Red Lodge, Montana

Yesterday we drove from Holden, Montana through Billings, where we picked up some supplies, and on into Red Lodge Montana. There was a mix up on the reservation so we 'dry camped' at the KOA without any electricity, water , or septic. Or BTW, any Internet connection, hence no update on the blog yesterday.

Spent the morning moving to a new site 100 feet away that has full hook-ups and getting the Internet to work again. Actually, most of the time this am was on the phone with the Verizon help desk getting our broadband PC card to work (again). Took ~2.5 hours on the phone however finally it's working. Woohoo! Really miss Internet access when its not working.

This afternoon we drove part of the Beartooth Highway. We went to the top of the mountain which requires driving the switchback section of the road. Very steep and lots of turns. It was incredibly foggy and raining. What scenery we did see was spectacular, however a lot was blocked by the fog & clouds.

Oh, and when we reached Beartooth Pass at the top it was snowing! OK, mostly sleet or frozen rain mixed with some snow.... not enough to make a snowball but snow none the less. Not sure if you'll be able to see the snow in the picture with MLA but it's there

So we headed back towards the lower elevation to do some exploring where the temperature was much warmer.. in the high 40's.

What a difference from yesterday. When we arrived here at the campground the pool was full of people laughing and having a good time in the low-mid 70's. It rained all night and then this morning almost everyone packed up and left. The campground was completely full yesterday except for a few sites without any hook-ups/services and today there are only 4 RV's left here.

And wouldn't you know it, we are all right next to one another. Would have been nice if the campground management had spread everyone around so you didn't feel so crowded. Oh well, it's only for tonight and then we are... moving on!

Explored some of the Custer National Forest's campgrounds to get a feel for the area. Lots of trails for ATV's and off-road capable vehicles. You need serious 4 wheel drive on a lot of these dirt roads, which are really just one track roads used by the forest service in case of fires. Some of the roads go up over 1000 feet of elevation without guard rails of any type. MLA wasn't too keen about taking these roads so we didn't. I'd love to take them on an ATV or a dirt bike. And it would be nice if it were sunny but hey, you can't have everything.

We are supposed to have 4 channels of TV here however we only get one channel. Of course this weekend its dedicated to the Jerry Lewis Telethon for MDS/ALS. Good stuff however we wanted to at least get the news.

We are ~70 miles from Yellowstone if we were to take the Beartooth Highway however that's not the best choice if you have a big RV towing a car. So tomorrow we will take the long way around to get to Yellowstone's Northeast entrance; probably travel closer to 120 miles but it worth it to avoid the switchbacks. The engine has enough power however there's really no place to rest the brakes sufficiently. Better safe than sorry. Actually, on the Beartooth Highway you would only be sorry for a few seconds.... until you came to a quick stop at the bottom of a 1000+ foot drop-off. So we'll take a slightly longer route.

We should have TV & Internet while at the Grizzly campground in West Yellowstone. We might even have a direct phone number. If so I'll post it and look forward to you all calling....

See Ya!