Day: July 6, 2017

Pic: Twin Lakes Headwall, Beartooth Highway, Custer Gallatin NF, WY. Larger image

It had been a while since I got excited about a road, but it wasn’t every day that I could take “the most beautiful drive in America”.

While the Beartooth Highway doesn’t tunnel a mile through the side of a mountain, this Depression-era engineering marvel has a colorful history combining public access to newfangled “National Parks”, congressional legislation that built a single road, and a splash of resource extraction.

Pic: No trip to Big Sky Country is complete without a July snow storm. Beartooth Highway, Custer Gallatin NF, WY

I took in the sights from 11,000 feet: row upon row of craggy ridges, countless blue-gray mountain lakes, and… a ski lift? What was this doing here? I decided I’d better climb the lift tower and look around. Y’know, for science.

Pic: Coverage looks a little thin. Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area, Custer Gallatin NF, WY

Pic: First: Flat Earthers. Then: 9/11 Truthers. Now: Downtown Billings Deniers. Billings, MT

Crises from yesterday averted, I had some time to explore the area. I added Montana to the list of states in which I’ve played poker and visited the Yellowstone Art Museum. I sort of expected it to be the ((Yellowstone art)) museum, but it was just the Yellowstone ((art museum)). Still, it had been a while since I looked at a random collection of modern art and YAM had some cool pieces.

Pic: Colstrip: Sweetheart of the Rodeo by Walter Piehl. Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT