Red Lodge, Montana.

My usual Thursday post features the current Lens-Artists Challenge. The Lens-Artists team is on holiday, but we will be back with the first Lens-Artists Challenge post of 2024, on Saturday, January 6. Today’s post features my favorite Travel Tuesday post of 2023. The featured photographs tell a picture story of our trip on the Beartooth Highway that travelers can drive from Yellowstone Park to Red Lodge, Montana. It is a beautiful high-country drive in the summer, but if you want to see the snow on the mountains, you’ll have to provide your own snowmobile as the highway is closed from the first snowfall until spring.

You can visit virtually my favorite highway in Wyoming and Montana from my original January 31 2023 post here: /2023/01/31/the-beartooth-highway-the-highway-to-the-sky/

The Lens Artists team will be back on task at noon on Saturday, January 6.

John Steiner

Hardin, Montana.

About 20 minutes south of Hardin Montana, the Little Bighorn National Monument memorializes one of the American Indian’s last armed efforts to preserve their lifestyle. The battlefield preserves the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which was fought on June 25–26, 1876. A significant victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, the combined forces defeated a cavalry of over 200 US soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

On Last Stand Hill, General Custer and the remaining members of the Seventh Cavalry out of North Dakota died in the battle. The battlefield, however, was much larger than the Last Stand Hill implies. The battle lines were located on a rolling plain along the Little Bighorn River. The area is dotted with bluffs, ridges, and ravines, which provided cover for the Native American warriors during the battle.

When I was in school, some decades ago, we learned of “Custer’s Last Stand” but I have no recollection of the other units under Custer’s command. On our visit, I learned much more about Captains Reno and Benteen and their respective battles against enormous numbers of Native Americans. Here is a short synopsis gleaned from the “Story of the Battle” page on the national monument’s website.

The Lakota and Cheyenne village was located in a broad valley along the Little Bighorn River in the background of the image above. Major Reno, under orders from Custer, crossed the river two miles south of the village and began moving downriver toward its southern end. The warriors were initially surprised, but they quickly rallied to defend their village. Reno halted his troops, dismounted them, and formed them into a skirmish line. The soldiers began firing at the warriors, who were now advancing on them from the village.

This is where the other two parts of Custer’s command were defeated. The monument above is located about 4.5 miles (7 km) from the Last Stand Hill. You can drive to the battlefield on the tour road, or you can take a short hike. The battlefield is a beautiful place, and it is well worth the trip. When we were there a few decades ago, I don’t remember that we had access to this area. It does cross private lands so discretion about crossing private property is important. Please follow the directive signage and stay on marked trails.

Mounted warriors pressed their attack against Reno’s skirmish line and soon endangered his left flank. Reno’s demoralized command retreated back across the Little Bighorn River and up steep bluffs to regroup on high ground east of the valley. Captain Benteen, who had been sent to find Indians to the south, returned empty-handed. He arrived on the bluffs just in time to meet Reno’s men.

Earlier, a messenger from Custer’s Cavalry had delivered a message to Benteen that said, “Come on. Big Village. Be Quick. Bring Packs. P.S. Bring Packs.” After hearing heavy gunfire downstream, Benteen led D Company north in an attempt to find Custer. The rest of the story is well-known. Rescue for the 200 men at Last Stand Hill did not happen.

In the years since we first visited the monument, many things have changed. Today, markers also identify Native Americans who lost their lives in the battle as well. The two markers in the image above honor Limber Bones (left) and Closed Hand with their Cheyenne names and the simple message, “A Cheyenne warrior fell here on June 25, 1876 while defending the Cheyenne way of life.”

A multi-walled memorial is now a short walk from Last Stand Hill, built to honor all of the tribes who fought there. Dedicated on June 25, 2003, to commemorate the sacrifice of the Arikara, Apsaalooke (Crow), Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Oyate (Lakota Sioux) tribes in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The memorial is a circular wall made of red granite, with a bronze sculpture of three warriors riding to battle in the center. The sculpture was created by artist John R. Collins. The wall has openings to the four cardinal directions, symbolizing the four directions of the Lakota spiritual world.

