Rock Creek Resort Red Lodge

I have picked up some kind of tropical disease, because that's what happens to adventurers - just ask Indiana Jones. It's a very clever disease. it's disguising itself as a common cold, but with a slight twist; and here's the masterstroke - I have a very painful earache with it. I have tried getting whatever's hurting in there out with a stick that i found on the ground but that just made it worse. See, I told you it ...

When we woke at Annie Boo and Drew's house we all had some pops fpr brakfast. ( almost forgot how amazing they were and talked about what we wanted to do for the day. We came to the conclusion that we would drive towards Absarokee (which is about 1 miles towards the beartooth mountains) and look for some rocks to boulder (climb). We drove for about 45 minutes and found this awesome trail that has some rock faces about half a mile into it. Tripp and I climbed for some time ...

... up to the top of a mountain. They have tons of scenic overlook stops, it's absolutely gorgeous and amazing! About an hour ago we drove through Red Lodge, a very cool little town on 212. I would very HIGHLY recommend taking this to route to anyone driving from Billings area to Yellowstone...I'm sure other routes are pretty, but this is breathtaking. God it smells great out here!!

... they ran over something. I turn around and continue to read the sign and snack on my protein bar. Then I turn around to get back in the car, but it's farther away then I remember parking it. Can you hear the wheels start turning now? Yup, then it dawns on me, I forgot to put the break on and the Little Guy silently rolled back down the turn off area and, luckily, hit a parking curb.

Walking down to the ...

... meow. Loud!!!! So I just keep chatting back as I opened a can of food I have in the closet near the door, but the bowls were in the truck. I went to get them and this little guy just keeps on howling but doesn't run away. Got him set up with wet and dry, and sat fairly close as he chowed down on the wet. He wasn't skinny, but he was eating as if he hadn't eaten in awhile. I gave him a second can, which he made it halfway through before he ...

We woke up this morning to 46°F. It's now 10 am and it is 42°F and dropping... The forecast? Snow. Wind. Colder. And here we are at the Spring Creek Trout Ranch and RV Park. We have the whole place to ourselves... because they are closed for the season! Actually, the owners live here, and they were more than happy to take $25 (cash only, of course ;-) a night to let us hook up. Electricity, only. No water. No bathrooms. No showers. Thank god for the pee powder, right ...

... near a warm spring on the right side of the road. We stopped just like everyone else to catch the view, and managed to pull off the road when a car before us moved on. When we did that, we noticed that people were watching another adult bear (a true black one) on the left side of the road. It soon became apparent that the cinnamon bear was trying to get across the road to see the black bear and, somehow, he made it. He then made an advance to the ...

... it continues with the same pattern. Anyway, the magma resting beneath this park powers the mighty geysers and heats the fumeroles, hot springs and paint pots. The hot spring we visited released a foul, rotten egg odor caused by the emitted hydrogen sulfide gas and sulfur. When we finished our hot spring tour, we went to a nearby village to eat lunch, buy gifts, purchase souvenirs, stamp our National park passports, and visit the post office. We then drove to Mount ...

... Inn Express. What can we say about Rushmore? Some people say they expected it to be bigger. It was exactly as we had expected. One interesting tidbit we had learned was that originally sculptor Gutson Borghlum had placed Jefferson to the left of Washington, but they ran into bad rock, so they blew up the original Jefferson visage and moved him to better rock to the right of Washington. We hiked under the faces for an up close look at Washington's nostrils and Lincoln's ...

... was in a cabinet I built behind the drivers seat so I could operate it by reaching behind the back of the seat but it was concealed behind a curtain. In response to the colder weather I had to do some maintenance on my heater. The heater controls no longer worked and I had to put on a petcock in line with the heater hose and would turn it on and off manually by opening up the petcock or closing it. After putting on a new ...