A Traveler's Experience

Beartooth Highway (MT, WY)

It was an extreme white knuckle event, but one that I will cherish forever. My wife & I were heading to Jackson Hole, WY from Billings, MT because we wanted to go through Yellowstone. We chose Billings, because it seemed the NE entrance to Yellowstone provided us with the best chance to see the most in the park.

I had no idea what I was about to experience. Someone told us the night before was it was the most beautiful drive in the country. I was oohing and ahhing at the countryside and then suddenly we made a hairpin turn. It was then one hairpin after another. I kept wondering how far it was to the top as we kept gazing at the incredible landscape. All of a sudden, I saw some evergreens with snow on them, and we kept going higher.

As beautiful as it was, I began to get a little worried about the snow, but still managed to take several pictures. Well, sure enough, before we knew it, snow began to show up on the road, it was a fresh snow and I knew it would be slick. About the same time, the snow on the road became a little thicker, the road really began to narrow and then I notice the guardrails disappeared. And we kept going higher. No guardrail, narrow road, fresh snow, trying to maneuver these hairpin turns and still trying to enjoy the scenery. I'm a Georgia boy and we have nuttin' like this in Georgia.

The road seemed to go on forever. I was trying to keep a slow steady speed without slowing or braking too quickly, but even with that I could feel the car slipping, and I even had 4 wheel drive. A little bigger slip and it could be curtains. All I knew to do was hug the mountain side of the road. I wanted nothing to do with staying in my own lane. The edge was too close to the edge of disaster, but the views were breathtaking.

I saw a sign that said 10,400 feet and we had a little further to climb. I felt like I was on top of the world, in a strange land. It didn't seem possible that I was in the USA. The landscape seemed to be almost unreal.

Finally, we started down, which created its own set of problems with the snow, but I was thankful we were at least heading downwards. More beautiful views, picturesque lakes and finally no more snow. I could finally release my grip on the steering wheel a little bit, but it wasn't until I reached bottom, that I started breathing normally again. They closed the highway just a few days later for the winter. What a breathtaking experience and I have wonderful pictures as a remembrance.

We went out of Yellowstone and back to Billings by a different route.