Beartooth Highway Bike Trip 2009

Dave and I, and our friends Ron and Julie, went on a most awesome motorcycle trip this last weekend. 

Day 1 – We left Friday morning and drove to Jackson, had lunch, and headed to Yellowstone Park.  The weather was pretty decent this day, but I was glad for the leather biker chaps I bought.  If you think they are just for looks or something, you are wrong.  I stayed so much warmer with them! 

We traveled through the Park and along Yellowstone Lake for awhile and then up Sylvan Pass toward Cody, Wyoming.  Sylvan Pass is where the above picture was taken thanks to a guard rail and my camera timer!  We drove the rest of the way into Cody with a stop to look at the Buffalo Bill Dam.  We ate dinner that night at a La Comida and had a yummy mexican dish “Pechuga Over Rice”.  I got the recipe and will have to share that later after I attempt to make it at home!

Day 2 –  Had breakfast at the Irma Hotel in Cody.  Then we went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center for a few hours and saw guns (they all start to look the same after a while), the Plains Indian Museum, and the Buffalo Bill Museum.  Oh… and I made a quick pass through the Western Art Museum.  You could almost spend days at this museum, but, since we needed to get on the road and my hubby has Adult ADD we got on the road early in the afternoon and headed to Red Lodge, Montana.  First of all Friday wasn’t hot or anything, but it was pretty cool weather headed out of Cody.  I swear though – almost everytime we stopped to put on the rain gear because it started looking nasty we would either miss the rain or just get a sprinkle!  However, it did keep me warm! 

We got to Red Lodge and ate a snack at a yummy bakery and visited the bike shop there of course.  We finally headed out and up the Beartooth Pass and kept hearing rumors of snow, which considering how cold it was at lower elevations, was no surprise to hear about for 11,000 feet.  Our intention was to go over the Beartooth and back through the Park and into Gardiner, Montana for the night.  Well… we didn’t even leave Red Lodge until about 4, so I wondered.  We drove the awesome Beartooth pass and got some great pictures and then as we got up on top it snowed, sleeted and froze us!  It was quite an adventure, and while it sounds kind of miserable, we had a lot of fun and it was beautiful!  Next time I hope we can see it in the sunshine :).

We make it to Cooke City Montana about 6:00 p.m. or so.  We decided to eat in Cooke City before going on to Gardiner.  We went to this place, I think it was the Miner’s Saloon, and just ordered burgers and fries thinking it would be quick.  Well, over an hour later it wasn’t quick, and then they acted like it was really cool that they were able to bring all of our meals out at the same time!  Hello!  Isn’t that what normally happens! Cooke City was a very “interesting” place.

So needless to say when I called our hotel in Gardiner because we were so late they had some problems with our reservation.  That ended up being our good luck because we got a couple of little cabins in Cooke City and didn’t have to drive another hour and a half  in the freezing cold and dark to Gardiner!

Day 3 – The next morning was definately chilly!  We ate breakfast in Cooke City and headed toward the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone Park.  It was a beautiful drive through the park even with the cold.  We stopped and Tower Falls and Mammoth and got rained on a little.  Then we were onto West Yellowstone for some of Dave and I’s favorite pizza at Wild West Pizzeria.

It was time to head home after that.  I almost didn’t want to go home!  We had a really great time.  I’ve never been on that long of a trip (mine have been a few hours at most) on the bike with Dave.  It was so awesome being on the bike in country like that.  It makes everthing so much more interesting and multi-dimensional.  I guess what I mean is you are out in the open with things instead of in a car.  Besides being out in the elements you get the sounds, smells and everything that you don’t get otherwise.  You feel so much closer and a part of the scenery.  Don’t know if I’m explaining that very well, but it was a great time!

Here a slide show and it’s pretty long, but shows some of the stuff we saw and experienced on the trip.  It seems like we were gone longer than 3 days!