The granite sections of the wall are laser engraved granite that tells the stories of the people and tribes in photos and text. The memorial is a powerful reminder of the Native American perspective on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It is a place of peace and reflection, and it is a fitting tribute to the warriors who fought and died for their way of life.

Start your visit a short walk from the parking area. The Visitor Center is a great place to start your journey through the history of the battle and the people involved. There is a museum, a bookstore, and a theater that shows a film about the battle.

Just behind the Visitor Center, the Custer National Cemetery was established in 1886. In 1978, it was closed to further interments with the exception of about 100 available spaces reserved for veterans and spouses who are still living. When completely full, there will be about 5,000 plots. I learned that the cremains of veterans are accepted, but may only be scattered in the cemetery without markers.

You can read more about the national monument on the National Park Service website here. Entrance passes range from $15-25 USD as of this writing, and America the Beautiful passes are accepted. In 2023, there are five free admission days in the year. By the date of publication of this post, there are two remaining free days, September 23, National Public Lands Day, and November 11, Veterans Day.

Our visit was educational and we were there for a little over two hours. For those who really wish to delve into the history of the battle, expect to spend at least a half-day. The photos in this post, along with several others, can be viewed in 2K HD on my Flickr site in the album here.

Coincidentally, Marsha of Always Write features a story this week about the culture clash of our westward expansion. You can read that story here.

John Steiner

Red Lodge, Montana.

In December 2022, I shared photos from the North Shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Grand Marais, Minnesota. I called that highway an All-American Road, a designation from the U.S. Forest Service. From their website, “All-American Roads provide motorists an exceptional traveling experience that makes the byway a primary reason for the trip.” Today’s Travel Tuesday post features another All-American Road that was designated in June 2000.

The description of today’s featured highway states, “From the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, Beartooth Scenic Byway All American Road weaves through Custer and Shoshone National Forests. The spectacular Alpine highway runs almost 69 miles to Red Lodge, Montana.” My opening photo features a view of one of the highest points along the Beartooth Highway, but we entered the highway at a much lower elevation at Yellowstone Park and ended our journey at Red Lodge, Montana.

The journey started for us at Gardner Montana and we entered the north entrance of the park just south of Gardner. Once inside the park, we followed the highway toward the Mammoth Hot Springs. To pick up the Beartooth Highway, there is a turnoff from U.S. 89 called the Grand Loop Road. Take that highway to the south and east of the main highway in the park.

After plenty of opportunities to spot wildlife in the park, you’ll eventually come to the junction at the Grand Loop Road and U.S. 212, the Beartooth Highway that starts here. Just before you arrive at the junction, there is a public gas station. Be sure you leave Gardner with plenty of fuel to travel to Red Lodge, however, if you aren’t traveling between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The station was closed for the season on October 5, the day of our journey. The gas station, though, is just west of the 212 highway junction, so be ready to turn.

I have many photos of bison that I didn’t share, and there are parking areas where you can stop, but keep your distance. These large animals appear to be quite gentle until they get upset. Then you want to be in your vehicle and somewhere else.

Once on the Beartooth Highway, you’ll notice the elevation changes relatively quickly as you transit from forest to high alpine climates. The views from the highway pulloffs are well worth the journey.

Though the highway is closed all winter long, there are plenty of snowmobile trails that remain open. There are even a few businesses that cater to the winter travelers, but during the pandemic, most of these places closed for the season. Be sure to plan your trail route ahead of time and confirm the places you want to visit will be open when you arrive after the highways are closed.

Once you transition to U.S. 212, you’ll spend an hour or so (depending upon photo stops) to travel the 30 miles (48 km) journey to Silver Gate, then only 5 minutes later, you’ll arrive at Cooke City.

You’re not quite half-way to Red Lodge from Cooke City, and in fact, the road meanders southerly back into Wyoming for the next several miles of spectacular scenery.

