Chief Joseph Scenic Byway

Our plans for the day were to go into Red Lodge for breakfast, walk the streets and shop/look in the stores, and then return to camp and relax.    We did go into Red Lodge for breakfast at a neat little cafe.  It is called Prindy's Place Morning Meals Done Right and the name fits because the food was plentiful and delicious.  It was very homey and down-to-earth.  It had a very basic menu and is only open 6:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

After eating, we drove around some of the backstreets looking for the post office.  We found these two deer (and there were two others) eating from a feeder.  It looked like the home owner had this feeder set up for deer.

This bank was robbed by the Sundance Kid after he and others of his gang escaped from a prison in North Dakota.

After breakfast and shopping, we were back at camp by 11:00 a.m. and the rest of the day lay ahead of us.  This is when we came up with new plans to fill  the day.  We decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway which starts near Cooke City, Montana and ends near Cody, Wyoming.    It was a 45 mile drive from Red Lodge on mostly flat highway at 70 MPH to its beginning in Wyoming.  However, the  45 mile Chief Joseph Byway was very curvy and filled with switchbacks.  The scenery was spectacular.   The altitude was lower and we were driving in low valley part of the time but it was beautiful just the same.

I love these red rock formations.

As we climbed higher on the highway, the mountains peaks in the distance were hazy with smoke.  This reminded us of the  Smokey Mountains.

Sometimes, the air would clear and the granite mountains could be seen.

Closer to the Cooke City, Montana area, the valley opened up with many small blue lakes.

This rocky stream ran at the bottom of the canyon section in the picture below.

At one scenic pullout, this metal display was on the rocks.  The information with the display was how the Nez Perce Indians had come through these mountains trying to elude the U.S. Calvary.  The Indians were trying to get to Canada and avoid being forced onto a reservation.   In the end, the Nez Perce were forced onto reservations in Oklahoma.  The Nez Perse's territory had been in Washington, so being taken to Oklahoma was totally different from what they knew.

Three sections of the highway and a hairpin curve can be seen in this picture.

Several areas this highway passes through are "open range."   At any turn, you could see cows near the road like these in the picture above.  In fact, we saw a dead cow by the road.  I would say that 99% of the cows are black.

One Wyoming cattle rancher displayed his sense of humor by posting this sign as a reminder to those of us in cars that cows have rights too

These pictures show the abandoned buildings of the Smith Coal Mine.  In 1943 a mine disaster claimed the lives of 74 men.  In the early 1950's the mine was abandoned and never reopened.

We got back to camp about 5:00 p.m.  Today is our last day in this area.  We have seen so many beautiful sights.    I am glad we were able to stop and stay awhile rather then our usual pass by.