Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - Red Lodge to Big Horn, WY

Day 7

Our original plan for our drive today was to take a scenic drive through the Big Horn mountains to get to Big Horn, but we were anxious to get to the Ranch and see our friends so we opted the quicker drive on the interstate.  We left Red Lodge by 9:00 and drove north to catch Interstate 90, which would take us to Sheridan, Wyoming.  We arrived around noon in Sheridan and stopped at a very nice information center to pick up some brochures on the local area.  After that we drove into downtown Sheridan to look for a place to eat.

Sheridan seemed like a nice town with an interesting looking downtown.  We decided to eat at a restaurant called the Cowboy Café, which looked like it was a favorite of the locals.  There was nothing fancy, but we had a very good lunch and were glad we stopped.  After lunch we found a grocery store to buy our supplies for the week.  By this time it was around 2:00 and check-in for the Ranch wasn’t until 4:00.  We called the owners and they said come ahead whenever you like so we headed south to Big Horn and the Canyon Ranch.  It’s about a 20 to 25 minute drive from Sheridan to Big Horn and we were soon on the Ranch.

They have two homes they rent on the ranch and we are renting the Hay Meadow House.  Although we had seen pictures of the house, we were surprised at how nice it was.  It was much newer and nicer than it looked in the pictures.  The ranch is beautiful, it is 2,000 acres and at the base of the Big Horn Mountains, with streams running through it feeding various ponds.  The view from the house is an open field (hay meadow) with the Big Horn Mountains in the background.  There is a very nice patio with a small lawn and there were two deer resting in the shade when we drove up.

The view from the patio of the Hay Meadow House.

There is an interesting story about the Canyon Ranch, which you can read about here, it's well worth a read.  Briefly, the ranch has been in the same family for four generations with the founder, who immigrated here from England and was the son of an English earl.  The son, and owner of the ranch, became the Earl of Portsmouth when his father died. The Queen of England actually stayed on the ranch for a week in the 1980’s.

By 2:30 we were unloading the truck and settling in.  No one else was expected until 6:00 so we had plenty of time to get things put away, and it was Val’s turn to prepare dinner the first night, she started on that.  Jack and Steph arrived around 5:30 and by the time we had them all unloaded, John and Greg showed up and the party was on, at least what passes for a party for us old people.  It was great to see everyone and we spent the evening eating Val’s wonderful dinner and catching up.  Everyone was pretty tired so we all called it a night by 10:00.

Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - West Yellowstone to Red Lodge, MT

Day 6

We woke up to cold temperatures and heavy fog so we didn’t have much incentive to get out of bed today.  We finally did get up and around and got on the road by 9:30.  Today’s route would take us across Yellowstone and the scenic Beartooth Highway before finishing the day in Red Lodge, Montana.

The entrance to Yellowstone is just to the east of the town of West Yellowstone and we were very surprised to see long lines of cars at the entrance station.  When we were here last year there was very little traffic, but it was in October, not the middle of September.  We finally made it into Yellowstone and joined a long line of cars slowly moving into the park.  There was some event going on because there were also hundreds of bicyclists on the road.  The scenery was beautiful and the sun was slowly burning off the fog so it wasn’t such a bad place to be in a traffic jam.  We finally made it to the Madison junction where the majority of the cars and bicycles turned south towards Old Faithful, and we turned north. We had one long delay of about fifteen or twenty minutes due to road construction, but some buffalo kept us entertained while we waited so it wasn’t so bad.

At Mammoth Junction we turned east towards the northeast entrance to the Park, which is the start of the Beartooth Highway.  At one point we saw many, many cars parked along the road, which usually means animals so we stopped.  It turns out someone had spotted a wolf, but it was so far away the only people that could see it were the ones with spotting scopes. Driving in Yellowstone is always fascinating and beautiful! 

The fog burned off and it was a beautiful day.

Elk

We had to take at least one buffalo picture.

A mini traffic jam when somebody claimed to have seen a wolf, but we couldn't see it.

We continued our drive east and saw more buffalo, but we had seen so many last year we decided not to stop as it was taking longer than anticipated to get across Yellowstone.  Finally we made it across the park and were on the Beartooth Highway, which has been designated an All American Road and is very scenic.  Just outside of Yellowstone we stopped around two for lunch at the Bistro restaurant in the small town of Cooke City.  We had eaten dinner there last year and really enjoyed it.  After lunch it was time to enjoy the drive on the Beartooth Highway to Red Lodge.