When U.S. 212 meanders through Wyoming and toward the Montana border, you will find the trees starting to become scarcer as you near the elevations that mark the tree line.

As you start the climb in earnest, you’ll travel a section of steep switchbacks eventually reaching Beartooth Pass where there is a parking and viewing area. Beartooth Pass is the highest point on the highway at an elevation of 10,947 ft (3,337 m) above sea level.

From Beartooth Pass, however, you are still some 31 miles (50 km) from the town of Red Lodge. Though you will be generally downhill to Red Lodge, you will still be doing some of those steep zigzags on the way down.

Be sure to do appropriate planning for your trip. There are lodges and hotels along the way, but they fill up fast during the season. I’m posting this in January even though the highway is closed in winter so you have time to do your homework and get reservations confirmed while there are still openings. If you travel before or after that Memorial-Labor Day window, you’ll have better luck in finding hotels at the last minute. We stayed in Red Lodge on October 5 and had no trouble finding a hotel. However, a turn of early season bad weather could have just as easily closed the highway for the season before we arrived.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are fees to enter Yellowstone on the west end of the highway, and during the summer travel season, this highway is well-traveled. Be sure to check to see if you need a reservation to enter the park on the day you expect to arrive. The Recreation.gov site will provide a reservation slot for one of the most popular national parks in the country.

The Beartooth Highway is one of the most scenic highways we’ve traveled over the last few years. At Red Lodge, it was time for an oil change. We stopped at a local shop and learned that the owner of the shop had just purchased one of the restaurants just off U.S. 212. We’d noticed the place was closed on our way by. It was being remodeled by the new owner. He was anxious to get the work done in the next couple of weeks as he needed the road open for hauling building materials and he had only a couple of weeks before the road closed for the season. He had an ambitious schedule as he wanted the place open to take advantage of the winter snowmobile travelers. We wished him luck a successful opening and continued on our journey.

I have posted all of these images in 2K HD on my Flickr site. Click on a single image to pixel peep, or you can visit the entire album and scroll through the pics from here.

John Steiner

Garryowen, Montana.

It had been over 30 years since we last visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. When we were last there, that fence that surrounds the hill upon which Custer and his company didn’t exist. The marker that indicates where Custer’s body was found is easily identifiable in black. On each marker, if the person was known, the name and company association is listed. In the case of the marker closest to the camera on the left, it simply reads U.S. Soldier, 7th Calvary.

In the thirty or so years since our last visit, much more emphasis was placed on the lives lost on both sides of the battle. A large section near this hill features a monument to the Native Americans who also died in that battle. Reddish brown markers identify the places where the native warrior bodies fell. A future Travel Tuesday will feature our visit to the battlefield that commemorates the battle in June of 1876.

About the photo: This cellpic is a two-image panorama created in Adobe Lightroom. From the top of the hill, a visitor has a commanding view of the battlefield and of the park, visitor center, and cemetery there. After cropping and basic tweaks, I sent the image to Luminar Neo for final processing. I noticed while processing these images, I had forgotten to put my Samsung S20U into 108 MP mode. The final panorama still had plenty of resolution at about 2K x 4K. As usual, I’ve reduced the final image to 2K resolution for a reasonably speedy display over the Internet. Click on the image above to view it on my Flickr page.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner

On the road in Wyoming.

After spending a couple of days in Yellowstone Park in the autumn of 2020, on October 5, 2021, we again found ourselves entering the park. This time, however, we were heading toward a highway we had not traversed in our earlier visit to the park.

Enter the northern entrance of the park at Gardiner, Montana, then proceed to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. Look for the left turn that will put you on U.S. 212 in the park and head east. When you leave the park, you’ll see signs that you are on the Beartooth Highway, the highest highway in both Wyoming and Montana. Technically, the highway is defined as starting at Cooke City and straddling the Wyoming and Montana borders eventually ending at Red Lodge, Montana.

The highway is closed in the winter, and with parts reaching above 10,000 feet (3048 m), there are even occasional snowstorms in the middle of summer. We were happy to find the highway still open in October with no snow in sight. Along the route are plenty of viewpoints, and in a future post, I’ll feature the scenic byway in a Travel Tuesday post.

