Saturday, July 27, 2024
Big Sky
My phone said it got down to 50 this morning. It was 59 when I got up at 8 o’clock.
We headed down to Big Sky today even though this is the same highway we will take to Yellowstone tomorrow. We didn’t think we would want to take time from our Yellowstone visit to drive back to Big Sky from Yellowstone so we made the trip today. We drove along pretty Gallatin River which was running pretty hard -- we saw white water in several places, and they raft on this river through here.
Our plan is to drive to Big Sky and back, and not take any side roads which is how we end up with those 260 mile days. We’re going to avoid that today.
As soon as I said that, Joe found a little road to pull off to drive down to the river. It was really just a little driveway loop so that wasn't too bad and it was certainly worth it. The scenery was beautiful and there was a girl across the river fly fishing. I kept hoping she would catch something, but she didn’t while I was standing there. A little duck drifted by going about 100 miles an hour.
This is one of the prettiest drives we’ve been on in Montana. The Gallatin River is rushing north. It’s a little deeper here than a lot of the rivers we’ve seen, and we’ve seen several fly fisherman. There are rock cliffs right behind the river, and the other side of the road is mountain.
We saw some white water rafters, and the bus and the rafts getting ready to put in. There’s some really nice campgrounds along this road too. We always wish we knew about these beforehand.
We made it to the town of Big Sky in less than an hour but the drive up to the resort and the ski area is another nine or 10 miles. We had to drive around to find out where to go for lift tickets. We could see some of the ski trails coming down the mountain. And we could see a few pockets of snow. This looks to be a pretty upscale ski resort. Lots of condos here, and more being built.
The walk from the parking lot to the lifts was more than we wanted, but we did it. The tickets were $41 each, and are good for all day so we could use them multiple times and on multiple trams. We only saw 2 trams running. We got right on the first tram, no wait. The ride was very enjoyable. Something we hadn't seen before, they have trails to ride bikes down from the top of the ski lift. They load the bikes right on the tram, with the bike riders in the car behind the bikes. There are all kinds of bike trails we could see from our seats, and we would occasionally catch a glimpse of the bikers. The trails had lots of curves and jumps. The cars on this tram held 6 passengers. On the second tram, the cars held 8 passengers. They left the empty cars closed, but you could imagine in winter weather that perhaps you could pull the top over to keep a little warmer.
When we got to the top, we got off and walked around just a little. The elevation up here was 9,100 ft. Joe was having a little trouble with the thin air, but it didn't seem to bother me. We got back on and went back to the bottom, then walked over to the second tram and got on it. It was another very pleasant ride. The elevation for this one was 8,800 ft. We would catch a glimpse of the bike riders every once in a while from both trams.
The riders load their own bikes, then walk behind them until they "lift" off. They always seat the riders in the very next car so they can grab their bikes.
When we got off of the second lift at the top, the agent told us they were on "lightning hold" right now. There was lightning in the area. They would know in 30 minutes whether or not we could go back down on the lift. Otherwise they would take us down by vehicle.
There were restrooms and a lodge (closed) with a deck area on this one and so we sat down to wait it out.
About 10 minutes after we got off, they shut the lift down. Just a few minutes later, the attendant announced that there was a van going down for anybody who wanted to go. We debated but decided we didn’t want to get stuck up on top in a thunderstorm so we opted to get in the van and come on down. It was a 15 passenger van, and I think we had 12 in it.
If there’s lightning within 10 miles, they shut down the trams and the zip line. I talked to the attendant at the bottom and he said lightning was 8 miles out right now. They had had one update after the initial alarm, and updates were due every 30 minutes, the next one at 2:38. We had thought we might ride the first one again, but decided not to wait it out. Some of the people were on their very first ride and were wondering about a refund since they only got 1/2 of a ride. It sounded like some of them were on a time schedule and not able to hang around to see if they restarted the trams. We didn't check into any of that since we had 1 1/2 rides.
By the time we walked to the car, there was thunder in the area. I took a shortcut, and Joe picked me up so I didn’t have to walk all the way back to the parking lot. I did spot two deer working their way down next to the ski slope while I was waiting for him. Joe picked me up about 2:20. Within five minutes, it started sprinkling on us.
We had talked about eating at the ski resort but were afraid we would get stuck there in the rain so we headed back out to the highway. At the intersection of Hwy 191, there was gas station and a taco bus. We were going to sit at the picnic table, but by the time Joe picked up our tacos, it had started sprinkling again, so we ate in the Jeep. We thought of Dave and Mazie, we had eaten halibut "at the bus" in Alaska, one of our very fond memories with them.
We got back on the highway and headed to Bozeman. The rain increased. We found the rafters, now they were dealing with rain in addition to the white water. A few fishermen were still on the water, but most were packing it in. Due to the rain, we managed to not take any side roads, although it was a point of conversation a few times.
When we got back to Bozeman, it had rained in some areas, including the campground. But the temperature was lovely. We were both tired, so we did not sit outside like we did yesterday. Our drive today was about 120 miles, easy peasy. It was about 4:30 when we got back.
Tomorrow we move on to Yellowstone. Can't wait.
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