The Beartooth Highway

Unlike our normal travels we planned ahead and secured reservations at a campground just outside of Red Lodge, Montana for Sunday and Monday nights. The road from Red Lodge to the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park is one of the most scenic drives in the United States. Red Lodge to Yellowstone is roughly 68 miles and the road climbs from about 6,000 feet in elevation to just a few feet short of 11,000 feet. It includes switchbacks, drop offs, hairpin turns and many places to stop along the way to enjoy it all. Marsha had never seen this road before while I had travelled it once in the past. Our goal was to get to Red Lodge on a Sunday and do the drive plus some of Yellowstone NP on Monday.

Our drive to Red Lodge was uneventful other than climbing in elevation and reaching more comfortable temperatures. Montana in general has been having high temperatures much like the rest of the US. The saving grace is with elevation comes cooler temperatures.

Our campground, a couple of miles out of Red Lodge, was a bit unusual. If you are not an RV’er let me say a few things about what type of campground works. Travelers with big rigs, the large motorhomes, fifth wheels, and large trailers look for open space in a campground where trees, tree limbs, and tight turns are unwanted. These rigs do just fine in a large open space. Smaller trailers and vans often look for shade and a bit of privacy. Shade works for cooling, but does present issues for those who wish to set up solar panels. In the last couple of years more and more Starlink dishes can be seen. They need a view of the sky.

We pulled into the campground only to find a large parking lot type of set up. It least instead of pavement there was plenty of grass. We check in at the office and discover our site was down close to the river hidden among the trees. It was a great site. It’s unusual for a campground to have setups of variety of rigs.

The following morning we were up and on the road early to do the river over the Beartooth Highway. We climbed from about 6,000 feet to 10,947 at the top of the highway. The views were in the category of “All we can say is WOW!” Charles Kuralt, former travel and news correspondent for CBS Sixty Minutes called this road the most beautiful highway in America. From my view it may or may not be the most beautiful, but it ranks way up on the list.

Near the top we spotted a few Mountain Goats then like the way up the switch backs started on the way down. The road ends at the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We continued into the Park only to exit at the north entrance. As we drove down the road the down 5 miles to Gardener. I recalled back in the 1980s bicycling down this steep hill then back up to the Park only to cross over the state line from WY to MT since I had never bicycled in Montana before. I wanted to notch another state. It was a workout cycling up the hill on a fully loaded touring bike. I hadn’t thought it out very well since bicycle route had us entering the Park from the south in WY after exploring Teton NP and doing a large loop exiting in West Yellowstone. Well, West Yellowstone is in MONTANA!

We grabbed lunch in Gardener then headed back up to the Park were we continued to do a loop the eventually returned us to the Northeast Entrance were we drove back over the Beartooth Highway to our campground. It was a long and exciting time.