Day Five – Red Lodge WY to Great Falls MT - Miles: 311
The Alpine Motel had breakfast on-site and included with our room, so that was a nice start. We made sure we were first in line and it paid off handsomely. We started out north on MT78 and made our first stop at Itch-Kep-Pe-Park. This little camping area on the Yellowstone River wasn't much but we parked the bikes and walked down to the river. The park is on the south side of Columbus and just before we reached town we turned onto Old US10 rather than I-90. We didn't make it all that far before we had to jump on I-90 but after an exit or two we were back off the interstate and riding parallel to it. We did that as long as we could before having to get back on at Big Timber. Shortly after that we were headed north on US89. We stopped at the US89 bridge over the Yellowstone but there wasn't much of anything there so we moved along. Our next stop was at an historical marker in the Smith River Valley. We pulled off the road at a pull off on Kings Hill Pass overlooking the Showdown Ski area. This part of US89 in the Little Belt Mountains is good riding and known as the Kings Hill Scenic Byway. We stopped shortly after this at Memorial Falls and hiked further than we did in 2013 but still didn't reach the falls. Maybe next time. Once down the mountain we stopped at Sluice Box Canyon. This canyon is a state park with sheer ledges and soaring cliffs as it slices its way towards the town of Belt following Belt Creek. We stopped again at the Belt Creek Brew Pub for a quick beer. We continued on to Great Falls and stopped at all of the falls along the Missouri River before going to the Black Eagle Brewery. While we were there it rained pretty hard so we dodged that bullet. We rode the mile or so to our hotel and parked in their private garage. That was nice. We walked a half mile to Mighty Mo Brewing Company for dinner and enjoyed some really good wings. We walked back and procured a bottle of Nebbiolo for the hotel lobby.
