Driving to Yellowstone park on the first day of summer was a joy. We found spring flowers just beginning to bloom, frozen lakes with just a trace of thaw and we drove through sun, rain, snow, hail and more sun; the temperatures ranged from 85 to near freezing. The mountain views were astounding—who could fail to be impressed by the by the ride over the Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone Park.
We left Red Lodge in warm sun and headed up the Beartooth Highway, past the Greenough Ranch to the famous switchbacks overlooking Rock Creek . At Lookout Point, which is at the last switchback, we walked to the overlook and there was Rock Creek valley many thousand feet below. Chrome Mountain and the winding mining road to the summit mesa were across from us; we were higher than the summit of Chrome Mountain. The weather was windy, but warm and sunny. We saw a Clark’s Nutcracker and a fledgling—a sure sign of summer.
Continuing up the road we crossed the Montana summit and found some tall snow banks. Then we continued to the Wyoming or West Summit and found enormous piles of snow along the road. Then a squall struck and we had first rain then hail and finally snow flurries. The squall passed quickly so we stopped at West Summit in Wyoming to take pictures. We met a motorcyclist on his way to Idaho who was optimistic about a turn for better weather, but sounded doubtful. Sure enough as we descended the weather returned to stormy so we pulled over to stop for lunch. By the time we finished eating the weather was fine and it continued that way.
The first wild flowers appeared before we entered the park—the bright yellow flowers turned out to be dandelions or a look alike. There were also some small blue and red blooms as well as some larger yellow blooms. Not knowing anything about flowers is a disadvantage in describing what we saw. Animals were also out enjoying the sun, I hope, and near the road—many buffalo and elk, a deer and a coyote.We drove along Yellowstone Lake and exited towards Cody, WY. Our destination Pahaska Tepee was close to the park exit: Gas Station, Gift Shop and combination register checkout and hotel registration desk. The attendant registered us and took our credit card manually because a flood had knocked out the telephone earlier that day. There is also a dinning room and a bar; everything shuts down from 9:30PM to 7:00AM. Pahaska Tepee manages to be pret
ty minimal stopover even if Buffalo Bill Cody did stay here once.Dinner in the Dinning Room: steak, BBQ, farm raised Rainbow Trout from Idaho and the Western specialty Liver and Onions. We stuck to beef. An ice cream bar from the gas station was available for desert.
It was an incredible ride from Red Lodge to Pahaska Tepee the first day of Summer 2008.
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