We leave Yellowstone and travel on the Beartooth Highway into the Beartooth Mountains.

The west side of the Beartooth Mountains is heavily forested with many lakes and rivers.  We made many stops to take pictures and enjoy the scenery; it is a very beautiful drive.  We were soon above the tree line and we started to see snow along the road.  We finally reached the 10,947 foot Beartooth Pass Summit, so we stopped to look at the vistas.  The temperatures had been in the mid-fifties all day, but at the pass, the temperature had dropped to low forties and it was very windy.  We walked out to the high point and looked out at the amazing view.  We could see the switchbacks of the road we had just driven on below, as well as lakes and beautiful terrain.  As I hiked around, I could really feel the almost 11,000 foot altitude and was easily winded.  We finally were getting pretty cold, so it was time to start our descent down the east side of the Beartooth Mountains.

A beautiful day for our drive on the Beartooth Highway.

The were many lakes and streams along the highway.

We took a short hike to an old highway bridge.

Looking back at the current bridge.

 

Another of the numerous lakes.

We're almost at the nearly 11,000 foot Beartooth Pass.  Notice the snow poles.

Beartooth Pass

Looking down at the road up.

 

The east side is much drier and only sparsely forested, but is much steeper.  We followed an amazing set of seemingly endless switchbacks before leveling out for the final fifteen mile drive into Red Lodge, Montana.

We enter Montana.  It's much drier on the east side of the mountains.

We stopped at a viewpoint and had lots of chipmunks posing for us.

The many switchbacks on the way down the east side of the mountains as seen on our GPS.

Looking down at some of the switchbacks.

We reached Red Lodge around 5:30 and checked into our hotel.  Red Lodge was bigger than we thought it would be and had an interesting looking downtown area.  When we got out of the car we were surprised to find it much warmer, and the temperature was now up in the mid-seventies.  We went out to a Chinese restaurant that had gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor and had a pretty good dinner.

Tomorrow we drive to the Canyon Ranch near Big Horn, Wyoming where we have rented a house, and will meet our friends.  Geezer VIII starts tomorrow!

Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - Traveling North

Day 1 - Home to Roseville, CA

Departure day finally arrived and we were ready to hit the road.  Since we only had about a five hour drive today we didn’t leave home until around 11:00 AM.  Our destination was Roseville, which is just a little east of Sacramento so we headed east to catch Interstate 5 for our drive north.  As we were driving a strange phenomenon occurred; at first we didn’t know what it was, but then we realized it was rain, it was actually raining, a very strange occurrence in California these days.  We stopped for an In and Out Burger in Kettleman City before getting on I-5 for our drive north.

We spent the day driving in and out of welcome rain showers and arrived in Roseville around 4:00.  Traffic was light until we reached Sacramento where we ended up driving through what we guessed was the beginning of the evening commute.  We checked into our hotel, relaxed for a while and then went to the Macaroni Grill for a dinner of salad and pizza.  This was our first visit to a Macaroni’s and it was pretty good.  After dinner it was back to the hotel to get ready for tomorrow.

Day 2 - Roseville to Reno

Today’s destination was Reno where we are spending a couple of days before continuing our journey.  The drive from Roseville is only a couple of hours so we would have almost two full days in Reno.

We left Roseville around 9:30 and arrived at our hotel by 11:30.  As always we were staying at Harrah’s and once again we were happy to be comped a suite.  We checked in, got settled and then headed to the casino for a little pre-lunch gambling.  Our luck was poor so it wasn’t long until before we were ready for lunch. 

We had heard that the owners of our favorite Mexican restaurant (Los Arroyos in Santa Barbara and Camarillo) had opened a new location in Reno so we decided we would give it a try.  In Reno it is called the Arroyo Mexican Grill and is located in what is called the Freight House District, which is also the site of Aces Ballpark, the minor league baseball stadium in Reno.  The stadium is pretty new (it opened in 2009) and looks very nice.  It is located just behind Harrah’s so it was an easy walk to the Arroyo.  We had a very good lunch and although we thought it didn’t quite measure up to the Santa Barbara location it was still very good and we will return on our next visit to Reno.

