Colorado Cruiser: Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway

Day 5 - Laurel MT to Cody Wy

We ate breakfast at the hotel, then gathered for our morning fireside. Each day, we gather and talk about the things we're going to see that day. Everyone was assigned one place to speak about throughout the trip, then on the day we'll see that place, we do a short presentation about it.

Nan and I had Sturgis and Nan did it so I got to skip it all.

This morning we're just headed to Cody Wyoming, so Drew did a presentation on the city and on Buffalo Bill himself. They are always interesting and do add to the day.

Once we were all ready, we headed West toward Red Lodge where we would gas up.

Along the way we spotted a cool looking robot sculpture along side the road. We flipped around to get a picture and found a whole series of artistic sculptures. We all posed in front of our favorite sculptures for pictures. My favorite was Mater from the Disney movie Cars. They took an old tow truck and painted eyes on the windshield and a face on the grill.

We gassed up in Red Lodge, then drove into the touristy shops in town. We walked around the shops and bought a few trinkets. Its a typical collection of bakery, antiques, t-shirts, and other nick nacks. There was even a T-shirt store that you picked your pattern, then picked a shirt and color and he actually silk screened it right then and there. Nan got a shirt for her dad that's a John Wayne quote - "Live is hard and it's even harder when you're stupid".

After 45 minutes of meandering we got back on the bikes and headed up toward Bear Tooth Pass. We climbed right up between some massive peaks and grand vistas. It was a very cool ride, both in view, and in temperature. The temperature dropped rapidly from 75 degrees down.

We started a betting pool on guessing the temperature at the top of the pass with guesses everywhere from 49 degrees to 63. And whoever guessed the temp got their lunch paid for.

We stopped at a few scenic overlooks before eventually reaching the top at 10,947 feet and the temperature on the official bike was 52 degrees which no one had guessed. Most of us had put on heavy coats and heated gear, except for Nan and I. Nan cause she was in the car, and me because it just wasn't that cold. I just turned on the heated grips.

Once we crossed the pass and started descending it actually got colder because the wind was blowing. It felt like the low 40s, but because we were going down it got warm quickly, otherwise I might have regretted not putting on warm clothes.

On the ride up we didn't see that many wide vistas, but on the way down, we were looking across the valleys at more mountains, and the views were truly majestic.

When we reached the bottom of the road, we turned left onto the Chief Joseph Highway. It's another spectacular road tha would lead us over to Cody Wyoming.

At first we meandered across the floor of the valley and up some wide canyons, then we began a series of wide hairpin turns. I call them hairpin because they turned a full 180 degrees, but they were so big and wide that it just felt like a high speed sweeping turns, where most hairpins you have to slow way down for, these you didn't.

We stopped at a few more scenic overlooks for pictures but didn't linger long because we were going to ride the Chief Joseph again tomorrow when we head into Yellowstone.

The final few miles into Code didn't take very long. It's a little disappointing to think that with all of those beautiful valleys, rivers, trees, and mountains around, they chose to build Cody out on a desolate looking plateau. But there are probably good reasons for that, they just aren't scenic reasons.

We all checked into rooms, then met back outside to grab lunch at the BBQ place across the parking lot. There was allot more teasing and joking around the table while we ate. This has been a very fun group of people to travel with.

After lunch we returned to rooms with unspecified plans. There had been mention of a Motocross race, the Code Museum, a County Fair, and naps. Surprisingly the naps didn't win a unanimous victory. 7 of us headed for the Cody museum.

Admission to the museum was $19 each. Nan and I paid, as did Ron and Karen. But John and Angela left and went to tour the city instead. Drew (whose wife was napping) was told to go on in for free because it was about to close anyway.

Nan and I walked through the section on the Plains Indians, then the section about Buffalo Bill, and finally the section about antique guns. We were there over 2 hours and by the end, my feet were killing me. It was pretty good, but I won't ever go again.

Back at the hotel again, we were all wondering what to do. Eventually Drew and Penny texted that they wanted to go to town. Even though John and Angela had just been there, the mention of Frozen Yogurt got their attention, and Nannettes. As I write this, they're off shopping and possibly bringing some back for me.

Posing with the robot