Driving the Beartooth Highway in Wyoming and Montana (+ East Rosebud Trail to Elk Lake!)

After backpacking for three days in the gorgeous Wind River Range, we have made our way north to the Wyoming and Montana border for one final adventure out west, driving the Beartooth Highway. The Beartooth Highway is a 68-mile national scenic byway that gains 5,000 feet of elevation as it winds through Wyoming and Montana, connecting the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park in the west and Red Lodge Montana in the east. And over the next couple days we're going to drive this scenic road making stops at overlooks along the way and go for a gorgeous hike in the area before continuing our adventures east. Last night we slept at a free campsite down by the river. I live in a van down by the river. At the start of the Beartooth Highway, which will mark the start of our drive today. The Beartooth Highway is usually open from Memorial Day to mid-October and was completed in 1936. It was a make-work project during the Great Depression, which was basically projects that helped put people to work and the road had a lot of opposition because unlike a lot of roads in the west that connect places, this road was built basically for its scenery. And we hear it's one of the most scenic drives in the United States and it's actually the highest elevated road in both Wyoming and in Montana. So this is kind of our first stop. We were just driving along the road, drove over this bridge and I looked to the left, saw this water crashing down here, saw a path to it, so we just stopped. I have no idea what the name is, there's no signage or anything. We just pulled over, went to it and I'm glad we did because it is freaking awesome. Our next stop is the Clay Butte Fire Lookout, which was completed in October of 1943. Ah mosquitoes! And it was the only remaining fire lookout in the Shoshone National Forest. The road to the fire lookout is partially closed. We had to park about 0.7 miles away. Now we're walking uphill to get there. It's pretty fitting that we're visiting a fire lookout because as you can see the surrounding area there is tons of wildfire smoke. We're not totally sure how the views are gonna be as we continue on the Beartooth Highway, but we'll just hope for the best. We had read that Beartooth Lake was a big stop to make along the highway. There's apparently an old bridge that's one of the original five along the road and then there's also Beartooth Falls, but there's not a lot of signage anywhere and we just came for the way we came. There was construction and I think that's where maybe the falls and the bridge are because we drove over a bridge and like I said there's construction there so not really sure what there is to see, but here's Beartooth Lake and it is gorgeous. We're at the day use area so we're gonna admire this and then keep going. We just made a quick pit stop at the Top of the World store which has been around since 1934. Their original location was down at Beartooth Lake where we just were and then in the 1960s they moved here. There's lodging here. There's a little store. They sell books, knives, food, drinks, knickknacks, all kinds of stuff. There's even a gas pump over there, but we just grabbed a couple drinks for the road. We're getting above the tree line now and the views are getting insane and this reminds us a bit of Trail Ridge Road and we can just see the road in front of us and it is just switchbacks up a mountain. We made it to Beartooth Pass which is the highest point on the Beartooth Highway at 10,947 feet and even with some wildfire smoke around us the view up here is so epic. And the name Beartooth comes from the Crow Native American word na-pi-et-say for bear's tooth and there's actually a spire way up in the distance tucked back there that's named Beartooth and it's very jagged just like a Beartooth. We are officially crossing into Montana. We have left Wyoming and on to Montana for the rest of the day. It was real Wyoming. We had a blast. We'll be back. But we love Montana. We made it to Red Lodge, Montana which marks the end of the Beartooth Highway but not the end of our adventure. Red Lodge is a quaint western mountain town known for its outdoor recreation and for skiing in the winter and it's also home to something very surprising. Tacos from a James Beard semi-finalist. Which we will not be eating today because it turns out they are not open. It said they're open but they're not. The place is called Moss Tacos. We were super excited to try it. Looked super good. Bummer. That's sad news. I guess we're gonna go to the store and make our own tacos. When the taco place is closed you gotta take matters into your own hands. Desperate times call for desperate measures. They might not be as good as Moss Taco but I think they'll do the trick. But we are going to scarf down these tacos and then we're going to head about an hour away to the East Rosebud Trailhead where we're going to stay for the night and then tomorrow do our final hike in the west. For our final hike out west we're hiking the East Rosebud Trail here in Montana and this trail takes you to quite a few different places. You can day hike or you can backpack but we're just hiking to Elk Lake which is about 6.7 miles round trip and only 774 feet I think. Feet of elevation gain so it should be a pretty nice leisurely stroll and from the get-go the views are beautiful. We've seen a lot of mountains lately but they never get old. Every set of mountains we've seen is different from the others and we didn't really know what to expect coming out here. We didn't know much about the area but it is completely blowing us away so far. One thing we're really liking about this hike is normally on hikes you're either like in the woods so your views are blocked or you're out in the out in the open meadow. This one you've got vegetation all around you but it's a lot shorter and so you've still got views surrounding you. You can see the mountains the entire time, all the water rushing through, the river that's going through here. Loving it. Oh there it is. Nice. Pretty amazing backdrop for this lake and look at these incredible reflections. Kona's having the best time at this lake. So many good sticks she can chew on, toss them in the lake, she can go in the lake. She loves swimming lately. She's a lake dog now. Don't want to leave by beautifulness. From start to finish what a gorgeous hike. And that marks the end of four and a half incredible months out west. This has been the best stretch of time we've had on the road in our van. We've made so many great memories, seen so much amazing scenery. We are really sad to leave. We could stay out here forever but there's a lot more of the U.S. that we want to see. And next up we are headed east to the Great Lakes states and then on to New England for the fall and we are so excited to visit a bunch of new states for us, go to some smaller and larger cities, see more amazing scenery and have some unique experiences. We have a lot planned over the next few months. It's going to be a lot but it's going to be incredible. But before we get to our first stop in the Great Lakes we're going to road trip through North Dakota and that's where you'll see us next. Like the perfect end. Just a grizzly bear just frolicking through this meadow at the end of... Can I be in your vlog? Hi guys. I wanted to see you from a safe distance. We didn't scare each other. We just came across some deer on the trail. Kind of startled me a little bit. We're always worried about the you-know-what's, the bears, the b-word but they were just cute little deer. Every time we see something brown my heart just stops for a second.