BECKY’S TRIP Day Two

Day Two:

September 27, 2019

On the second day, we decided to do a complete circuit of the Crazy Mountains and, of course, the famed Beartooth Mountains were on the way. Cloud cover from the incoming weather system, however, denied us the opportunity to view these majestic peaks. Doug and I wanted to show our friend, Becky, the Beartooth, Crazy, Bridger and Absaroka Mountain ranges on this Friday outing. But as the photo shows, the storm clouds were moving in. We did get to see some great sites, but the best view that we were able to show her was the white buffalo on the east side of the Crazies. As most of this week with Becky would go, low-lying clouds along with fog, intermittent rain, and snow would dog us for most of the time that she was here.

With our home for a base camp, there was no reason to wake up and leave early. As with the rest of the week, we left somewhere between 10 and 11 a.m. Even with the late start, low-lying fog and heavy cloud cover made it impossible to see the Beartooth Mountains from the interstate and even the Crazies were pretty much socked in for much of our journey.

The drive from Billings to Big Timber, Montana, is about eighty miles following I-90 west. Doug and I have taken this excursion many times since moving to Montana; we have friends that live there. In Montana, that makes them  a close neighbor.

There are two rest areas between Billings and Big Timber. The one closest to the county seat of Sweet Grass County is about ten miles before you reach the city limits. There is a sign at that pitstop that calls it “Montana’s Jurassic Park.” According to the sign, this “Morrison formation is a rich fossil bed [that contains] remains of the great herbivorous dinosaurs, including [the] Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, as well as [the] Stegosaurus, the big carnosaur, Allosaurus, and longnecked Plesiosaurs, which lived in the inland seas there. Fossils for these species can be seen in the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.”

As we approached Big Timber, the Crazy Mountains were almost completely obscured by dark, low-hanging clouds. There was no point in pulling over at my favorite spot on I-90, mile marker 377. You just could not see the mountains. At Big Timber, it rained briefly before clouds began to part and views of the Crazy Mountains occasionally became available. We stopped at our favorite way point “The Fort” to pick up some coffee and (for Becky) to do some souvenir shopping.

From Big Timber, we headed north on US 191. According to S. A. Snyder’s book, Scenic Driving MONTANA, this is Scenic Drive #24 JUDITH BASIN:  U.S. Highway 191. This route takes you along the east side of the Crazy Mountains. Around fifteen minutes into our journey, on US 191, we saw a decent concentration of pronghorn antelope; about fifteen to twenty were on the east side of the road.

That same white buffalo was in about the same spot as before, around twenty miles south of Harlowton. This time, however, there was a smaller bison with him. And there was a much larger herd on the other, east side, of the road. Although dispersed, Doug estimated their number as being, at a minimum, 100 head but, perhaps, 150-200.

The drive to Harlowton took about three quarters of an hour to cover the forty-five miles. Following US 12 west for a little over an hour brought us to White Sulfur Springs. The last segment of this journey took us through the rolling hills known as the Little Belt Mountains. Along the way, we saw a Crazy Mountain Historical Marker. The comments from this marker were “For the Absaroka, they are the most sacred and revered mountains on the northern Great Plains . . . The Absaroka’s enemies would not follow them into the mountains. [They continue] to be an important vision quest site for the tribe. Famed Chief Plenty Coops had a vision there in 1857 in which, he said, the end of the Plains Indian way of life was shown to him.

From White Sulfur Springs we turned south on US 89 and headed toward the interstate. According to S. A. Snyder, this is Scenic Drive #23 THE CRAZY AND LITTLE BELT MOUNTAINS: U.S. Highway 89.

Mile marker 31 is my favorite spot to view three mountain ranges, the Absaroka, Bridger, and Crazy Mountains. Once again, low-lying cloud coverage made it difficult to see these pinnacles. A few miles shy of Wilsall, near mile marker 24, is a nice pull off with a historical marker dedicated to the Shield River Valley and a most impressive bronze statue entitled “Thunder Jack” which is dedicated to the mountain man era. This is a must-see excellent photo op, particularly if the Crazy Mountains are visible in the background.

It was still early enough in the evening, and since the low cloud cover had shielded most of the mountains on this journey, we headed west to Livingston, only about ten miles on I-90, where once again, we turned south on US 89.

From Livingston, US 89 traverses the Paradise Valley, a picturesque fifty-three mile journey along the Yellowstone River, to Gardener, Montana, the original gateway to the famed national park. The towering Absaroka Mountains with their forty-seven 12,000+ foot peaks provide the easterly boundary to this valley, and in fact much of the eastern border of Yellowstone National Park. To the west, or right side of the valley, lie the more tranquil Madison range. Southbound on US 89, a few miles south of Livingston, is a pull off at the junction with Old Yellowstone Trail North, which affords excellent views of the Absarokas, with the scenic, Cottonwood-lined Yellowstone River in the foreground. We did not travel very far into the valley, as there was still over 100 miles of interstate-travel to reach home, but I knew from previous trips the valley teamed with not only cattle, but many elk and even bison as you near Yellowstone National Park.

From Livingston, it was 115 miles to Billings, where we called it a day.