Length: 38.7 miles / 62.3 km
Time to Allow: One hour to drive or 1.5 hours to experience the Wyoming part of the Byway
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
Overview:
Designated a National Scenic Byway, the Beartooth Highway has been described by former CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt as ‘the most beautiful drive in America'. Reaching heights of nearly 11,000 feet, this 53.7-mile, 3 hour drive offers skytop views of snowcapped peaks, glaciers, alpine lakes and plateaus. Seasonal.
Since its completion in 1936, the Highway has provided millions of visitors a rare opportunity to see the transition from a lush forest ecosystem to alpine tundra in the space of a few miles. The Beartooths are one of the highest elevation and most rugged areas in the lower 48 states, with 20 peaks over 12,000 feet in elevation. Glaciers are found on the north flank of nearly every mountain peak over 11,500 feet in these mountains.
Recreation opportunities are abundant in the area traversed by the Byway. Visitors can cross-country ski in June and July; hike across the broad plateaus; view and photograph wildlife (Rocky Mountain goat, moose, black bear, grizzly bear, marmots, mule deer); take a guided horseback trip; fish for trout in the streams and lakes adjacent to the Byway; and camp in the twelve National Forest campgrounds in the area. Even when the Highway is formally closed to automobiles, snowmobilers may travel the route and enjoy a spectacular winter wonderland.
Give or take a few, it is 400 miles across Wyoming on Interstate 80. By anybody’s standard that is a solid day’s travel. But hey, don’t just buzz through the state. There is a lot to see and do along the way. So much, in fact, that it’s best done in sections. So instead of hitting Wyoming at Pine Bluffs, putting the cruise control on 75 mph, and blowing out of the state around eight hours later at Evanston, set your sights on just some of the towns.
Begin your trip in Laramie, about 1/4 of the way across. This is cowboy country. read more
Whether you are planning to travel west to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks, or east to Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, and the Badlands of South Dakota, US 14, also known as the Bighorn Scenic Byway, is a great way to go. One of three highways that crosses the Bighorn National read more
