Red Lodge: The Gateway To The Park

All senior travelers need to do is follow Beartooth Highway that will lead you right into Yellowstone Park via Red Lodge, Montana (pop. 2,500+). Visitors experience true western hospitality in a quaint, historic, mountain town.

Folks claim that Red Lodge is a place not only of extraordinary beauty, but where real smiles, genuine warmth and a welcoming, Western-style hospitality greet you at every turn. Red Lodge is known for its outdoor recreation opportunities like skiing, mountain biking, and backpacking.

Seniors Travel Scenic Drive

Red Lodge was originally a coal boomtown with as many as 22 mines in Carbon County including Bearcreek’s Smith Mine, site of Montana’s Worst Mining disaster in 1943. The town features historic downtown Red Lodge.

Nearby, the 69-mile Beartooth Scenic Drive has a series of dramatic switchbacks overlooking snow-capped peaks, glaciers, alpine lakes and plateaus. CBS news correspondent Charles Kuralt called the Beartooth Pass the most scenic drive in America.

On September 17, 1851, the United States government signed a treaty with the Crow Nation, ceding the area which now contains Red Lodge to the Crow Indians. Rich coal deposits were found there in 1866, and gold was discovered nearby in 1870. An 1880 treaty between the U.S. government and the Crow allowed the area to be settled starting April 11, 1882

 Eleven Million Acres Of Wilderness Draws Seniors

The Pollard is a magnificently restored old town building in the heart of Red Lodge, where senior visitors enjoy traditional mountain hospitality and a number of top-quality hotel luxuries.

Naturalist and author Gary Ferguson was drawn to Red Lodge years ago by the 11 million acres of wilderness that surround it, the Greater Yellowstone territory he calls “the last great temperate, wild ecosystem.” He says he likes living in a place where residents aren’t alarmed if a black bear takes refuge in a neighbor’s apple tree.

For senior hikers, their are numerous trails, both for day hiking and overnight backpacking, beginning at the base of the mountains and along the Beartooth Highway. The Red Lodge area has some great day hikes and extended backpacking trails for all ages allowing senior hikers to enjoy Big Sky Country at its finest.

And wow…for a small town, Red Lodge is loaded with festivities that bring in visitors from all over the world:  The Winter Carnival at the end of February, National Ski-Joring Finals in March; In April, a popular triathlon called the Peaks to Prairie; the Red Lodge Music Festival and the Annual Beartooth Run in June; the Home of Champions Parade and Rodeo, the Beartooth Rally, the Montana State Old-Time Fiddlers Contest, the Fat Tire Frenzy and the Red Lodge Mountain Man Rendezvous  in July; the Festival of Nations in August plus many more concerts and activities.

Seniors, you just can’t go wrong spending some quality time in Red Lodge. jeb