The Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone

 

Since our anniversary falls squarely in the middle of hunting season, Jordan and I usually celebrate late.  This year, however, we mixed things up and got away early in order to take advantage of the good weather - which meant that we FINALLY got to take an incredibly scenic drive over the Beartooth Highway.  If you are ever anywhere near this corner of the world, you should most definitely plan to visit.  Trust me when I say that you won't be sorry!

We stayed at a quaint little AirBNB home in Red Lodge and left early the following morning to catch the sun rising over the mountains.  We were fortunate enough to see elk near the top of the almost 11,000 ft pass (seen in the right foreground of the photo above).

The mist coming off the alpine lakes along the highway made the terrain seem almost mystical, and we are almost 100% certain we would have missed this mom and baby pair if we had been driving through much later:

The back side of the pass was just as spectacular.  You can see why this highway is named the most scenic drive in the U.S.!

We took the highway all the way to Cooke City, where we hopped into Yellowstone from the northeast entrance.  We spent a long morning in the Park, spotting the usual animals (buffalo, elk, antelope, etc.)  We also spied two coyotes and another goat - a first for both of us in the Park.

We also drove down one of the Park roads that recently opened after being closed for road construction since we moved to Wyoming.

We made our way out of the park at the north entrance through Paradise Valley into Livingston, a first for Jordan.  We took a back highway part of the way home and got to see some beautiful ranch land and this abandoned mining town nestled in a small valley outside of Red Lodge.

 

We are looking forward to getting back to the area next summer for some hiking and camping.