The past few days I have been without cell phone reception in the Beartooth-Absaroka Wilderness area surrounding the Beartooth Scenic Highway on the MT/WY border.

On Wednesday I left the Badlands and traveled west to Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite in Wyoming. An out-of-the-way, another dirt road location that didn’t even have an address! The area reminded me a little of the Badlands. I arrived later than I anticipated due to poor weather cleaning up camp in the Badlands. I mean, who needs to put down a tent in torrential rain and 30mph winds!

Red Gulch Area, WY

The Beartooth Scenic highway was very beautiful. A high alpine environment with many lakes and wildflowers. And marmots, of course! The highlight was spotting mountain goats on my last night there. Both days were cool during the morning hours (on Thursday, it was  degrees F in the morning!) and warmed significantly during the day. Despite this, snow still covered about 10-20% of the highest passes along the highway.

Beartooth Scenic Highway,
Marmot

Beartooth Scenic Highway,
Wildflowers

Beartooth Scenic Highway,
Wildflowers

On Friday, I got up early to travel northwest of Red Lodge, MT to the northern side of the Beartooth-Absaroka Wilderness to the Mystic Lake Trail Head off of West Rosebud Rd. Yet another long dirt road, it’s becoming a pattern that is hopefully not harming my car. 🙁

This trail was a grueling 3.2 mile hike uphill to the lake and a mind-boggling, full on concentration (so I don’t become Mrs. Humpty Dumpty) on the way down. I’ll do a more specific post on this hike later.

Mystic Lake

Information on the Hydroelectric Dam on Mystic Lake