Happy Labor Day!!! I hope everyone had a great day celebrating the contributions the labor workers have made to America's strength, prosperity and well-being.
Island Lake Campground
We spent the night in Cody Wyoming. It was very smokey so we wore masks while we slept. By morning the smoke was very low. We saw the sunset and the sunrise in Cody.
After the sun went down it cooled off so it was comfortable sleeping. We started sleeping without covers but by morning we were using covers. I got out of bed at 6:30. We had a quick breakfast before being on the road at 7:00.
Sunrise in Cody
Larry drove 120 miles today. We drove a two lane highway from Cody Wyoming to Red Lodge Montana, which was 70 miles. As we drove we saw a lot of Pronghorns, cattle and horses. We drove by ranches and some farms. The scenery was the prairie and rolling hills. We drove through a few small mining towns.
We got to Red Lodge around 9:00, which was perfect because they had an art event today starting at 9:00. They had a very nice parking lot for RVs and cars. We had no problem finding a spot, we were the only RV. Our refrigerator continues giving us problems. When we got to Red Lodge it was beeping and this time there was a code, Larry looked it up. Apparently the controller circuit board is going bad. He called a RV dealer about 70 miles away, they did not have it but said they could get it tomorrow and it would cost $245. Larry knew he could get it from Amazon for $125 but he couldn’t get it until next week. He decided we would wait a bit.
The art event was only a few blocks away so we walked over. It was a very nice event. It had two rows of booths where the artists showed their photography, paintings, a couple with jewelery, stained glass and other wares. Not many crafty things, mostly art related. One young lady had a cool looking tool so Larry asked her about it. She said she used it to place and cut yarn on her art projects. It made it a lot easier and faster then by hand. Other booths had tea pots, that you hang and it will water your plants. We talked to a gentleman, who had great photography of wildlife in Yellowstone. The local artist at the event were very talented. They had converted an old train depot into a Depot Gallery, the local artist put their paintings on display and you can buy them. In the same depot they had art classes. It was very nice. When we arrived at the art fair there was a group of ladies and girls doing Zumba. One of the ladies teaches Zumba on Tuesdays if weather permits. There also were a few food trucks. It was a great art event.
An old mining company by Red Lodge
Teapots & More booth
Art on display in the Art Depot
A moose craving on display
Artist booths at the Art Fair
A painted dumpster in Red Lodge
Art Depot Gallery
A block away they had a Carnegie Library, where they were having a book sale. We walked around and looked at the books for sale. It didn’t take too long. Then we walked around the downtown. Red Lodge is a quaint touristy town with restaurants and shops. A lot of the shops weren’t open because it was Labor Day. They had a cool old gas station and an old bank. The bank was known for a foiled bank robbery in 1887. The Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch tried to rob the bank after they had escaped from a jail inn South Dakota. They were caught, sent back to the jail in South Dakota where they escaped again. After walking around we went back to the Minnie. It was getting hot so we turned on the generator to run the air conditioner while we had lunch.
Tootum Pole and the back of Carnegie Library
Carbon County Courthouse in Red Lodge
Bank, where the failed bank robbery happened
After lunch we went and filled the Minnie with gas. It really didn’t need gas but we weren’t sure when we would get the opportunity. We were going to drive the Bear Tooth highway, it goes up the mountain to almost 11,000 feet.
When we left Red Lodge we were 38 miles away from Island Lake Recreational Area. The drive there was very slow because we went through a gorgeous mountain pass. There were a lot of tight turns. We stopped once in awhile to look at the scenery. We saw some glaciers and mountain lakes. Once we got to the top we went down to where the campground was. The road was very narrow with no shoulder and tight curves at times. It started in Montana, where the pull offs were blacktopped and at the top we were back in Wyoming, the pull off were rough gravel. The highway went above the tree line. It was very beautiful drive.
Montana welcome sign
Mountain range with glaciers
Mountain range at tree line
One of the glaciers
Reservoir on Bear Tooth highway
Island Lake Recreation Area is in the Shoshone National Forest and is run by the USDA Forest. We were surprised that you made your check out to the USDA Forest Service because most of the camping areas are vended out. The road to get to the campground is a rough dirt road and the campground is dirt roads. The campground has three loops, a couple of lakes and hiking trails. We drove around and found a site, which wasn’t hard. Then we parked the Minnie for a couple of nights.
Welcome sign for Island Lake
Once we were set up I walked down and paid for a couple of nights. There is no power and the toilets are vault but they are very clean. It was a little warm but it’s suppose to cool off tomorrow. We relaxed for a bit. For dinner we turned on the generator so we could use the microwave to heat up the rest of our pizza. Then we walked around to check out where the trailhead was for tomorrow. We walked the loops. When we got back we setup our chairs and relaxed in them for a bit. We met out neighbors and they told us they were going to run their generator for a few minutes. We told them it was ok. We thought that was very nice of them to let us know. We had a super day. I ended up doing 16,000 steps.
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I would love to hear friendly comments on anything at all. Ruth