Spearfish, SD and The Beartooth Scenic Byway

 Well, I think I should rename this blog from "Ease-On Down the Road" to "Move On Down The Road" because we are now located in Coulee City, Washington.  Below is another brief update of our visit to Spearfish, SD and our drive on the Beartooth Highway in Montana/Wyoming.

We made a visit to one of our favorite places,  Deadwood.

On this day, the town was quiet with just a few tourists.  We walked into some of our favorite places, noticing fewer gaming machines and more tee shirt shops.  We enjoyed the afternoon and had a nice prime rib meal at the Silverado Franklin.

Our next day trip was to Custer State Park, located about 30 miles south of Deadwood.

Mostly know for it's bison heard, we saw several buffalo.

This particular one was laying beside the road. As we slowly drove along, the noise of our Jeep agitated it and it stood up rather quickly.  We moved along too.

The Needles Scenic Highway

was a pleasant drive filled with tunnels and unusual rock formations.

The road gets its name from this particular needle like rock.

As we traveled along the Needles Highway, we came up upon Sylvan Lake. 
Georgous!

We did make a drive through the scenic Spearfish Canyon.
We spotted signs directing us up Forest Service Road 222 to see where some of the scenes from the movie, "Dances With Wolves" were filmed.  The area obviously had grown up in trees but we could still tell where some of the most famous scenes from the movie's ending were made.  It was cloudy this day, therefore I didn't take many photos but just enjoyed the drive.

Moving on, we drove to Billings, Montana.  Our goal was to experience the Beartooth Scenic Highway.  Our drive begins in Red Lodge, Mt.

We had a delicious breakfast at the Red Lodge Cafe before we began our trek up the Scenic Beartooth Road.

The Beartooth Scenic Byway is 68 miles long and was completed in 1937.  The road travels over the Beartooth Mountains and explores several different ecosystems.  The spectacular scenery seems to change every few miles.  This was our first time on the highway and it reminded us of the road up Pikes Peak..except this highway is longer with more switchbacks and this highway has guard rails!

The higher the road travels, the greater the landscape change. You begin the drive in a lush forest and then you're found to be in an alpine tundra field of wild flowers surrounded with patches of snow.

Highest point on the road is Beartooth Summit Pass at 10,947 feet.

The Beartooth Scenic Road is named for Beartooth Peak, a granite spire seen on the western side of the summit.

We were shocked at the amount of snow we saw, yet a person at the campground told Ron that they thought the amount of snow was the least they had seen in several years

It was warm this day and snow melt was obvious from the rushing waterfalls and ditches filled with water.  This has to be one of our most favorite mountain drives.

We are now in Coulee City, Washington.  We plan to see the Grand Coulee Dam that's just up the road from where we are now.

More Later.