Day 9 June 16 - The Spectacular "Not-To-Be Missed" Beartooth

Route: West Yellowstone, Montana over Beartooth Pass to Columbus, Montana
GPS Tracks for the trip are posted here:https://tworoads.shutterfly.com/pictures/40#42
Miles: 238
Total Time: 10:05
Total On Bikes: 6:00
Total Miles For Trip so far: 2378

Ever since beginning the planning for this trip, traveling the Beartooth Highway outside the northeastern gate of Yellowstone -- over the Beartooth Pass -- had been one of my "hoped for" destinations. Its reputation among the riders I had talked to and the articles I had read, made it sound like a motorcycle touring paradise. Today was the day that I got to form my own opinion about "the Beartooth."

Weather was spectacular for motorcycling -- mid 60's and sunny -- and we started back inside Yellowstone with high anticipation and expectation -- this time turning north around the circle headed toward the Northeastern exit. The start of the journey was EXACTLY like I had written about yesterday when we visited Old Faithful -- crazy drivers jamming on brakes and lines of cars clogging the roads. And while I must admit that looking at the many buffalo is interesting (they are an unusual looking creature) -- they are not endangered (you can buy buffalo jerky in the store) and there are so many to see in the park that in a short time it becomes routine to see them -- and the fast, unexpected braking and slowing ceases. On the other hand, the traffic jam caused by the viewing of a meandering bear was more understandable.

As everyone probably already knows, the scenery in Yellowstone is fantastic -- and I had little time or interest in checking my GPS routing as we traveled -- wrongly assuming that the turn off the circle to the Northeastern exit from the park to Beartooth could not be missed. Well, such was NOT the case. With Vince traveling ahead of me, I first noticed the GPS telling us to make a U-Turn about 4 miles beyond the turn we needed -- and perhaps because neither Vince or I had noticed any such turn -- I was, well, a little untrusting of the GPS's advice. After fiddling with the GPS controls for a bit, I finally decided I needed to pull over and check a paper map -- but my efforts to get Vince to notice me were unsuccessful -- as he too was fully engaged in the beauty of the scenery. He thought I was just stopping to take a picture -- as we had done before.

After figuring out that the GPS was indeed correct -- the next issue became -- what to do about it. Vince and I had made a plan to "meet outside the gate" if we got separated -- however now I realized that he would be waiting outside the wrong gate -- some 18 miles down the road. After some delay in the hopes that Vince would realize our routing error when I didn't show up (and because I needed a bathroom stop) -- I finally headed to the gate where Vince would be. In the meantime, Vince had figured out the mistake and headed back my direction. When we got together again -- we were both resolute in our thought that we weren't going to let a few extra miles (about 34 for the unplanned roundtrip) stand in the way of our desire to "do" the Beartooth. That turned out to be an excellent decision.

With the anticipation of a kid yelling "are we there yet" -- we began the ascent -- not even sure that the pass was open. Once again I felt like a pioneer traveler when we we visited at one rest stop with motorcyclists who had just come over the pass the opposite direction. They reported that the pass was open, roads were mostly dry, that the path was windy and cold -- and wonderfully beautiful. During the journey we learned that the pass had JUST reopened the day before because of the same weather system that had delayed/changed our trip plans had dumped snow on the mountain, caused an avalanche and resulted in its closing. We felt plenty fortunate to know that our extra 34 mile return -- and our delayed/changed travel plans -- would allow us to see the pass.

The pass was even better than expected -- not necessarily as a motorcycle "sport" paradise this time because the roads/corners were still plenty dirty and the road condition (potholes and such) but definitely as a motorcycle "touring" paradise. The road twists continually both on the ascent and descent -- and we were treated to almost Disneyland like experience of traveling between high snow banks -- looking like snow tunnels with sun shining in the tops. We didn't find it particularly windy (a little more good luck) or cold (adequate gear/clothing probably helped in this regard). The descent was equally beautiful -- and the mountain views brought back memories of my trips to Switzerland.

Neither words nor pictures do the place justice -- so you'll just have plan a visit yourself...but if you're interested in looking a some of the pictures we took, you can see them here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=11zdnf23.5a51jnrn&x=0&y=-79uvpd&localeid=en_US

A few more miles down the road in found a great little motel in Columbus, Montana to spend the night -- with memories of a fantastic day of motorcycle touring!