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.