Road Trip: Little Bighorn and Beartooth Highway

As evidenced yesterday, things don't always go as planned on the road. That's why there are so many life on the road songs, right?

The Almighty Itinerary indicated we should be heading toward Yellowstone by 6 a.m. Instead we had a Continental breakfast at the hotel surrounded by cowboy hats (enjoyable) and Fox News on the common room TV (not) before getting on the road around 8:30. We quickly found ourselves in Montana, saw signs for Little Bighorn, and after consulting the GPS MFD pulled another wildcard.

I'm glad we stopped even though I have major white man guilt over what happened to the Native Americans in their country.

As you might imagine, it was solemn and quiet. Especially up on Last Stand Hill where Custer went down.

When I first saw the cemetery, I was thinking holy shit I didn't think this many people died here. And they didn't. Google tells me that the graves in the cemetery at Little Bighorn are known and unknown veterans of this nation's wars, as well as women and children from isolated frontier posts, Indians, scouts, and Medal of Honor recipients. The graves at the top of the hill are the 7th Cavalry men who died there. There's also a few stones for the horses, which existed long before the Indian Memorial. Really? Yes, really. The Indian memorial was not opened until 2003.

The bottom right photo above is Last Stand Hill from the Indian monument. Not many people walked into the circular Indian monument that blends a little into the land. I'm glad we did. It was my favorite part.

Back on the road, we stopped for supplies in a Walfart in Billings. We should've gone another exit down because that one was a) the exit we needed to take to get to the Beartooth Highway and b) less fucking insane at noon on a Saturday.

Some of my required supplies: bear box for food, food that travels well, travel coffee mugs because I forgot ours, a small bag cooler, and a $15 coffee pot. Worth it. The coffee in Yellowstone was hit or miss, and the rooms we were in that did have a small Keurig supplied decaf K-cups. Say what?

The Beartooth Pass. I would like a t-shirt that says I Survived Driving the Beartooth Highway. Or one that says We Survived the Beartooth Highway Because I Drove Instead of MFD. Those of you who have driven with him know what I'm talking about. Support group forms to the left.

The Beartooth Highway is a 68 mile trek.  It starts just south of Red Lodge, Montana (elevation 6400 feet), rises to 10,947 feet at the Beartooth Pass Summit in Wyoming, and ends near Cooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, at 7,500 feet.

two sides of the same sign

While it's only 68 miles, the switchbacks and hairpin curves make for some slow going. This boring video shows some of that along with the snow that was evident as we climbed:

It was closed due to snow and ice on Thursday, open on Saturday when we took it. It is hands down one of the most beautifully scenic drives I've ever been on. It is also hands down one of the most crap your pants driving experiences I've ever had. I was extremely woozy at the summit due to the elevation and also freezing my ass off but elated by the views. I forgot that I also had to drive down which was no picnic either. Luckily I had my big girl pants on and dealt with it...punctuated of course by many oh shits.

Other Road Trip posts: Badlands, The day we saw it all

Up next: Yellowstone