and make some new friends. I think it is Patti that says, “If we don’t see anything else on this trip, this moment makes it all worth while”. Right now, this very minute in time, life is really good.
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