1 døgn / 68 miles / 1 time og 41 minutter
Providing visitors access to Yellowstone Park's northeast entrance, the Beartooth Highway makes its way across the rugged Beartooth Mountain Range in Montana and Wyoming. The road is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies and provides dramatic views, unlimited outdoor recreation opportunities, and unparalleled wildlife watching.
Dag 1
9:00 - 0.2 miles / 1 minutt - 9:00
9:05 - 0.4 miles / 1 minutt - 9:05
Log Cabin Cafe is a woman-owned, historic eatery founded by Hannah Oie, who built the original cabin from locally hand-hewn logs. Open daily from May through October for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the café serves burgers, sandwiches, and salads.
9:10 - 0.1 miles / 1 minutt - 9:11
9:16 - 2.5 miles / 3 minutter - 9:19
Cooke City: New World Mining District
Having plentiful wildlife, being close to Yellowstone National Park, and offering unlimited opportunities for adventure make Cooke City a perfect base camp for the outdoor enthusiast. From the city, you can snowmobile, cross-country ski, ice climb, and ice fish throughout the long winter, or ride horses, hunt, backpack, camp, and photograph the inspiring mountan scenery. Restaurants, gift shops, lodgings and trading posts will make your time in Cooke City enjoyable both in and outdoors.
9:24 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 9:25
The Cooke City Montana Museum opened in 2015 and features permanent exhibits exploring the history of Cooke City, Colter Pass, and Silver Gate, along with displays about the Beartooth Highway, education, gas stations, tourism, women, and winter life. The museum is owned and operated by the Cooke City Community Council, a nonprofit organization, and offers visitors a deeper look at the area's unique history and communities.
9:30 - 0.2 miles / 1 minutt - 9:30
Miner's Saloon is a popular local gathering spot in Cooke City, combining a saloon with Sammie’s Café, which emphasizes seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. The menu includes hand-tossed pizza, burgers, tacos, salads, and daily specials, complemented by a selection of premium drinks and local microbrews in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.
9:35 - 0.1 miles / 1 minutt - 9:35
Beartooth Café offers a relaxed dining experience in a historic 1936 log building near the Beartooth Mountains, Beartooth Pass, and Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance. The restaurant features daily specials, a diverse specialty menu, Montana’s extensive bottled beer selection, and a curated wine list, with outdoor dining available on its flower-lined deck.
9:40 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 9:41
Soda Butte Creek flows from the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains into Yellowstone National Park, where it joins the Lamar River. For more than 80 years, the nearby McLaren Mill and Tailings site polluted the creek with metals, but extensive reclamation and restoration successfully removed contaminants from its upper reaches. In 2018, Soda Butte Creek became the first Montana waterway to be removed from the Clean Water Act’s impaired waters list following abandoned mine reclamation.
9:46 - 2.8 miles / 3 minutter - 9:49
Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail
The Nez Perce (Nimíipuu or Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail stretches from Wallowa Lake, Oregon, to the Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana. It was added to this system by Congress as a National Historic Trail in 1986.
9:54 - 0.1 miles / 1 minutt - 9:54
This is a major trailhead facility for entrance into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The site has a large parking lot, restrooms, interpretive panels and modest picnicking amenities.
9:59 - 7.7 miles / 8 minutter - 10:08
A small pull out on the east side of the road for the Crazy Lakes Trail also doubles for parking to view this impressive cascade of Crazy Creek. Picnicking and camping facilities are directly across the highway at Crazy Creek Campground.
11:08 - 2.6 miles / 3 minutter - 11:12
The Chief Joseph Highway, named for the last chief of the Nez Percé, intersects the Beartooth Highway near Lake Creek Falls and features interpretive signs recounting the tragic flight of Chief Joseph’s band. The scenic route also passes archaeological sites reflecting prehistoric Native American occupation and offers strikingly varied scenery, from the ranchlands of Clarks Fork Valley to red-rock mesas and deep gorges.
11:17 - 1.2 miles / 2 minutter - 11:19
The falls are divided by a small bridge from the original Beartooth Highway, with a narrow 35-foot cascade just upstream and a broader, 25-foot veiling waterfall below the bridge.
11:24 - 0.5 miles / 1 minutt - 11:25
From this point, the visitor can see the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone Canyon, Wyoming's only designated Wild & Scenic River. You can also see the aftermath of the 1988 Clover Mist Fire which was nearly 400,000 acres and originated in Yellowstone National Park.
11:40 - 5.1 miles / 10 minutter - 11:50
Pilot & Index Overlook Observation Site is located along the Beartooth All-American Highway and provides visitors sweeping vistas of the surrounding Absaroka Mountains and the iconic and inspiring Pilot-Index Peaks. The observation site contains ample parking, vault toilet, and visitor information signs.
11:55 - 0.9 miles / 1 minutt - 11:57
Clay Butte Fire Tower Spur (FR 142)
Forest Road 142 (FR142) is an unpaved, one-lane gravel road branching from the Beartooth Highway to the summit lookout. The road is generally in good condition with some washboard and is suitable for most low-clearance vehicles, but not trailers, RVs, or tour buses; trailer parking is available at Beartooth Lake. The route also provides access to the Upper Granite Loop Trail.
12:02 - 0.6 miles / 1 minutt - 12:03
The Beartooth Ravine pull-out offers interpretive information about the geological history, landscape-forming processes, and alpine ecosystems of the Beartooth Mountains. Visitors can also enjoy a striking view of a newer section of the Beartooth Highway, including a 420-foot bridge that curves around the mountain and crosses the ravine.
