Sunday, June 30, 2013, Cummins in Billings, MT

The heat wave continued in Billings, MT, so we did a little shopping and generally just relaxed. I got the front South Dakota plate mounted on the coach, so we are finally fully legal. One thing we seemed to get consistently here in "Big Sky Country" was spectacular sunsets. It's hard to capture in a few pictures, but Joani tried anyway.

Saturday, June 29, 2013, Beartooth Pass Highway, WY

Finally, we were on our own time - we could be out all day and not have to worry about anything. We decided to drive further along the Beartooth Pass Highway, WY. Since we only made it a short way before, we tried not to stop anywhere we had stopped already. It is amazing how fast you can travel 38 miles if you're not stopping every 1/4 mile for pictures. We did stop one place for a second time to watch some skiers on the slope. I hope I'm never as crazy as these guys. I kept imagining them starting an avalanche or skiing right into rocks.

The dog seemed to navigate the slopes with ease.  

Above the tree line (where the oxygen level is too low to support trees) there's an amazing variety of miniature flora that was so colorful, we just kept on taking pictures. It became a challenge to find a shot that included the most color.

I was fascinated by the micro-scape. Nothing you see is over 2 inches tall (except the rocks).

The little blue flowers are only about 1/4 inch in diameter.

The green velvet covering the ground consists of the tightly packed flower-lichen-moss-teeny fern combinations.

Roadside wildlife (taken from inside the car).

I took a lot of brackets to process later for HDR - I think it was worth the effort. These are some of my favorites.

We believe these are Pilot (left) and Index (right) Peaks near the Wyoming/Montana border.

We made it all the way into Yellowstone National Park. We stopped at one roadside picnic area and soon noticed the ground was moving - there were hundreds of ground squirrels and they were in constant motion.

We were a bit worried we might be caught in a storm, but it stayed all around us and we never saw more than a few sprinkles.  

We could see storms all around us.

Red Lodge is a quaint little town that we didn't explore. It will have to wait for the next trip through this area since it was sprinkling. 

Friday, June 28, 2013, Rimrocks at Zimmerman Park, Billings, MT

Our coach is still at the Cummins dealer in Billings, MT, getting some needed maintenance done. Today we decided to be a bit more available to check on repair progress. We revisited Zimmerman Park and the Rimrocks and did a bit of hiking.

 That's a hard way to go!

 Can you find David and Sam?

 There they are!

I was a bit surprised that $160 of "diagnostic labor" told me they could visually see the manifold was warped (which is impossible without removing it first) but they didn't notice that crack. I also didn't get a good feeling when they explained they always see a problem with cylinder number four warping. Do I get to replace this again in another 50,000 miles? - their answer "not necessarily." You know that quelled all of my concerns.

The good news was that they finished and all was well with the coach. We cleared it with them to stay at Camp Cummins for the weekend while we made arrangements for our next campground.

Thursday, June 27, 2013, Beartooth Pass Highway, MT and WY

We are at the Cummins Dealer in Billings, MT. They started work on the coach just after 8 in the morning. We saw no reason to sit in the customer lounge all day, so we headed out for some sightseeing. We drove south on US212, also know as the "Beartooth Pass Highway." Charles Kuralt called it "the most scenic drive in America." I have yet to see them all, but so far I agree.

How about that speed limit for a two-lane back road! 

Rock Creek 

We climbed almost 7,000 feet and went from warm summer weather at the base to cold windy weather at the top. We started with farmland, fields and pastures, and then passed through thick forests on our way up to mountain lakes and finally, above the tree line, tundra and glaciers.   

You can see it was a wild ride!

Groundhogs were all around.

A heard of mountain goats.

Our highest point (10,969 ft.).

At some point, it hit me that if Cummins was going to remove my manifold before ordering a new one, then we might have a problem sleeping in the coach. Of course, we had no cell phone coverage and with the shop closing at 6:00, we had to race back down the mountain to make arrangements for the night. I don't know if I just should have known we needed a motel for the night, but a few minutes later and we would have been on our own and no way to get to the coach locked in the garage. Needless to say, I was not a "Happy Camper" for a little while, but it all turned out OK and we got to see a part of Billings (historical downtown) we would not have otherwise seen.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013, Pictograph Caves State Park, Chief Plenty Coups State Park, and Rimrocks, Move to Billings, MT

Finally, we left the still muddy Gillette CAM-PLEX, WY, and moved to Billings, MT, (239.1 miles, 2,472.6 trip/61,953.7 total). Unfortunately, we moved to the Cummins Rocky Mountain parking lot with no hook-ups, so it's back to dry camping for a while.

This was taken out the window. I can't wait to see this up close

Rest stop wildlife.

A fascinated (and very excited) 5-year-old boy told me it was a "kid rattlesnake." He spoke with such confidence that I believed him.

Sam stayed out of his way!

Once we got settled in at Cummins, we drove to near-by Pictograph Caves State Park. Unfortunately, recent rains had loosened rock and damaged trails, so they had some trails closed. This is as close as we could get to Ghost Cave.

In the main cave, which was really more of a rock overhang, these paintings were believed to be as old as 2,200 years!  

Next, we visited Chief Plenty Coups State Park. Chief Plenty Coups was an important figure in settling things between the Indians and the US Government, so they created a park around his home. We got there just as the park closed. We were all alone - it was very pleasant and peaceful.

Huge Cottonwood trees.

This is why they are called Cottonwood trees.

We finished the day at Zimmerman Park. It overlooks Billings from a bluff they call "Rimrocks." Very nice views!  

Someone had fun with chalk.

While we were there, we watched storms blow in - at one point we could see rain falling in three different directions at once.

It started to sprinkle on us but just a bit.

He had time to stop and scratch an itch.

The sun burst out again, for a moment.

What a way to end the day.