The Most Beautiful Drive In America

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2013 trip so far:  bison, pronghorn, elk, white-tail deer, Uinta ground squirrel, coyote, snowshoe hare, grizzly bear, moose, wolf, red fox, black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain goat

*Birds we’ve seen on our 2013 trip so far: osprey, pheasant, magpie, raven, Canada geese, mountain bluebird, grouse, golden eagle, bald eagle, American avocet, sandhill crane, red-tailed hawk, cliff swallow

 

[Click on any photo to enlarge.]

Originating just outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park and following along Rt. 212 is the road Charles Kuralt (the CBS “On the Road” TV correspondent) dubbed “the most beautiful drive in America”, and this was our destination earlier this

month.  Winding through the Gallatin, Shoshone, and Custer National Forests and the states of Montana and Wyoming, the 170-mile roundtrip drive from Mammoth to the Beartooth Pass is always spectacular, but this time of year when snow is still evident most of the way, it’s even more

breathtaking.  Roads were all clear so we were able to enjoy the snow without having to drive through it!  Rising from an elevation of 3,582 ft. at the park's northeast entrance to 10,947 ft. at the summit, the Beartooth Highway is definitely one of the most beautiful drives we have ever driven.

 

Since we’ve made this drive before, we thought we’d share a couple comparison photos.  The ones below on the left were taken late August 2012 while the ones on the right were taken in roughly the same place early June 2013.  The first were at the summit but as you can tell, there was too much snow to get to the spot where we had stood for that photo!  In the other photos you can see a lake in the distance, which is obviously frozen over in the June pic.

 

   
We had taken Abby with us and found a spot not far from the summit where we let her out to play.  She seemed oblivious to the cold as Russ walked her out and let her off the leash.  What a blast she had running, playing, and even trying to pick up snowballs we threw to her!

 

 

 

 

 

      On our way back we stopped near Long Lake because as you can see, there was still ice cover on part of the lake while part of it could be seen freely flowing…quite an interesting sight.

 

Yellowstone Tidbits:

*In 2012 park visitation topped 3 million for the 6^th straight year, making it the 2^nd highest visitation year on record.

*Highest point in the Park: 11,358 ft.    Lowest point:  5,282 ft.

*The Continental Divide crosses in 3 spots between the South Entrance and Old Faithful with the highest crossing being Craig Pass at 8,262 ft.