After lunch we returned to the room for some reading and relaxation.  We returned to the casino in the late afternoon and again had no luck gambling so we called it an early night.

Day 3 - Reno

 

Today was a free day for us, we had nothing planned and nothing really to do.  We slept in and had a leisurely morning before heading out.  We decided to go over to the Silver Legacy Casino which is near Harrah’s and do a little gambling and have lunch.  We had much better luck gambling there and although we really didn’t walk away with anything, it took us a lot longer to lose our money.  It may sound strange, but we really don’t expect to win, but we do expect our money to last long enough to have some fun.

We returned to Harrah’s mid-afternoon and hung out in the room until early evening.  We returned to the casino where our bad luck continued and we quickly lost our gambling allowance.  We had a couple free buffet passes so we decided to go there for dinner.  It was another early evening for us, which was fine as we have a long drive tomorrow and we want to get an early start.

Day 4 - Reno to Jackpot, NV

Our destination for tonight was Jackpot, Nevada which was over a 400 mile drive so we were up early and on the road by 8:30.  For breakfast we stopped at a market and got some pastries and juice to save time.  Traffic was relatively light as we drove east on Interstate 80, it was mostly just us and the trucks.  Other than being very windy, it was a pretty easy drive.  One thing that made the drive interesting today was the amazing clouds, they were huge white cumulus clouds which were quite spectacular with the deep blue sky behind them.  The day passed quickly and we made good time and arrived in Jackpot by 3:30 in the afternoon.

Jackpot is right on the Idaho border and a convenient spot to stop on our drive north.  We have taken this route for four straight years now so we have the routine down.  We are staying at Cactus Pete’s where we have stayed three times before.  After checking in we decided to check out the casino and we ended up actually winning some money which was a nice change after Reno.  We decided to have dinner in coffee shop and while dinner was okay, service was terrible; it took over a half an hour to get our food after ordering and then another fifteen minutes to get a piece of cake for dessert.  We spent a little more time in the casino and then called it a night.  Tomorrow we head for West Yellowstone, Montana and will lose an hour as we cross into Idaho.

Day 5 - Jackpot to West Yellowstone, MT

We were on the road by 9:00 this morning, but as soon as we crossed into Idaho it became 10:00 so it wasn’t such an early start.  It’s a pretty easy drive to West Yellowstone, but not very interesting until the last 60 miles or so.  We made very good time and were in West Yellowstone by 3:00.  We are staying at the Yellowstone Park Hotel, which is the same place we stayed last year.  The weather had cooled considerably and the temperature was in the mid fifties; a little cool, but warmer than last year.

We hadn't eaten lunch so we decided to have an early dinner.  Val found a place called the Smokejumper Cafe which had high ratings on TripAdvisor so we decided to give it a try.  It was located a little out of town at the airport and it turned out to be as good as it's reviews.  It was more of a breakfast and lunch place, but we had an excellent dinner.

We spent the rest of the evening getting the blog ready to publish and doing a little research on where we're going tomorrow.  Tomorrow is really when our trip begins as we will be getting into the scenic part of our journey.  We will be traveling through Yellowstone and the Beartooth Highway before reaching Red Lodge, Montana, our destination for the day.  The mileage is short, but the drive is supposed to be spectacular so we are really looking forward to it.

Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - Hitting the Road

It has been a long time since Val and I got off the ship and ended our Inca Empire Cruise. Since then we have been itching to start traveling again.  Except for a short trip to Las Vegas this summer, we have been at home since our cruise.  Time has seemed to crawl by, but it's finally time to leave and get on the road again.


It's fall so it's time for the annual "Gathering of Geezers" and this year we have rented a house for a week on the Canyon Ranch near Big Horn, Wyoming.  We are really looking forward to seeing our old friends who will meet us at the ranch.


After our stay at the ranch, Val and I will continue on to South Dakota where we will be visiting Badlands National Park, Custer State Park and the Black Hills.  After South Dakota we will travel to Montana to spend a few days in Glacier National Park and then on to Oregon and Crater Lake National Park.  Before starting home we will visit with Val's niece and her family in Portland.


This will be a pretty long road trip and we will end up driving around 5000 miles, but we both love road trips and are looking forward to everything we will do and see.  I have some hope of keeping up with the blog as we travel, but considering the mileage we'll be traveling I suspect most of it will have to be done when we return home.