Beartooth · Red Lodge to Cooke City

A 156 km loop from Beartooth Pass

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Why this ride

Alpine lakes, high altitude and an official status check before coffee. The stops in between: Top of the World store, Cooke City and Yellowstone northeast. Beartooth Pass is the high point. It tops out at about 2,850 m. It is a high-mountain day.

Roadbook

1. Beartooth Pass pass

   Beartooth Pass reaches 10,947 feet, making it one of the highest paved roads in the United States, and it earns that reputation honestly. US 212 climbs out of Red Lodge, Montana, through a series of switchbacks and long sweeps of road cut into the face of the Beartooth Mountains, finally crossing a tundra plateau that looks more like Greenland than the American West. The broad top is treeless, dotted with small lakes and snow patches that last well into summer, and rock and sky meet in wide views. The journalist Charles Kuralt called it the most beautiful drive in America, and generations of riders have taken his word for it.

   The road was finished in the mid-1930s and still feels like a feat of engineering. On the Montana side, it rises from the town in a famous set of hairpins, with big drops on the open side and few guard rails to calm the nerves. At the top, you are in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness country, near Montana's highest peaks, including Granite Peak, which stands at just over 12,800 feet. In the alpine zone, you may spot marmots and pikas, mountain goats on the slopes and sometimes a bighorn sheep, and the flowers in July are unexpectedly bright against the grey stone.

   The pass is only open when the snow allows, usually from late May until mid-October, and crews fight for every mile each spring. It can close at any time if a storm comes in, and snow has fallen on the summit in every month of the year. Dress for it: at the top, it can be thirty degrees colder than in town, and weather can swing from sun to sleet in an hour. Start early, because afternoon thunderstorms build over the high ground in summer, and lightning on an exposed plateau is not a risk anyone should take.

   Services are thin. Fuel and food are in Red Lodge, a town of a couple of thousand, at the bottom of the east side, and in Cooke City on the far side, which keeps its own small supply. Do not count on anything at the top. Altitude can make you light-headed, so stop and breathe if you need to.

   Many riders turn here and come back down the way they came, and the descent offers a second look at a view you had your back to on the way up.

2. Top of the World store food

   The Beartooth Highway climbs out of the plains of Montana into a world of rock, snow and alpine lakes, and it has a reputation to match. The journalist Charles Kuralt called it the most beautiful drive in America, and plenty of riders agree. US 212 crosses the Beartooth Plateau at nearly 3,340 metres, one of the highest highways in the northern Rockies, and its twists and switchbacks carry you from pine forest to bare tundra in the space of a few kilometres. The road was finished in 1936 after years of difficult work through steep terrain.

   The Top of the World store is a small, seasonal outpost near the high point of the road on the Wyoming side, and its position, surrounded by lakes and peaks, gives it the feel of a mountain hut. Services here are basic. Expect a few supplies, snacks and drinks when it is open, which depends on the season and the snow, and do not plan on anything more. In this country, the road itself is open only for part of the year, usually from late spring to mid-autumn, and sudden snowstorms can close it even in summer, so check conditions before you ride.

   The scenery is hard to overstate. Granite peaks rise on every side, including Granite Peak, the highest point in Montana at over 3,900 metres, and glacial lakes lie in the hollows like dropped coins. Wildflowers bloom in the alpine meadows in July, and mountain goats and marmots live among the rocks. The air is thin and clear, and the light has a hard, bright quality that makes colours sharper. Weather can change in minutes, and temperatures at the top can be near freezing in any month, so bring warm layers, gloves and a waterproof jacket.

   Riding here is exhilarating. The road has tight switchbacks on the Montana side, with steep drops and big views, and it eases into long, high curves across the plateau. The surface is generally good, but frost heaves and patches appear, and gravel can collect on corners. Traffic is moderate, with campers and sightseers, so be ready to follow slower vehicles.

   Fuel is not guaranteed at the store. Red Lodge, about thirty kilometres away on the Montana side, and Cooke City on the other are the places to fill up, and the distance between them is considerable. Carry water and snacks, and make sure your tank is full before the climb.

3. Cooke City fuel

   Cooke City is a one-street mining town in the corner of Montana, perched at roughly 2,300 metres in a valley that feels cut off from everything else. It is the last settlement on the eastern end of the Beartooth Highway, only a few kilometres from the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park, and it sits so deep in the mountains that its main road is the only one in Yellowstone's neighbourhood that stays open to cars all winter. Snow here is serious. The town, along with its tiny neighbour Silver Gate, spends half the year under drifts and the other half welcoming motorcyclists who have come over the pass.

   The reason for the town's existence is metal. Prospectors found silver, lead, copper and gold in these mountains in the 1860s and 1870s, and the settlement took its name from a financier who backed some of the early mining. The boom never quite became the bonanza people hoped for, partly because of the sheer difficulty of getting ore out through such rugged country, and in the 1990s a proposed new mine just outside Yellowstone's boundary became a national fight that ended with the federal government buying out the company. Old cabins, mine buildings and a few historic false-front shops give Cooke City a frontier look that is mostly genuine.

   For riders, the town is the reward at the end of one of America's great mountain roads. Coming down from the Beartooth plateau, the highway drops through switchbacks and alpine meadows into the valley, and you roll into town with the peaks of the Absaroka range around you. The road from the east is only open from late spring to early autumn, and snow can still shut it in June or September, so check conditions before committing. From Cooke City you can continue west through the Lamar Valley, a road that rewards slow riding with bison, elk and, if you are lucky, wolves.

   Fuel is available in town, which matters, because services are thin on both sides. There are a few places to eat, a handful of motels and lodges, and a general store, and in summer they fill quickly, so book a bed if you plan to stay the night. The nights are cold even in August, and the thin air makes the stars very sharp. The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, which also arrives here, follows the route the Nez Perce took in 1877 when they fled the US Army across these mountains, and it adds a layer of history to a corner that already feels like the edge of the map.

4. Yellowstone northeast gate sight

   Yellowstone northeast, late in the day.

5. Back to Beartooth Pass finish

   Back at Beartooth Pass. That is the ride.

Where this sits

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