Red Lodge, Montana.

In December 2022, I shared photos from the North Shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Grand Marais, Minnesota. I called that highway an All-American Road, a designation from the U.S. Forest Service. From their website, “All-American Roads provide motorists an exceptional traveling experience that makes the byway a primary reason for the trip.” Today’s Travel Tuesday post features another All-American Road that was designated in June 2000.

The description of today’s featured highway states, “From the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, Beartooth Scenic Byway All American Road weaves through Custer and Shoshone National Forests. The spectacular Alpine highway runs almost 69 miles to Red Lodge, Montana.” My opening photo features a view of one of the highest points along the Beartooth Highway, but we entered the highway at a much lower elevation at Yellowstone Park and ended our journey at Red Lodge, Montana.

The journey started for us at Gardner Montana and we entered the north entrance of the park just south of Gardner. Once inside the park, we followed the highway toward the Mammoth Hot Springs. To pick up the Beartooth Highway, there is a turnoff from U.S. 89 called the Grand Loop Road. Take that highway to the south and east of the main highway in the park.

After plenty of opportunities to spot wildlife in the park, you’ll eventually come to the junction at the Grand Loop Road and U.S. 212, the Beartooth Highway that starts here. Just before you arrive at the junction, there is a public gas station. Be sure you leave Gardner with plenty of fuel to travel to Red Lodge, however, if you aren’t traveling between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The station was closed for the season on October 5, the day of our journey. The gas station, though, is just west of the 212 highway junction, so be ready to turn.

I have many photos of bison that I didn’t share, and there are parking areas where you can stop, but keep your distance. These large animals appear to be quite gentle until they get upset. Then you want to be in your vehicle and somewhere else.

Once on the Beartooth Highway, you’ll notice the elevation changes relatively quickly as you transit from forest to high alpine climates. The views from the highway pulloffs are well worth the journey.

Though the highway is closed all winter long, there are plenty of snowmobile trails that remain open. There are even a few businesses that cater to the winter travelers, but during the pandemic, most of these places closed for the season. Be sure to plan your trail route ahead of time and confirm the places you want to visit will be open when you arrive after the highways are closed.

Once you transition to U.S. 212, you’ll spend an hour or so (depending upon photo stops) to travel the 30 miles (48 km) journey to Silver Gate, then only 5 minutes later, you’ll arrive at Cooke City.

You’re not quite half-way to Red Lodge from Cooke City, and in fact, the road meanders southerly back into Wyoming for the next several miles of spectacular scenery.

When U.S. 212 meanders through Wyoming and toward the Montana border, you will find the trees starting to become scarcer as you near the elevations that mark the tree line.

As you start the climb in earnest, you’ll travel a section of steep switchbacks eventually reaching Beartooth Pass where there is a parking and viewing area. Beartooth Pass is the highest point on the highway at an elevation of 10,947 ft (3,337 m) above sea level.

From Beartooth Pass, however, you are still some 31 miles (50 km) from the town of Red Lodge. Though you will be generally downhill to Red Lodge, you will still be doing some of those steep zigzags on the way down.

Be sure to do appropriate planning for your trip. There are lodges and hotels along the way, but they fill up fast during the season. I’m posting this in January even though the highway is closed in winter so you have time to do your homework and get reservations confirmed while there are still openings. If you travel before or after that Memorial-Labor Day window, you’ll have better luck in finding hotels at the last minute. We stayed in Red Lodge on October 5 and had no trouble finding a hotel. However, a turn of early season bad weather could have just as easily closed the highway for the season before we arrived.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are fees to enter Yellowstone on the west end of the highway, and during the summer travel season, this highway is well-traveled. Be sure to check to see if you need a reservation to enter the park on the day you expect to arrive. The Recreation.gov site will provide a reservation slot for one of the most popular national parks in the country.

The Beartooth Highway is one of the most scenic highways we’ve traveled over the last few years. At Red Lodge, it was time for an oil change. We stopped at a local shop and learned that the owner of the shop had just purchased one of the restaurants just off U.S. 212. We’d noticed the place was closed on our way by. It was being remodeled by the new owner. He was anxious to get the work done in the next couple of weeks as he needed the road open for hauling building materials and he had only a couple of weeks before the road closed for the season. He had an ambitious schedule as he wanted the place open to take advantage of the winter snowmobile travelers. We wished him luck a successful opening and continued on our journey.

I have posted all of these images in 2K HD on my Flickr site. Click on a single image to pixel peep, or you can visit the entire album and scroll through the pics from here.

John Steiner