The Beartooth Highway
Today’s plan was to drive the Beartooth Highway — one of the most celebrated roads in the country. Designated an All‑American Road, it’s earned the highest honor a U.S. highway can receive and is often called “the most beautiful drive in America.” This 68‑mile stretch of U.S. Route 212 winds from Red Lodge to Cooke City, briefly dipping into Wyoming, climbing from roughly 5,200 feet to nearly 11,000 feet at Beartooth Pass. The route delivers alpine scenery that feels more like the Alps than Montana: sweeping tundra, jagged peaks, glacial lakes, and views that seem to stretch forever. More than once, it felt like we’d wandered into a scene from The Sound of Music.
The highway had just reopened on Saturday, 7/11/26, after a surprise July snowstorm shut it down from 7/9–7/10. Since we didn’t want to battle weekend crowds, we waited until today — Monday. And with temps still forecasted in the high 90s, we chose the truck over the bike. We’ve officially become “comfort riders”.
Lynn was up at 06:00 and headed out for a 7:00 a.m. walk — already 68°. A quick 2.1‑mile loop around the campground, no deer today, but she did spot a smoky grey campground kitty who looked very exotic. Kirk was up at 09:00, and after breakfast in the RV, we headed out at 10:40 a.m. The Beartooth Highway is about 45 minutes away, sending us back through Red Lodge, where we’d just been on Saturday.
The drive was gorgeous. Cooler temps at elevation had Kirk wishing we were on the bike — so many curves, pigtails, switchbacks, scenery, and wildlife. Plenty of bikes on the road too, which didn’t help the temptation. But comfort won out. We stopped at several overlooks, admired the snow and wildflowers, and even saw a herd of mountain goats — the babies were ridiculously cute. Then came a parade of Lamborghinis racing down the highway, which was its own unexpected entertainment. And we spotted the same patriotic RV we’d seen on travel day heading into Columbus three days ago.
We reached Beartooth Pass — nearly 11,000 feet — around 1:15 p.m. Then we continued into Wyoming and turned around after reaching the Top of the World Store around 2:00. You can go farther, but we opted to head back. We still had a long drive home and hadn’t eaten yet.
By 3:15 p.m., we rolled back into Red Lodge looking for food and landed at Bogart’s. Chicken wings and pizza — both delicious. The black‑billed magpies were out, loud, opinionated, and beautiful.
By 5:30 p.m., we were back at the RV with a mountain of photos to sort through. Lynn had over 500 on the Canon alone, plus Kirk’s iPhone pics and her own. It took two hours to filter through everything. Lynn also had to deal with the dreaded “Your iPhone Storage Is Almost Full” notification, which paused blogging so she could clear space for future photos.
We took a break at 9:00 p.m. for another beautiful sunset, and Lynn wrapped up the day around 11:00 after finishing photo review.
A day of mountains, wildlife, winding roads, good food, and a perfect sunset — the Beartooth Highway delivered a full Montana experience, and we loved every minute of it.
Weather – High 95*, Low 67*. Winds 4-12/19 mph. No rain, no humidity.
Traffic – None. Beartooth Highway was not bad.
Food – Bogart’s in Red Lodge.
Notable – Beartooth Highway. Beartooth Pass. Goats! Baby Goats! Snow. Wildflowers. Lakes.
