September 7, leaving the park and heading to Red Lodge, MT...

Am way behind with write-ups on this trip... have had a hard time making time to edit photos and then post! We left Yellowstone Park under sunny skies after a nice breakfast in the dining room in Mammoth. Destination... Red Lodge, MT and our vacation home there via the Beartooth Highway after leaving the park through the Northeast Entrance. With no further blathering... I'll just show you highlights of our day in pictures...

We didn't make it very far before we were treated to the sight of a large bull elk and his herd resting in the shade of the buildings in Mammoth village. This is one of the young elk (who seems to be chatting away) in the herd and the only other male we saw. (clearly no threat to the big bull elk who had at least a 12 point rack!)

Just before crossing the Gardner River, we stopped for a last look back at Mammoth Hot Springs... even from a distance it is quite the sight!

Lone bull crossing the road... stops traffic and gives me an opportunity to snap a bison in sunlight as he enters the field by the roadside!

Pilot and Index Peaks as seen from the 'sitting rock' we found for our lunch break at the Pilot Peak lookout spot along the road to the summit of the Beartooth Highway...

The road in this photo (up the valley) takes one eventually to the plateau known as Hell Roaring Plateau... the road is seven miles of rough, rock-strewn road which we traveled the day after this photo (taken from Rock Creek Vista point on the Beartooth Highway) was snapped. (photos of that adventure will be appearing eventually... one of these days I might catch up with posts... but it will have to rain all day long here in Red Lodge to keep me indoors long enough to catch up!)