Friday June 30 To Bozeman and Red Lodge

Beautiful drive today, about 300 miles. Up to West Yellowstone, then north along the Gallatin River to Bozeman. Picnic lunch at nice new Gallatin County Park. This whole area east of the city has boomed with subdivisions and new roads.

The drive from Bozeman to Red Lodge is beautiful. Out of the mountains and on to rolling green hills. We arrived at the Alpine Lodge about 5:00. Red Lodge isn't very big; just one Main Street. Its a adventure town for sure - skiing, biking, hiking, Beartooth Pass. 

There are no "chain" or fast food restaurants here- they don't allow it! We had a nice dinner at an old tavern called Bogart's. Next door we found this amazing candy store, chock full of antiques, called "Montana Candy Emporium".

Tomorrow is Beartooth Pass to Mammoth Hot Springs.

Saturday July 1 Red Lodge to Mammoth via Bear Tooth Pass

The Alpine Lodge is awesome! Very dated but clean and nice. Made to order breakfast in the outdoor kitchen!

Leaving Red Lodge you start climbing the Beartooth Highway, which ultimately takes you to a summit at 10,947 feet. Beautiful road, lots of switchbacks, spectacular views! This is a favorite route for motorcycle touring; we saw many groups of "bikers".

Going down the west side of the pass takes you to Cooke City, a nothing little burg at the east entrance to Yellowstone. Then through the Lamar Valley and on up to Mammoth Hot Springs. 

In June 2020, there was massive flooding from unprecedented rain storms in the northern part of the park. We knew that the road from Mammoth to Gardner has been washed away but we were not prepared to see the damage along the Lamar road. Its all been repaired now but what a mess! One area, not far from Roosevelt, seemed to be a land slide which buried the road. 

After we checked in to your cabin (#C51 again!) we took the "new road" down to Gardiner for dinner at our usual place, the Iron Horse Cafe. The road was the "old" carriage road down the hill which has been paved over and made passable, barely! Its amazing how they did that in less than a year.

Sunday July 2 Yellowstone

We'd stay at the Mammoth cabin for two nights. This morning, with a beautiful cloudless sky, we enjoyed our breakfast outside on our porch in the sunshine. We headed south toward Old Faithful, with stops along the way. Our goal was to have lunch at the Old Faithful Inn dining room, which we did.

As I was planning this trip, it never even occurred to me that it was July 4th weekend! I'll bet today set an all time record for the number of people in the park! We were so fortunate in that since we'd been here so many times before, we knew the "hot" spots, so the crowds were not a problem for us. It seems the most popular spot is the Grand Prizmatic Spring. We felt sorry for the folks who were in line of cars several MILES log waiting to get into that parking lot. Norris Geyser Basin was bad, too. We enjoyed a stop at Black Sand Basin which wasn't crowded and very much like Grand Prizmatic, only smaller.

To get back to Mammoth, we took the road over Dunraven Pass to Tower Junction. That road had been closed for reconstruction for nearly two years. At the top, there's a trail to the top of Mount Washburn at 10,279 feet. Its 5 miles; save it for another day.

We did see a bear today! Otherwise, we noted that distinct lack of wildlife! No traffic jams waiting for herds of bison to cross the road!

Lamar Valley

Overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs

Crowds at Grand Prizmatic

Monday July 3 Long Drive Home

Drove all the way home today - 450 miles. Traffic wasn't bad, weather was great, getting hotter as the day went on. By mid afternoon it was in the mid 90s. Home by 6:00PM.