Montana to Colorado and back

[BlackBart]

1800 mile winter trip across Montana and Wyoming.

Dawn patrol. As we drove east up the (Lewis &) Clark Fork River through Hellgate Canyon, it was cold, but the river was warmer and made a thick fog. Slow going, too dark and sketchy for photos.

There was a big moon and a sliver of light across the Deer Lodge valley, then about Bozeman the sky lightened up. We've already passed the famous mining city of Butte, and over the Continental divide at Homestake Pass. Then across the long flat Gallatin Valley to Bozeman, and this is the Bridger Range.

[BlackBart]

Over windy and snow-blown Bozeman Pass and you cross the wild Yellowstone River at Livingston MT. A windy place that originated as a railroad shop town, then tourist entrance to the Paradise Valley and Yellowstone Park, then home of reclusive writers, painters, and actors.

The landscape completely changes on the east side of the mountains, from the green and forests and valleys of the west, to wide open rangeland and farms and badlands. There's a whole world of empty in eastern MT.

The cool thing for me on this route is you follow the Yellowstone all the way down to Billings, and when it twists you twist, when it goes straight you go straight. We once drove next to a small plane flying above the river and we were going about the same average speed for miles. You go through windy Big Timber, past many small mountain ranges that sometimes look like islands, then past the Beartooth Mountains in the distance to the south, in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness up against Yellowstone Park's north boundary.

[BlackBart]

At Billings MT, you are in the Yellowstone River gorge, between low cliffs called the Rimrocks. To go south on I-90, you exit right and climb up out of the that valley and wind through rolling pretty hills going SE towards the Crow Reservation. A lot of tourists stop at the Custer Battlefield. South of there, I think it's really pretty, trees and hills and twisty - I was too busy to take pics.

Then you cross into Wyoming. You just entered a new kind of empty. This is the Official State Animal. He's going about 85 mph here.

Hours have passed between those pics. See that long low dark lump in the second one? That's a mountain range, a big one, way off in the distance. First mountains you've seen for hours. At the very base of that thing is Casper Wyoming, and you turn 90º left to go around it and south to Cheyenne. Distances between towns are in the hundreds of miles sometimes.

Our pet Bison is our trusty scout (and handy pillow, but he didn't sign up for that and he's grumpy about it)

[BlackBart]

Ft Collins Colorado was the destination, home of CSU. We mostly stayed home with the Covid surge, but I did some walks through the campus, and we found a GREAT taco truck.

Sandstone everywhere! It's beautiful.

"Green"houses.

For Abscate

[BlackBart]

We cleaned a lot of windows. (there are screws holding the planks to the access hatch sill)

Side trip to Denver to visit my sister and meet The Matt!

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Gee, then we had to go home. Wut is happening, we were just in t-shirts!

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Sunrise looking east to the plains in Colorado.

Wyoming going north.

[BlackBart]

Things began to change......

Thin haze / fog down low, the temp dropped 30 degrees in miles. Cool to see the very edge of a cold front.

UH oh... what is this ahead.....?

All hands on deck, no pics!

[BlackBart]

In far south Montana now. Very cold, but you can see.

[BlackBart]

West of Billings now, in the Yellowstone valley.

Farther west, mountain ranges hiding in the clouds.

Here is the entrance to the Paradise Valley and the Yellowstone River. The peaks are jagged and all hidden.

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Base of Bozeman Pass.

And then it was dark.