About the photo: On our first viewpoint stop after exiting Yellowstone Park, near the junction of Wyoming highway 296, we were still well below the treeline in altitude and ready to begin our climb to Beartooth Pass at 10,947 feet (3,337 m.) This image features a view of the highway that is paved along the entire route. If memory serves, I aimed the camera to the west to capture the mountains in nearby Yellowstone Park.

Captured with my Samsung S20U, this image was imported into Lightroom for basic tweaks and sent off to Luminar AI to increase structure, remove some of the haze, and enhance the sky (not sky replacement.) I then uploaded the image to Flickr so you can pixel peep it in 2K HD. Simply click on the image to check out the metadata and get a closer view stored there on the Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner

Cut Bank, Montana.

On an overnight stay at Cut Bank, Montana, I happened to notice the photo of a high trestle bridge on the wall in the lobby of our hotel. It reminded me very much of the High Line Railroad Bridge at Valley City, North Dakota. I asked the hotel clerk about the image and if the bridge happened to be in the area as other images in the lobby appeared to be. I was surprised by her answer. Not only is it nearby, it actually is located just behind the hotel. Indeed, if we had a room on the opposite side of the hotel, we’d have probably seen the bridge from our hotel room window.

The next morning, I launched my drone and flew it over the valley to capture some images of the bridge. I’d barely launched the drone when we heard a train whistle. I couldn’t believe my luck. The track, owned by Burlington-Northern is used about 40 times a day, including two Amtrak Empire Builder runs. As you can see by the opening photo, it was a freight train that I captured this morning.

The trestle was built originally in 1890 (or in 1900, depending upon which of two sources is accurate.) When the Great Northern Railroad crews reached Cut Bank, construction started on the Warren Deck truss bridge. A station was built on the west side of the trestle and the city of Cut Bank grew up around it.

The images were captured with my Mavic Air drone on a dreary, cloudy day. I substituted a big Montana sky from another visit to the state.

John Steiner

Deer Lodge, Montana.

We left I-90 at the Deer Lodge exit 184 to visit the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. Dedicated to the American Cattlemen of the 1860s through 1880s, the ranch is an example of a successful ranch preserved and commemorating the era of wide-open ranges, large herds, and cowboys. Once encompassing 10 million acres, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch was an example of the wealthy cattle ranches of an era that lasted only some 30 years.

The park area of the ranch is fenced, but looking past the fences to the west and north, one can get the notion of wide-open spaces. It is easy to imagine large cattle herds grazing on the lush prairie grasses. When one area became overgrazed, there was plenty of fresh grass just over the next hill.

It’s a bit of a walk (about a quarter-mile, 400 meters) from the parking area and visitor center to the main ranch buildings. There is parking available closer to the park buildings for those with handicap parking stickers. These days, a railroad overpass crosses the path to the ranch house and the other nearby buildings.

The era of the million-acre cattle ranches and open range ranching didn’t last long partly due to the large number of homesteaders heading west and staking homestead claims to 160-acre parcels, each fenced to mark the homesteader’s boundaries.

That railroad overpass is still in use today as we crossed under it, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train approached. A closer view of the engine is included in the gallery at the end of this post.

There are over 80 outbuildings on the property, about a dozen or so are open for visitors to explore, some with equipment of the day, some with collections of one sort or another, yet others furnished as they would have been in the days when cowboys lived and worked the ranch. Guided tours of the ranch and tours of the house are generally available though they have been discontinued for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. You can find a map of the site with the location and function of each building here.

I regret not getting a better image of the large ranch house for this post, but that large brick structure in the image above is the western end of the 8,000-plus square foot (743 sq m) ranch house.

Park personnel, appropriately masked due to the pandemic, were available for some of the outdoor exhibits on the day we visited. A typical chuckwagon was manned by a park employee who answered questions and provided background on the functions of these portable “kitchens” and their deployment on the working ranches of the day.

