Elevation: 6393 feet at IH90

Coordinates: 45.921667, -112.42

Homestake Pass is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. The pass connects both sides of the Continental Divide and is located six miles south by southeast of Butte, Montana and is in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The elevation at the pass is 6,393 feet where the interstate highway 90 crosses and is the highest point that entire 3,020 miles of that interstate.

The pass was discovered by Edwin H. McHenry, a civil engineer working for the Northern Pacific Railway. The railway over Homestake Pass was built in 1889 where the elevation is 6,329 feet and served as Norther Pacific′s scenic transcontinental passenger train route used by the famous North Coast Limited and its Amtrak successor, the North Coast Hiawatha, discontinued in 1979.

The line over the pass is currently owned by BNSF Railway and has been inactive since 1983 as its grades and curvature are poorly suited to freight trains. The BNSF now uses the easier route via Helena. Too, it is unlikely that the rail line over the pas will ever be used again, but BNSF has resited tearing out the line because the original lease with the Northern Pacific and the US Forest Service required that the grade be returned to its original status which would be too costly for the failing rail lines.

When Interstate 90 was built, the state of Montana chose Homestake Pass to cross the Continental Divide and thereby providing an easier alternative to the US Route 10 which crosses the Continental Divide at Pipestone Pass, elevation 6453 just less than ten miles to the south.

Leaving Bozeman, I turn west on IH 90 and in about 100 miles I cross the continental divide at Homestake Pass, which has an elevation of nearly 6400 feet.

I see that there is no snow on the mountain during my crossing this year and immediately after my summit, the roadway descends quickly into a large valley

Awake, dress, drive to w-mart for coffee, com and computer. This morning, I want to make one more post on social media to show the most recent grizzly photos taken in Yellowstone. Once I finish uploading files to my web site and finish the social media post, I leave west out of Bozeman on IH 90, cross the continental divide at Homestake Pass and immediately the weather turn bad with dark clouds and snow every where.

At the IH 15 junction, IH 90 turns north and follows the Clark Fork river north to Deer Lodge, Montana. All along this section of the interstate, the snow fields seem to keep getting worse. I am not sure at first and when the roadway begins to fog from lifting snow caused by the auto and trucks ahead of me, my thought are even more unsure.