After a night of little sleep due to the revving of Harley engines late into the night and then again early Sunday morning, we were all anxious to reach Red Lodge. We decided to postpone visiting Mt. Rushmore and other sites around Rapid City until our return journey.
This last leg of our trip was the shortest, but probably the least scenic, at least until the final 100 miles. Western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming aren't very aesthetically interesting -- mostly just rolling hills of coal fields topped by scrub brush and short grasses. We even had tumbleweeds blow across the road in front of us! How stereotypically "western wasteland" is that?
Red Lodge is about an hour southwest of Billings, just north of the Montana/Wyoming state line. It sits at the base of the Beartooth and Absoroka mountain ranges, which are about two hours north of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons. It's a former mining town that was founded around 1900. It's popular in both the winter and summer, with a ski area on the Beartooth mountains and numerous hiking and mountain biking trails in summer. Picturesque and non-gentrified, it's a "real" mountain town.
Our friends bought their house here after a long bike ride took Andrew from Yellowstone to Red Lodge. Beth and and their son Matthew drove there to pick him up and they all were instantly enamored. They live on a pretty street with bungalow style homes that are in various states of renovation. It's a very laid-back and friendly community, with a one-street downtown, lots of public spaces and several interesting shops. Crime is almost non-existent, but there is a fair amount of danger from roaming bears and other wildlife (more on that later). It's easy to walk around and, most importantly, there are several sources of good coffee.
When we got in, Andrew told us that two or three bears had been roaming around the town the past few days. They are getting into trash cans and backyards, but so far hadn't caused any serious damage or harm. About 10 pm, we heard rustling outside and the dogs started barking. Lo and behold, one of the bears had come to visit! He (or she) knocked over a very large plastic trash can and picked through the garbage. After a few minutes, we got a good view of him strolling across the front yard. The boys were thrilled.
Today, we visited the Red Lodge Nature Preserve, which houses orphaned and injured wild animals. They have bears, grey wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, buffalos, owls, pronghorn deer and many other animals. Amazingly, many of these animals were once someone's pets! All are now being taken good care of by a mostly volunteer staff.
Later in the afternoon, we took a hike in the Beartooth mountains, on a trail that had just reopened after the Cascade wildfire had been contained. We took all four of the dogs (Jake, Ernie, Irska and Popi), who had a great time romping around in the stream and leading us on the trail. The most exciting part of the hike was our encounter with a young moose. He was about 30 yards off the trail, almost hidden by the lodgepole pines that border the trail. On the way up the trail, we all passed without incident, the dogs alert but prudently distant. On the way down the trail, however, the moose was still there and the dogs were more anxious. Jake decided to challenge the moose and got within a couple of feet before the moose snorted, growled and moved toward her. Luckily, Jake was either smart enough or scared enough to turn tail and run back to us. We, of course, quickly moved down the trail and out of the moose's possible field of interest.
So, in less than 24 hours, we had close encounters with both a bear and a moose. Not bad for a bunch of suburban boys from Pennsylvania! All in all, our "Great Western Road Trip" has indeed been pretty great.
More pictures are posted in the Picasa album. Be sure to visit!
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