After the Montanan Marathon and Little Bighorn, we made our way to Yellowstone via the Beartooth Highway, to Cooke City and the NE entrance and Lamar Valley. I've always wanted to make this approach, but its more typical to enter via the West or North entrances, coming from Washington State.
The Beartooth Highway is one of the country's scenic highways. On the Montana side, it Red Lodge is more or less the entry town--a nice mountain town. The road starts in the high prairie, and then climbs into the Rockies. The high point for Beartooth Pass is at 10,947. Weather conditions close the road all the time. It was closed.a week or two before we went, and then a week later. The road is open from Memorial Day to October 12 or so.
On the Wyoming side, there are long views across a sea of peaks, and then Pilot Peak marking the skyline for some time. Eventually the road finds its way to Cooke City, another pretty cool little mountain town, which is right before the Silver Gate (NE gate) to Yellowstone NP.
The road trip and the pass was a pleasure to drive int he rented Dodge Charger. The car has some giddyup, going up mountain passes and on the long straights in Montana.
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