12:08 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 12:08
The waterfall drops about 80 feet in two distinct stages: an upper cascade of roughly 15–20 feet followed by a nearly vertical, horsetail-style lower drop of about 60 feet.
12:13 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 12:14
At 10,514 feet, Beartooth Butte features sandstone layers that reveal it once lay beneath an inland sea hundreds of millions of years ago. These sedimentary rocks originally covered the Beartooth Plateau, but thousands of years of glacial erosion stripped them away, leaving Beartooth and Clay Buttes as rare remnants.
12:19 - 0.2 miles / 1 minutt - 12:19
The Beartooth Lake Campground has 21 sites and is located along the shores of Beartooth Lake, and within proximity to many beautiful mountain lakes. There is a nearby store for supplies.
12:24 - 1.9 miles / 2 minutter - 12:26
At an elevation of 9400 feet, the Top of the World Resort features rentals, lodging, shopping, and activities. Learn about the area from resort staff and use the resort as a springboard for your outdoor adventures.
12:56 - 0.9 miles / 1 minutt - 12:57
13:02 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 13:03
This beautiful high mountain lake campground has 21 newly remodeled sites. There is always plenty to do at this campground; hiking, fishing, wildlife viewing, and beautiful wildflowers galore.
13:08 - 7.4 miles / 11 minutter - 13:19
360 views of the mountains and the Beartooth Plateau are available as the visitor also experiences the harsh conditions to which plant and animal life must cling during the brief summer season.
13:39 - 0.4 miles / 1 minutt - 13:40
Known to the Crow as “Na Piet Say,” meaning “the bear’s tooth,” this distinctive pyramidal spire was sculpted by glaciers and gave the Beartooth Mountains their name.
13:45 - 1.5 miles / 1 minutt - 13:46
At 9,841 feet, this unmarked pullout also serves as a trailhead for the Beartooth Loop Trail and offers impressive views of the Beartooth Plateau’s glaciated basins and lakes. In early summer, backcountry skiers may be seen taking advantage of the remaining snow and glaciers.
13:51 - 1.3 miles / 2 minutter - 13:54
Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area
Beartooth Basin sits at 10,737 feet and has operated since the mid-1960s, making it one of North America’s oldest alpine ski training areas. Once a private camp, it is now open to the public when snow and weather conditions permit, with professional ski patrol and lift attendants on site.
13:59 - 1.7 miles / 1 minutt - 14:01
14:06 - 1.1 miles / 1 minutt - 14:07
Located in the Wind River and Absaroka mountain ranges of northwestern Wyoming, lies the 2.4 million-acre Shoshone National Forest. Elevations range from 4,600 feet near Cody to 13,804 feet atop Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming. The higher mountains are snowclad most of the year. Immense areas of exposed rock are interspersed with meadows and forests. Those who hike into the backcountry or drive through the North Fork of the Shoshone River Canyon or over the Beartooth Plateau agree that the varied scenery is superlative. Established in 1891 as part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, the Shoshone terrain ranges from sagebrush flats to rugged mountains, and its 236 peaks reach over 12,000 feet in elevation. There are also 156 glaciers, more than any other area in the lower 48 states. The Shoshone encompasses the area from the Montana state line south to Lander, Wyoming, which includes portions of the Absaroka, Wind River, and Beartooth Ranges. The western boundary of the forest south of Yellowstone is the crest of the Continental Divide. Nearly 1.4 million acres of the forest are designated wilderness areas. There are also more than 1,500 miles of scenic roads traversing the forest. Wildlife on the Shoshone includes deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, grizzly and black bears, as well as numerous smaller animals, birds, and cold water fish.
14:12 - 2.2 miles / 2 minutter - 14:14
14:19 - 2.2 miles / 5 minutter - 14:24
Rock Creek Vista Point Rest Area
A fully developed Rest Area that has interpretive panels portraying the history of the road and mining in the Rock Creek Valley and about alpine wildlife and ecosystems. There is a short hiking trail out on a ridge with an outstanding view.
14:54 - 8.2 miles / 17 minutter - 15:12
This is a complex of 4 National Forest Campgrounds, including Parkside, Limber Pine, Greenough Lake and M-K. All are fee sites except M-K.
15:17 - 4.0 miles / 3 minutter - 15:21
Custer Gallatin National Forest
In 1889 when the Gallatin National Forest was established, this land was used only by hardy settlers and a few travelers. Today, the Gallatin National Forest is the most visited national forest in the Northern Rockies, summer and winter. In addition to being a great place to play, the forest provides goods and service to local communities and the region.
Spectacular wildlife abounds in Custer National Forest, including bighorn sheep, moose, and bobcat.15:26 - 6.8 miles / 6 minutter - 15:32
The Beartooth Ranger District is located in south central Montana and encompasses the Beartooth and Pryor Mountain Ranges. The highest 41 peaks in Montana are located in the Beartooth Ranger District, including Granite Peak, which is the highest and stands at 12,799ft.
15:37 - 1.3 miles / 2 minutter - 15:40
Carbon County Steakhouse is a well-known Montana-Wyoming steakhouse combining modern Western décor with fine dining. The restaurant serves locally sourced, humanely raised meats, hand-cut steaks, fresh seafood, and handcrafted desserts, with its beef supplied by a family-owned ranch in nearby Clark, Wyoming.
15:45 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 15:45
The Carbon County Historical Society & Museum was established in 1959 by Alice Greenough to preserve her family’s renowned rodeo collection and later took over the historic Labor Temple, built by local miners in 1909. Today, the museum features rodeo memorabilia, firearms and archaeological collections, immersive coal and hard-rock mining exhibits, historical archives, and resources for genealogy and research.
15:50 - 0.3 miles / 1 minutt - 15:51