Saturday and Sunday

Saturday Leta and I road from Bozeman, MT Holiday Inn through the Gardiner, MT and the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park. We didn't get to use our new annual National Park Pass because the Park Service was having a free weekend for the public. I was a little disappointed after spending $80 on an annual pass.

Leta did some shopping at the Park's General Store at Mammoth Springs, sat and watched people and an elk for a while. We then took the northern road 47 miles across the park, getting to see some areas which were inaccessible to us when we last visited due to road closures. Near the North East gate of the park we saw a lot (hundreds if not thousands of buffalo), a black bear near the road, and a lot of fly fishermen.

North Gate - Yellowstone near Gardiner, MT

After leaving the park, we road 4 miles of mostly gravel (due to road construction) to Cooke City. Leta road the gravel like a champ. Someone back in the park told us that all the hotel rooms at Red Lodge were full due to "The Rodeo". We had originally planned to stop in Red Lodge, eat at the Red Lodge Cafe, and get a room there, but figured from what we heard that the town was full of rodeo cowboys and fans. When we got to Cooke City we were found that "The Rodeo" was actually a huge Harley Rally everyone but us knows about. There were literally motorcycles everywhere.

Cooke City, MT

From Cooke City we road Bear Tooth pass, which something we had missed when we were at the Red Lodge/Beartooth BMW Rally a couple years ago with Shannon. It was definitely worth the wait and we both enjoyed the road thoroughly, but should have stopped for more photo ops. My GPS showed me that we got up to 10,992 ft before heading back down the pass. The many switchbacks and huge vista were awesome, but I had to stay pretty focused on the road. We were easily able to deal with the patches of gravel from road construction on the higher parts of the pass.

Leta and her Honda on Beartooth Pass - Chief Joseph Highway in the background.

Leta got some great photos from the Rally at Red Lodge. We did some shopping and relaxed until 11 PM. From there I got to try to new HID light setup and man did it work well. We got to our hotel in Billings (Billings Hotel and Convention Center) about midnight after booking the room on Priceline from Red Lodge. Leta fell a sleep shortly after midnight, but I was too excited from the pass and Red Lodge and couldn't sleep until 3 or 4 AM.

Red Lodge Cafe - Where we ate with Shanon's friends
a couple years ago when last here.