2021 Glacier National Park with Karen and Wayne: Day Six
Third Trip: The Crazies and Absaroka Mountains on the way to Yellowstone
After a night’s rest at our apartment, we hit the road again, on Sunday, the 1st day of August, 2021. Our destination was a trip around the Crazy Mountains and then a journey up the Yellowstone River Valley, otherwise known as Paradise Valley. The setting for the television series “Yellowstone” is in this beautiful valley which is bordered on the west side by the Gallatin Range, which boasts sixteen peaks that top 10,000 feet, and the awe-inspiring Absarokas on the east. There are forty-seven peaks that top 12,000 feet in this range that is the eastern border of Yellowstone National Park, with Francs Peak, at 13,158 feet, topping them all.
Our plans on this day of easy driving were to take I-90 west to Big Timber, then US-191 north to Harlowton, US-12 west to White Sulphur Springs and finally US-89 south back to the interstate. From there we would drive west, a short distance, along I-90 to the city of Livingston and then follow the southern portion of US-89 through the Yellowstone River Valley to Gardiner, the northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first national park. Afterwards, we would return home. No high-mountain driving was involved so it would be a leisurely trip to showcase some more scenic images to our friends from Tennessee.
The one thing we really wanted to show our friends, Karen and Wayne, was a white buffalo, long sacred to the Plains Indians tribes. Only one in every ten million bison, or buffalo, are born white. The Sweetgrass Buffalo Company has a ranch along US-191 about halfway between Big Timber and Harlowton. Unfortunately, on this day, that buffalo was not to be seen. And sense the smoky haze from the west coast wildfires had a dampening effect over our journey to the Crazy Mountains, we decided not to take the entire circuit around that range. Thus, instead of taking the roughly four-hour drive to see this impressive mountain range that is so dear to me, we retraced our steps to Big Timber and continued to Livingston and then southward to Gardiner and Yellowstone National Park. For the sake of this discussion, I have included a photograph of this rare phenomenon from a previous trip.
Our journey, from Billings to Big Timber was right at eighty miles. From there, we drove about twenty-five miles north, but having missed the white buffalo, turned around and returned to Big Timber where our friends Randy, Debbie and their son Hunter live. It is around thirty-six miles from the county seat of Sweet Grass County to Livingston, Montana via I-90 W. With a population of almost 7,900 wind-swept citizens, Livingston is the county seat of Park County. This area has some of the fiercest winds in the state, and drivers have to be especially vigilant on days of high wind gusts. Eighteen-wheel tractor trailers have been blown over by the high gusts. From exit 333, off I-90, it is approximately fifty-three miles to Gardiner, the northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park. It is a beautiful and easy drive, mostly flat, through prime cattle country. I have, also, seen large groups of antelope, deer, elk, and even bison, otherwise known as buffalo, while driving down US-89 S. Though the Gallatin Mountain range rises high to the west, or right side of the south-bound highway, it is the Absarokas, which tower to the east, that really make this a great scenic drive. With the Yellowstone River to the left, or east, of the highway, and the tall mountains beyond, photo opportunities are abundant. And if you should be favored with a great sunset to the west casting its golden rays upon those majestic mountains, then your day would be exceptional.
We didn’t stop for any photo opportunities, however, on this trip. In fact, I did not take many pictures. Again, with the lingering smoky haze I just didn’t feel compelled to take a lot of long-range shots. I took several snapshots when we reached the Roosevelt Arch, at the original entrance to Yellowstone National Park, but those are the only ones I took. We spent a little time at the arch, then some window-shopping in Gardiner, but then it was time to return home to Billings.
At last, however, the time came to return home. From Gardiner to Billings, the journey was around 170 miles and took us about three hours. On this day, we arrived home before dark.
