Red Lodge, MT

 Today we toured the small town of Red Lodge, MT.  The oldest building that we saw was the hotel, which welcomed its first guests in 1893.  Currently there are shops and restaurants.  In the summer they serve tourists, in the winter they serve skiers.

We saw some nice art and huckleberry creations and a huge candy store.  I know at least the O’Neills/Johnsons and Kathy Butler will appreciate this art.

There was a store that sold Life is Good shirts (my personal favorite brand) but with things relevant to Red Lodge and the Beartooth Highway.  So I now have 2 new shirts and Dave has one.   Funny story, there was one design on the Life is Good shirts Dave liked (not specific to the area) and he asked me what I thought of it.  I said it’s nice, but you should look at your chest.  He was wearing that design, the only difference was the color of the shirt.  

We had pizza for lunch at a place that was recommended by the Harvest Host that we stayed at in Montana.  She said that Red Lodge was one of her favorite places.  We enjoyed the pizza and the atmosphere.  Of course, after pizza, I must have ice cream, so I went and had huckleberry ice cream.  I highly recommend it.  

As we were walking back to the car, we came across a museum about the buses they use in Yellowstone National Park.  They stared using them in 1917.  They had several models and the timeline of how long each type was in service.  The gentleman that we were talking to, his grandfather built the building the museum was in and ran a gas station and auto repair shop.  His Dad and uncle ran it after the grandfather.  They then sold it, because they wanted their kids to experience somewhere else, not run the garage.  The gentleman’s state of residence is Washington, but he comes back for part of the summer and sometimes in the winter to their family home.  I asked why there is a museum of Yellowstone buses in Red Lodge.  He said that when people first started going to Yellowstone, they could take the train to Red Lodge and then get the Yellow Bus from Red Lodge to Yellowstone.  (Dave said it’s the original Uber).  You can still reserve a Yellow Bus to take you to Yellowstone over the Beartooth Highway, but you have to have a group of 10 and pay $2,000.

Powerline truck

7 passenger “bus”

1926 version

1917 version

View of museum from across the street with the gas pumps like when it was the original garage.

Tomorrow we travel from Red Lodge, Montana to Lovell, Wyoming - Bighorn Canyon National Recreation area.  There is no cell or wifi in this area and we will be there for 5 nights.  So after about 11:00 am Mountain time on 7/17 we will be mostly off the grid.  There are 12 hiking trails where we are going and a big lake that you can kayak on.  Once we are “connected” again, there will be an update. 

Signing off for now.