Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon

The final leg of our western swing started with a drive along Big Horn Scenic Highway, in Wyoming. A 58-mile paved highway over the crest of the Big Horn Mountains, the byway winds past thick forest, lush meadows, waterfalls, and deep canyons. Stretching from the Powder River Basin to the Big Horn Basin, the Big Horn Byway follows US 14 from the west outside Greybull.

Beartooth Scenic Byway – This stretch of U.S. Highway 212 between Red Lodge in Montana and Cooke City, zigzags across the Montana-Wyoming border through a series of steep switchbacks, rising from about 5,000 feet to 10,947 feet at the Beartooth Pass. It’s so high that it’s closed in winter due to snow, fortunately for us we completed our crossing before September 24th when the byway was closed for a few days do to 5 inches of snow and 4-foot drifts.

Craters of the Moon Idaho – Craters of the Moon is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. We explored this unique landscape by driving the historic Loop Road, stopping in at the visitor center, hiking up a volcano, and exploring a lava tube cave.  The scenic Loop Road is nine miles round-trip. Volcanic activity has occurred on the Snake River Plain for many millions of years. The much younger lava flows at Craters of the Moon were formed by eruptions that started only 15,000 years ago and represent the last period of active volcanism in the area. The most recent activity occurred approximately 2,100 years ago. Craters of the Moon is considered dormant, not extinct.

Sawtooth Highway – In the mere length of 115 miles, the Sawtooth Scenic Byway takes the traveler from volcanic sagebrush lands on north into awe-inspiring high snow-covered mountain peaks. Unfortunately, because of smoke from wildfires we did not get to see much. We were hoping to get to the top of Sawtooth and head south on the western slope but we were stopped by park rangers since the fire had jumped our planned route. We had to back track on our original approach and head back to Boise. The good news we could spend more time with our kids and grandkids.