The park still features a working ranch, now a much more manageable 1600-acre facility with a small herd of cattle and some working horses. On the day of our visit in late September, the seasonal park employees were coming to their last few days before the summer exhibits closed. The park remains staffed to support visitors who stop by during the winter.

In 1863, Johnny Grant began ranching the property, but by 1866, he moved to Canada, selling the ranch to Conrad Kohrs for $19,200, a princely sum of money in those days. Over the years, Kohrs expanded the area of the ranch and increased the size of his cattle herds. By the 1880s, Kohrs became one of the area’s wealthiest cattle barons.

One interesting piece of equipment is the haystacker shown in the image above. During the harsh Montana winters, cattle still needed to be fed. Ranchers cut and stored hay in large stacks to provide feed for the cattle during the long winters.

A miniature haystacking machine is available to show people how they work. As we walked by, a woman and two kids were “stacking” some grass that was cut and available for demonstrating the stacking operation. Those youngsters started with that sliding element at the base of the ramp. They piled loose grass on the ramp at the base of the slide and then used ropes to pull the pile of grass to the top of the ramp where it fell into the opening about half-way up the ramp. Lowering the slide then allowed them to put some more grass on the ramp and slide it up the ramp, making the stack a little taller.

In the 1970s, legislation was passed in the 92nd Congress that authorized the establishment of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. The owner of the ranch at that time was Conrad K. Warren, a grandson of Conrad Kohrs. As the ranch was maintained in the family since 1866, and the owners kept historical records for the long-term, the property came to the National Park Service with a detailed history of the ranch operations over the years. 208 acres of land containing buildings and equipment such as buggies, sleighs, and other equipment were purchased, and a scenic easement that permitted the continuation of agriculture and ranching activities was provided for another 1280 acres.

I submit for your review a gallery of images captured at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch. Click on an image to enlarge it for better viewing and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

Glacier National Park, Montana.

Upon good advice, we decided to head to Saint Mary Lake Entrance on the east side of the park. We were given explicit options for sights with a couple of options for spectacular views as we approached the park’s eastern entrance. Fortunately for us, somewhere along the way, while looking for things to see in the park, we noticed that the eastern entrances were closed due to road renovations.

By making this discovery before we’d gotten off our westbound highway, we were able to just keep going around the south end of the park to enter at the West Glacier entrance. Oh, and, we did get to see Saint Mary Lake eventually as the road was closed east of the lake. The opening image is a recently featured Cellpic Sunday view of the lake. As you can see, the view was obscured by haze and smoke from all of the wildfires in the western states.

The park is over a million acres in size and has over 700 lakes, only 131 are large enough to have a name. With over 500 streams, you can expect to find a few waterfalls. That we did, and you’ll find a few images of waterfalls like the one above in the gallery of images at the end of this post.

Our visit to the park was in mid-September, and the trees at higher altitudes were just starting to show their colors. As our trip played out throughout the western states, we hit many areas at peak for fall colors. More autumn photos in the weeks to come.

The main road through the park is called the Going to the Sun Road. It is a beautiful drive, though some people might have a case of nerves when driving along the edge of the highway where there are steep dropoffs. There are a few tunnels along the highway as well. Near the tunnel in the image above is a scenic pull-off. If you walk along the edge of the highway, there is a sidewalk inside the tunnel and there are windows in the tunnel to get a view of the valley below.

Climbing higher and higher, we got more expansive views of the valleys below. Unfortunately, most of my images reflected the smoky haze that permeated the park. Going to the Sun Road climbs to Logan Pass at an altitude of 6646 feet (2025 m), then descends down the other side. I’ve been to Glacier Park only three times in my life. The first time I was there, the road was closed near the top due to an early heavy snow. The second time we visited, the upper section of roadway was closed due to road construction. The third time was the charm as we made it all the way to Logan Pass and down to the eastern road closure where we simply turned around, exited the park on the west where we entered and proceeded westbound toward our next stop on our journey.

