Red Lodge Montana

So today we took a circuitous route to Red Lodge, Montana. We drove through Yellowstone NP to the NE entrance and then drove down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway east to Wyoming and out of the Rockies down to a completely different landscape. It was dry small buttes and washes as far as could be seen. Amazing how much a little time on the road opened up new vistas. The scenic highway followed some of the route of the Nez Perce Indians as they escaped from General Howard. Chief Joseph's band were non-treaty and had fought a battle with the army in their homeland in east Oregon. Expecting retaliation they fled east through the Rocky Mountains in the Yellowstone area and ultimately then north towards Canada. Thinking about traveling by foot or horseback through this country is intimidating. As it was a long drive today and the speed limit on most of the highways in Montana is 70 mph. Tonight we are staying in an old hotel in Red Lodge and then heading early to Billings to begin our flights home. This has been a remarkable trip and we have seen and done so much but I will be glad to get home. Hope all is well with each of you. Wendy Okay this is the last set of photos to add. We drove through YNP to the north eastern entrance and then down the Cheif Joseph Highway. I am including a picture of cottonwoods that lit up in the Lamar River Valley that morning and the last bison hold up we encountered, those are both in YNP. Next is Sunshine Canyon, one of the odd road signs and then vistas of the terrain as it changed becoming much more arid. The last photo is of the old Smith Mine, Google it to learn about the Smith Mine Disaster in 1943.