Chief Joseph Scenic Byway,WY

Saturday, August 15, 2009

At Jeannette and Ron’s suggestion, we drove up the Chief Joseph scenic byway which goes from Wyoming into Montana. As we were going, I was very sleepy, don’t know why so we stopped at the Painted Post and got lunch and some caffeine. The weather was mostly cloudy and we didn’t know if we would be able to see anything once we got up there.

The road climbed higher and higher with many switchbacks, the locals term for horseshoe/hairpin turns. Up to the left, then up to the right, then to the left, continuing for over an hour. There were many canyons and peaks and some lakes.

At the west summit we hit an elevation of 10, 947 feet. Let me tell you, that is HIGH!!! The temperature had been about 63 when we left Jeannette’s and now was 38.

There was snow on the mountain tops. We were up above the tree line and looking down on some clouds.

We were close to one patch of snow but there was no stop-off point so that I could walk up to it. I wanted to see if it was more ice than snow.

We can upon a turn, and there was a ski lift. Ron told us they skied until July up there. Since the road was closed during the winter, the skiers would arrive by snow mobile, ski down the mountain and ride back up again. There is no ski lodge or anything. We never did see the bottom of the ski lift. But it sure is a steep mountain.

As we headed back down the mountain, we stopped at a look-out point; and there were about 10-15 chipmunks there. They were running all around everyone’s feet, and people were feeding them. Some were small and a couple were quite large (last one). As one woman said, “We stopped to take scenic pictures and everyone is taking pictures of chipmunks.”

The scenes from this look-out point were stunning.

We saw various mountain flowers. I didn’t have my flower book with me so don’t know what they are. There was also a very interesting tree and root formation. There I was trying to take its picture and my battery ran out. So Fred had to pinch hit for me.

Finally down the mountain, after crossing into Montana, we continued north to the town of Red Lodge where we purused an old-fashioned candy shop and other touristy places. All we bought was an ice cream. Do you see a pattern here?

Going east from Red Lodge to Belfry, we passed through Washoe and saw a little quilt shop. Too bad it was closed, boo hoo! But the shop had lovely flowers in its flower bed, blues, pinks, and magentas.

Between Washoe and Belfry, we saw what we thought was an abandoned town. We discovered it was an old coal mine where 74 miners died after an explosion on February 27, 1943. It was the worst mining incident in Montana’s history, the Smith Mine Disaster.

About ½ mile down the road, there is the Beaver Creek cemtery.

There are tablets naming all those buried in the cemetery as of 2006. Another tablet lists the miners that died in the Smith Mine disaster along with short obituaries. A memorial to the men stands up the hill.

We returned to Jeannette’s. Here is the local Clark school, it has 15 students.

This is Ron and Jeannette’s home, look carefully in the center of the picture. Here’s a close up. See Dazy-D? The building to the left of Dazy-D is the bunkhouse, the one behind the house trailer is the barn. The house is to the right. There are mountains to the front and to the back