October 2, 2010  7:52 a.m.

Day 10 was Sept 13, 2010.

We woke up in Billings, Montana.
Temperature was 46 degrees.
Elevation was about 3300 feet.

We took awhile to get going toward the Beartooth Highway.  One neat experience for Self-Reliant Man was the opportunity to wash the van at a Flying J RV/truck wash facility.  It was a coin-op do it yourself facility, and it gave a great deal of satisfaction to be able to get the van so clean.  I thought I had photos of this, but I cannot find them.

From my travel journal:
Right now it is 11:12 a.m. and we are on US-212 driving toward the Beartooth Mountain Range.  It is an exciting drive to be sure.  After passing through the town of Red Lodge, Montana, we are already at 5,800 feet altitude.  We are, at last, entering the Rockies!  I will sit back and enjoy the trip and write more later.

And so I did.  During the rest of the drive, the Beartooth Highway was definitely a most memorable experience.  The road at the Beartooth Pass was an incredibly engineered road.  Every switchback put you so much higher than the previous, while maintaining about an 8% grade throughout.  The scenery was unspeakably beautiful.  It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful and amazing that I have ever seen, even outdoing the Sunwapta Pass in Alberta (which we drove on our honeymoon).  We eventually climbed to the summits at about 10,900 feet altitude and got out to picnic on some rocks.  Chips and Sweet Girl also got to make snowballs with some of the remaining snow patches at the highest elevations.  On the way back down from the summits, we were presented with incredible views at every turn.  It was truly amazing.  If you are ever going to Yellowstone, and you have an opportunity to drive the Beartooth Highway, don't miss it.  It has been called "the most beautiful drive in America" by Charles Kuralt; it is an All-American Road (National Scenic Byway) that exceeded our expectations.  Uh.. but make sure you aren't towing anything when you do, or else you will be almost able to read your own license plate on the turns.  No, but seriously, this road wasn't bad.  It didn't even scare me.

Anatomy of Beartooth Pass - from the Beartooth Highway

Our initial approach into the Rockies from Red Lodge.

Starts to get very scenic here.  Valley before Beartooth Pass - Montana side.

Part way up the pass.  There we were a minute ago.  See?

Highest overlook on Montana side of the pass.  See the road below?

Snow near the summit. Wyoming, now. It is still white and clean (from August snowfall).

Sweet Girl's first touch of snow (Chips touched some at age 4).

Lunch at 10,900 feet.altitude.  Hold onto your hat!  Note small snowman on rock.

Use your imagination here.  Imagine actually seeing this in person.  It was vast.

Picture doesn't do this justice, either.  It is such an experience to be here.  It seems to surround you.

Every single turn presented a new and improved view.  This was unforgettable!  The beartooth mountain is the small spiky one in the very center of the photo.  See it?

I am very thankful someone engineered this so that motorists would have access to this beauty.

Switchback after switchback on the way back down.  Splendid.

 Now we shift gears (out of low gear, that is).  Later on that afternoon we arrived at Yellowstone Park with the plan to just drive across it to our campground in West Yellowstone, Montana.  Which we did accomplish, although it took us quite some time to get there.  There were two types of traffic jams -- the kind caused by elk and bison (which you may, or may not, get to see, depending on where you are in the car line) ..... and the kind caused by road construction.  We could see that Yellowstone would take some getting used to.  More about this tomorrow...