The northern border of the park runs along the 49th parallel of latitude. That border is the southern end of Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park. There are no border crossings into the Canadian park from within Glacier Park. People wishing to also visit Waterton Lakes Park can gain access through border crossings in the vicinity of Glacier National Park. The two closest to Glacier are Roosville (open 24 hours); west of the park on Highway 93, north of Whitefish, MT and south of Fernie, B.C. and Chief Mountain Highway, near the northeastern corner of the park, at the joining of Montana 17 with Alberta Highway 6. Another crossing, east of Chief Mountain is Piegan/Carway at the joining of U.S. Highway 89 with Alberta Highway 2. As this is being written during the Covid-19 pandemic, these border crossings are closed. Be sure to check before heading north to find out the current status and hours of operation at each crossing. A passport is now required to re-enter the United States from Canada.

With apologies for the smoky haze in these photos, I present a small gallery of images captured on our journey through Glacier Park. I am resolved to visit again when the smoke has cleared and the views are back to normal. If your browser supports the option, click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

Malta, Montana.

We left Theodore Roosevelt National Park on our way to Glacier National Park in Montana. Time for a break, we pulled off U.S. Highway 2 at Malta to visit the Montana D.O.T. Rest Area at Trafton Park. While getting out of the car in the parking lot, an old bridge caught my eye.

I couldn’t see much of the bridge from the parking lot, but I captured a quick image from there anyway. We moved closer to the bridge and I felt the urge to launch the drone.

As you can see by the opening photo, the bridge no longer even has a deck. I got to wondering how this sad state of affairs came to be. The Internet can be a wonderful thing. I learned that this bridge was abandoned when Highway 2 was rerouted for a newer bridge a bit to the west of this site at Trafton Park.

Looking west along the Milk River, in the background, you can see the current Highway 2 span, and further west, the BNSF railroad bridge.

In this image, you can see what is now a small road that once was probably the bridge approach. I couldn’t find much detail on this bridge online. In fact, the Bridgehunters website links to a photo of this bridge calling it an old railroad bridge where pretty much everywhere else I saw, it’s referred to as the old Highway 2 bridge.

There is a sign of hope for the old bridge according to an article online on the Phillips County News website here. That bridge now serves as a trailhead marker for the Trafton Trail. Obviously, with the deck missing, the bridge itself is blocked off from access. The goal of a bridge renovation project is to install decking from reclaimed lumber, and add lights and benches. The north end of the bridge will remain closed off as that property is now in private ownership. As you can see, if you check out the article, the pedestrian bridge that comes to be will be a nice addition to the Trafton Park trailhead.

John Steiner

Deer Lodge, Montana.

On our way to visit the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, we drove by the imposing gated facility at the south end of town. Just off I-90, the Old Montana Prison Complex contains five museums inside. Due to the pandemic, however, the facility is presently closed to the public as this is being written in November 2020. All I was able to do was capture some photographs of the walled exterior that was built by convicts in the late 1800s.

To be sure that the convicts knew how hard it would be to escape, they were made to build the 24-foot (7.3m) walls that were buried deep in the ground to prevent tunneling. When the museum is open, visitors can wander through the grounds, visit the cell blocks, and take advantage of the other museums in the facility. For a single fee, visitors can tour the Powell County Museum, the Frontier Montana Museum, Yesterdays Playthings, and the Montana Auto Museum. In 1979, work was completed on a new state prison complex about three miles (4.8 km) southwest of the town and all prisoners were moved there.

About the photo: The complex is a challenge to get an exterior shot from across the street. That sandstone wall is three blocks long. Capturing the entire east end of the facility required that I create a panoramic image. As you can see at the left end of the image, I wasn’t able to include the entire wall. I’d captured images from both my Nikon D500 and my Samsung S20U. I found the best images to stitch together came from the cellphone, only because I picked a better vantage point when I captured the cellpic images. I used Lightroom’s panorama stitching tool to create the image from two photos and then made the final tweaks in Luminar 4. Click on the image for a closer look (if your browser supports the function.)

John Steiner