day 1: the beartooth highway

We left my growing up home super early thursday morning and Aaron drove his little heart out for hours and hours. We saw some gorgeous scenery on our way that I never new existed (the Theodore Roosevelt National Park?!). We hit Red Lodge Montana at about 7:30pm and figured we could do the Beartooth highway before it got dark. No such luck:) We didn't account for the lowered speed limit due to hairpin turns, switchbacks, cliffs and crazy elevation changes. The first half of the highway was spectacular; tall pointy mountains with snow caps in every direction, then you hit the plateau. It was the weirdest feeling ever, it felt like someone had gone and stuck the prairies on top of some mountains. Flat, barren, cold and so much snow. Aaron says some of the snow banks the highway went through were at least 20' deep, I don't think they were quite that high but they were higher than the truck. We then started descending and the mountains turned more rounded and pine covered (this half of the highway is the Absaroka range). We pulled off on the Lulu Pass Road and found a spot to pitch the tent overnight. I would totally recommend driving this highway if you ever are anywhere near it!

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The Beartooth Highway

We were trying to conserve space on our memory card and so were avoiding taking pictures on the highway when we knew we'd see some of the same types of mountains while hiking. That didn't happen so the beauty of the place mostly exists in my head and on people's computers who actually stopped their car to take pictures:P