When I first started researching the Beartooth Highway, I saw a comment that it was the most scenic drive in America – even beating out the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. As it turns out, it is a beautiful, scenic drive with many, many switchbacks and amazing mountain views! I love Glacier; I’d have to say it’s my favorite national park. I don’t know if anything could beat out the Going to the Sun Road (GTTSR) in my eyes, but this was a close second! There were some viewpoints along the drive that did remind me of some of the scenery along the GTTSR.
Red Lodge, Montana
We began our journey near Red Lodge, MT. We actually camped about 15 minutes south of the town of Red Lodge at Greenough Lake Campground. There were three campgrounds next to each other just off the highway at the start of the Beartooth Highway. This was a perfect basecamp for us since we didn’t want to do the scenic drive towing our trailer.
Red Lodge had several restaurants along its main street. We ate at Red Lodge Pizza Co, which was in an old post office. It was a cute restaurant with delicious pizza (and ice cream too)! We realized later that this was the only time on our two-week trip we went to a sit-down restaurant.
Driving the Beartooth Highway
We had no problem driving the highway in our 20-foot pickup truck. However, we did make it a point to have a basecamp outside the Beartooth Highway, so we wouldn’t have to worry about towing our 20-foot travel trailer on the highway. We started on the Red Lodge side of the highway and drove all the way into Yellowstone. The drive took about 2-3 hours, including stop time at some of the scenic overlooks.
The road began to climb pretty quickly just outside the campground. Then we started taking switchbacks up into the mountains. There were A LOT of switchbacks at the beginning. Before we knew it, we were above the tree line. We also left Montana and entered Wyoming pretty early on. We would enter back into Montana at the end of the Beartooth Highway and then drive back into Wyoming on the way into Yellowstone.
The Beartooth Pass Summit is at 10,947 feet. We hopped out here for a few quick photos before heading back down the other side of the highway. It was chilly and windy, but you could see mountains for miles.
On the way down the other side, we came across a couples of lakes with campgrounds. We noticed that there were some small travel trailers in these campgrounds – although most of the sites were on the smaller side. There was also a small general store/souvenir shop (Top of the World), and a pull-off overlooking a beautiful waterfall. Eventually, we reached the town of Cooke, MT where the Beartooth Highway officially ends. From here, we continued on into Yellowstone.
Yellowstone
We drove into Yellowstone through Lamar Valley. This was especially exciting because we had never made it to this part of the park before. I had always heard there was plenty of wildlife in this area, and this was accurate! We saw so many large herds of bison; it was unreal. We also saw a bear deep in the woods. (There was a ranger pointing out the bear activity in the distance.) I was originally hoping to hike through Lamar Valley, but the parking lots were full, so we continued on to Mt. Washburn deeper inside Yellowstone.
Mt. Washburn was another destination in Yellowstone that we hadn’t yet visited. The hike was about 7 miles roundtrip. I was surprised to see a small building with a viewing area and restrooms at the top of the mountain. The hike was scenic with many wildflowers along the trail. It also sounds like bears frequent this area, although we did not see any here. We still kept the bear spray handy. To read more about other activities in Yellowstone, check out the Yellowstone blog post: Yellowstone National Park – Miles of Yellow Lines.
Camping
We camped at Greenough Lake Campground (south of Red Lodge, MT) for two nights. We drove on the Beartooth Highway all the way into Yellowstone as a day trip and returned to camp that evening. This worked out well for us since we wanted to unhook for our drive on the Beartooth Highway. If you’re not towing, you might want to drive the highway one-way and plan for one night on each side of the highway.
Greenough Lake Campground was beautiful. We had a large site that backed up to a creek and amazing mountain views! It was a great basecamp for us just outside the Beartooth Highway. We did spot bears just outside the campground on multiple occasions, so it’s definitely a place to be bear aware. Check out the Greenough Lake Campground blog post here: Greenough Lake Campground – Miles of Yellow Lines.
