2021-08-16-Monday-Billings MT to Worland WY-271 miles

 

Beartooth Pass (with smoke)

Really good motel last night with upstanding citizens aplenty (not the usual crowd). Upstanding breakfast which should hold us until tonight (it did).

We got out of way too busy Billings and headed for Red Lodge which is a tourist town (with lots of real estate for sale it seems" and on up Beartooth Pass. This is my third time over and Dave was here in the 80's with his kids, but it is always a treat to climb all those switchbacks with wonderful views. We needed to use our imaginations a bit since it was pretty smokey, especially down below. The top of the pass is about 10,000 feet and then down the other side to the intersection with Chief Joseph's Highway. I have never

been on Chief Joseph's and was taken aback at how great the views were down this side. The temperatures up on the mountain was mid 60's to 70 and the temperature by the time we got back down to Cody WY was mid 90's. 

You cross from Montana into Wyoming way up on the pass and you can tell which state you are in by how poorly it is paved (Montana does a nice job).

Gooseberry Badlands

Coffee in Cody and decide where to go next. Looks like Worland WY has hotels and is about the right distance so gas and go. The temperature kept inching up and just when Dave verified it was 98 degrees, it started to rain. So pull over, on with the rain stuff (remember it's in the 90's now) and back on the road.

Remember those plastic bags you used to put turkeys into to cook in the oven to keep all the juice in so the turkey came out all steamy, hot and tasty? Well we were plenty moist in those turkey bags we call rain gear. 

When I was in high school I was on the wrestling team, and being a chubby farm boy, I wrestled the 177 class. The class after 177 is the unlimited class which means the monster guys. So if you didn't meet you weight, the coach put you in a turkey bag (non-porous sweat suit) and you ran laps until your sneakers squished from the resulting sweat, then weighed you again, rinse and repeat until you made your weight. In those days if you died of heat stroke they buried you down behind the gym with the freshman archery kids who agreed to hold the targets. These days your would just wrestle unlimited (and lose). But I digress..

So normally you put rain gear on and it does not rain, but today it did and the temperature dropped to the upper 80's for the next 30 minutes or so. So off with the rain gear and the temperature climbed to 100 degrees by the time we pulled into Worland. 

Another surprise off county road 431 was the Gooseberry Badlands. We think it is BLM land but it was really beautiful. Surprised it's not a park or something.

Another nice motel with free ice cream and a nice couple on motorcycles from Washington state. Walked down the street for dinner and back to soak up some air conditioning.

Odometer:5893-5622=271 miles