The Pride of the Nez Perse and A Drive You Will Never Forget

This is the Beartooth Plateau which you access along the Beartooth Highway that exits the northeastern exit of Yellowstone Park, passes through the mining town of Cooke City and then dips south into Wyoming before heading back north towards Red Lodge Montana. This drive is often ranked as the second most scenic drive in the lower 48 and passes through the plateau that constitutes the biggest contiguous land mass above 10,000 feet in the lower 48. This tundra landscape with its deep valleys with verticle cliffs, its lakes and wild flowers interspersed with patches of snow all summer long, and its views of distant mountains is an adventure that has to be seen to be believed. I warn you that the drive is not for the faint hearted.

You might also access the Beartooth by heading north out of Cody, Wyoming to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway which is also a great experience. It was named in honor of the leader of the Nez Perse who escaped through Idaho, through Yellowstone, and along the path over the Beartooth Pass into northeastern Montana where they were finally captured and where Chief Joseph said those famous words, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

If you can get immersed in the experiences of the Beartooth area without feeling the pride in the human spirit that these pround people exhibited, then you are a more callous soul that am I. I have driven the highways several times and never without both that pride and the shame of what my people did to those people.