Forgotten River Towns Tour
Send this Article to a FriendTHE RIDE, DAY THREE: RED LODGE, MONTANA TO FLAGG RANCH IN YELLOWSTONE
(day three map)
The next morning, four ladies from my women's riding organization, Women in the Wind, met us in Red Lodge to join us on our ride for a bit. We headed out onto "Bear Tooth Pass," which has been called The Most Scenic Highway in America by Charles Kuralt, award-winning American journalist. It seems no matter what book of "Most Scenic Drives" I picked up, Bear Tooth Pass appeared in it! And each time, the words and photos fell short of capturing the essence of this magnificent place.
Sheer cliffs, deep canyons, and the ability to look over long vistas through the canyon were some of my favorite highlights of this region once I got past the obvious thrills of the twists and turns of the roads. My husband is not such a fan of doing switchbacks on the edges of cliffs that just drop off into oblivion - but, it did not stop him from zooming around those corners just as fast as the rest of the gang. All of us grinning from ear to ear as we would come to a stop at the most scenic points for photo shoots with the girls.
I simply could not imagine a more perfect place to shoot portraits. As each mile of asphalt rolled past, this road shot up my list of favorite roads to ride, right past Deal's Gap, right past Blue Ridge Parkway, to the very top of my list. If you forced me to find a negative about this road, I can only come up with two. One is that it is closed part of the year due to weather. The second is that I was unable to turn around and ride it a second time due to time restrictions. To be fair, that is not the road's fault... so the road only has one negative of being closed for the snow season.
I am not even going to try to describe the stunning views of Bear Tooth Pass. It is one of those "You gotta do it yourself" situations. Put it on your list- at the top! If you get the opportunity, but only have a few short days- do not pass GO- do not collect $200... fly directly to Red Lodge, Montana. Rent a bike and ride Bear Tooth Pass (then do what I wanted to do, turn around and ride it BACK the other direction!)
Now, had I turned around at the end of that ride, I would have missed my second moose sighting. A big Bull Moose gracefully bounding up the side of a hill as we entered Cooke City. He had the whole rack of impressive antlers and everything, I was in shock and never even fired off a single frame of film on this big guy. Never even stopping my bike to get a closer look, I just saved the memory like a little jewel. It is much harder to pull over to indulge in silly moose antics when you are in a big group on a busy road. Plus, this was the real deal, a male moose with the massive antlers above us, on a cliff type hill just struck me as not the time to stop for a better look.
Riding into Cooke City did indeed feel like riding onto the set of an old Western movie. My friend, Cynthia Black, knew exactly the right cafe to pull into, and greeted the owner with a hug in front of "Buns n Beds." Leo and Jan Gaertner of Cooke City Montana have cabins for rent and served up the best food I had on my entire trip- Smoked Pot Roast anyone? Their website lists the many other amenities they offer, but I was surprised not to see mention of the sweet puppies that seemed to be the cafe mascots. A doe-eyed beagle and a softly verbal Husky adopted our group and added a memorable and hilarious addition to our lunch experience. These smart canines picked out the one man in our group ( my husband) as the big softy to hit up for free leftovers. You have a table full of dieting females, and the dogs target is the man at the table? Go figure.
The girls headed over to the Chamber of Commerce to get the famous "I Rode Bear Tooth Pass" Patches and my husband and I hit the road toward Yellowstone once again. This time we would be riding the East side of the Grand Loop.
We wandered off the main road a bit and followed a road that led us to a front and center view of Lake Yellowstone. This massive lake is framed by the Grand Tetons but with the wind blowing as hard as it was that day, I felt more like I was at the ocean. Waves literally crashed on the rocky shores, and one look could not take in the view. You had to keep turning your head and body to see the far reaches of this body of water and all the natural treats it had to share.
We made a stop to catch a viewing of Old Faithful doing her Geyser-thing. We had pulled into the parking lot only 5 minutes after she finished her last show, and sincerely considered skipping the 90 minute wait to see this American icon of geysers. But it had been a long day, so we got a bite to eat, spread out the leathers under a shade tree, and just relaxed while we waited for the big show.
We ended that day at Flagg Ranch, which sat on the edge of the Snake River. Truly, our cabin sat on the EDGE of the river. Outside our door was a split rail fence overlooking a valley that separated us from the Teton Mountains. Signs were posted every 20 feet warning about bears and wildlife, and in this remote area I expect the wildlife outnumbered the tourists by a good number.
Although the cabin had no television, A/C, and not even cell phone reception, none was needed. I was captivated by the view and rudely wandered off with my camera while my husband unloaded our unusual little luggage cart. The luggage carts were similar to a backwards wheelbarrow that you pulled instead of pushed. With plenty of room for lots of bags, and easy to maneuver, they added to the Old West look as they sat around the parking lots looking like little wagons waiting for miniature horses to be hitched up.
Because we arrived perfectly at sunset, my wandering hike led me down into the valley closer and closer to the horizon to get different angles of the setting sun against the Tetons. I wound my way back up into the ranch through another path in the valley near a big amphitheater type pit for campfires and cookouts where I met a family and we compared wildlife viewings. Although neither of us had actually seen the bears that the signs warned us about, we joked about carrying hotdogs in our pockets and wandering the valleys at night in hopes of catching a peek at the big beasts.
