2 August 2017

As some of you may know, perhaps our favorite road in America is the Beartooth Parkway, one of America’s All-American Highways. This unbelievably beautifully road stretches from Red Lodge, MT (elev. 5,568 ft) to the top of Beartooth (elev. 10,947 ft) and down to the Northeastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park (elev. 7,365 ft) — all in the short distance of 67 miles.

Several factors come into play when traveling the Beartooth. Due to the many hairpin turns there is a restriction on total vehicle length; the weather is always a factor – it snows every month of the year; visibility can be reduced because of clouds; one can encounter high winds; and the road is usually not open until early summer. So, it’s always a privilege to “feel on top of the world”.

Meriam and I spent a week camping on Beartooth this trip and still did not get our fill. We certainly plan to return again.

In an attempt to capture the spectacular scenery of Beartooth, we photographed and created four panoramas of different parts of this 67 mile journey.

Enjoy.

We took this photograph at the end of June, 2011. Think there was a little snow that year?

One afternoon a storm rolled end. It lasted for only a short time and left us with the wonderful rainbow!

These two photographs are obviously quite similar. The bottom photograph is a panorama including area to the left and the right of the top photograph. Checkout the magnificent reflection of the mountains!

Panorama of another lake along the way.

This panorama gives a “birds-eye” view of the area surrounding the lake in the photograph above. Here we are climbing even higher up the road.

As we came around one of the hairpin turns, we saw this guy jumping onto the roadway.

As I am photographing him, he comes within about 10 feet of me. Not sure if he was curious or was about to charge me! Notice how healthy he appears.

“Nothing interesting around, so I am out of here”! Note the snow in the background. Thanks to a pull-out, we were able to observe him for about 30 minutes!

This photograph intrigued us. Due to the optics of my telephoto lens, it appears the face of the mountain in front of Meriam is only inches away. Actually it’s quite distant.

Two similar photographs, however I could not pass-up the opportunity of showing Meriam’s expression as she has her coffee while overlooking this gorgeous valley.

Another panorama.

As you saw from the photograph from 2011, this area can get lots of snow. The snow pole beside me is marked off in 5 foot increments. It has three increments!

While photographing this area, Meriam noticed a remarkable reflection. In the lake below, the reflection comes from the snow above it. If you look closely on the left of the reflection, you can make out the head and upper body of an Indian woman. Her “feathers” are at the top, her head and face and then her upper body. How special is that?