Back to the trip report after the computer problem

Sunday 6/26
Today was mainly Beartooth Scenic By-way day. This is rated one of the most beautiful drives in the U.S. It starts at Red Lodge, MT on US212 and ends at Cooke City, MT which is at the NE entrance to Yellowstone. It run through Alpine climate so you can find some snow there all year long and be at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above sea level. This puts you about 2 miles higher than you are at WDW.
There was no problem finding snow this year since they had a record total. The highway just opened a week before we went and can close at any time, so check on road conditions before you take this route.
There are lots of pullouts so you can check out the wonderful views. This is also a good place to find Mountain Goats, but none this time probably due to all the snow.
As we reached the highest section of road light rain and snow started to fall as did the temperature. It dropped from the 60's and kept dropping until it hit about 35. I was worried about the road freezing up when we started the downhill side of the mountains and the temperature started to rise again.
We were not planning to enter Yellowstone today, but deciding to explore the NE entrance road. When we got to the entrace station we were told the road was washed out ahead. This was no problem for us since we were driving to Cody to stay the night, but if you were staying in Cooke City for your Yellowstone visit it meant a 2 hour trip to get into the park instead of about 10 minutes each day. The road did not open again for a few days until we got back. We were able to drive down the road far enough to take the Trout Lake hike. The lake is a breeding are for Cut Thoat Trout and otters can be found there quite often. No otters this time though. We did see out first Grizzly Bear before we left. It was way up on the mountain side and had to use someones spotting scope to see it. The NE entrance road though Lamar Valley is a good spot to see Gizzly Bears.
After that, it was on to Cody, Wy for the Night. The next day is into the park for good via the east entrance. The good thing about Cody in you have easy access to either the east of northeast entrances because these roads can close at any time from all sorts of reasons.

More to come.