Mom and Dad came out to spend a few days with the granddaughter, one might mistake the dates and surmise their visit to be due to my birthday. In actuality they came on these dates because of the price of the tickets. :)
Dad and I spent the day driving through the Beartooth Mountains. My love of the outdoors was a gift passed on to me by my father, most of the memories that I have with my father growing up include outdoor related activities. The top 10 list of these memories are all related to the wilderness aspect of the outdoors. A few memories that stick out are: the first morning sitting in a deer stand with dad before daylight asking him what every single noise I heard was, a winter camping trip in the Daniel Boone National Forest sleeping on 10 inches of snow and waking up to dad half in the tent and half out of the tent with the fire blazing, countless days sitting by his side as the haze of night gave way to the clarity of the morning, watching five silly jakes run back down the road giving dad a 2nd chance...the list goes on.
Dad is aging. He isn't ready for a pine box just yet, but his days of strapping on a backpack and heading up a mountain trail (especially trails that go as vertical as the trails around here do) are over. A case of vertigo that he developed in the late 80's doesn't help matters either.
Despite some limitations we pulled out of Billings around 8:40 a.m. this morning and began the drive Southwest to the Beartooth Mountains. Our drive would take us along the Beartooth Scenic Highway with a summit of 10,497 feet and we returned via the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway back to Billings around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon. I wish pictures did justice to the scope of the landscape out here, but they don't. The drive was awesome. Perfect weather with fantastic visibility! We saw fresh snow on August 17, it was way cool. Simply, a great day!
Check out this Youtube of our day...
