Desiree and I intended to drive over Beartooth Pass and drop into Yellowstone Park by way Cooke City, Montana, on our drive home from Red Lodge. The pass reaches 10,947 feet in elevation and is subject to snowstorms at any time of the year. A few days ago, a storm delivered six feet of snow across the high country, shutting down the recently opened pass until such time as crews can clear the fresh snow.
Without the
option to take that route, we drove out through Absarokee and made our way
along the east side of the Crazy Mountains to access the back roads leading to
Helena.
It took us
nearly two hours to drive the first twenty mile stretch after leaving Red
Lodge. Desiree and I continually stopped
to gawk around and take pictures. We
also diverted off onto a couple side roads just to see what we could find over
the next rise.
For those of
you unfamiliar with Montana, we have a lot of rises here.
On a side note,
the name ‘Absarokee’ has always intrigued me. Here is what I found regarding that on Wikipedia:
The name
Absarokee is derived from Apsáalookěi, the name
given to the Crow Indian Tribe by the related Hidatsa people with Apsáa
meaning "large-beaked bird" and lookěi
meaning "children". Apsáalookěi thus
literally means "children of the large-beaked bird". The name was chosen by Absarokee-founder
Sever T. Simonson who believed it meant "our people". It is widely believed that the difference in
spelling of Absarokee from the nearby Absaroka Range is a result of the poor
penmanship of an early settler whose final "a" in the name was
mistaken for "ee". Though pronounced "Ab-SOR-kee" in
modern parlance, Eli Ricker in one of his "Indian Interviews" from
1903-1919 ends a record of an interview with Frank S. Shively, Assistant Clerk
at Crow Agency, with "Absarokee Ab-sar'-o-kee".
I have posted
a few favorite images from the drive home.
Desiree
Overlooking Red Lodge
Red Lodge
Zoomed In
Where the Highway Goes and Doesn’t Go
Elk in Green
Shadows
The Crazy
Mountains
—Mitchell Hegman
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