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| | | Scenic Driver over Beartooth Pass, WY | | | |
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Scenic Driver over Beartooth Pass, WY
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| Scenic Drive | 147.00 Miles |
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| | Scenic Drive | 147.00 Miles | 9 Hrs | | 16.33 mph |
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| no partners | | This was our first venture out of base camp at the K-Bar-Z guest ranch. The plan was to take a scenic drive on the Beartooth Scenic Byway (HW212) to Red Lodge, MT through the Beartooth Mountains. We had planned to take several side trips along that route to scenic viewpoints and hiking destinations over a period of 4 days. These mountains have intrigued me ever since I first saw photos from that area last year.
Our first side trip off the highway was to Clay Butte Lookout which I was hoping would provide great views into the interior of the Absaroka–Beartooth Wilderness and of several of the hundreds of lakes in the area. Unfortunately, we discovered that the road to the lookout was closed. So, we continued on the highway towards Red Lodge stopping at the Top of The World store so Mrs OH could checkout souvenirs and post cards.
Next was a side trip to Island Lake and the Beartooth High Lakes Trailhead. There was a beautiful view across the lake towards the granite peaks in the distance, but those views were obscured by wildfire smoke. The High Lakes Trail had been top priority on my hiking to-do list and I recommend it for hikers going to this area. Unfortunately, that hiking to-do list had to be scratched for this trip due to my lower back problem. So, no hiking triplogs for this trip, just scenic drive triplogs.
A side note: Our visit to the popular High Lakes TH confirmed one of our reasons for visiting this area. While viewpoint and trailhead parking lots in nearby Yellowstone were filled to over flowing, there were only 2 other cars in the High Lakes TH parking lot.
After enjoying the views at Island Lake, we continued the drive on the Beartooth Highway stopping at several locations to take photos. The highway switchbacks up to Beartooth Pass at 10,947ft where a viewpoint provides amazing views of the rugged mountains and valleys to the west and north. The bear tooth shaped spire, for which the mountains are named, can be seen in the far-off distance. Also seen from this viewpoint is the deep Rock Creek Canyon which has a road up the bottom from its intersection with the Beartooth Highway. It leads to the trailhead for Glacier Lake. This was another drive and hike on our abandoned to-do list which I recommend based on my research for this trip.
From Beartooth Pass, the highway quickly descends in a series of switchbacks into Rock Creek canyon and follows that creek northeast to Red Lodge. We found Red Lodge to be a beautiful small town with a well-preserved old town along the highway. At this point we decided to back track on the Beartooth Highway all the way to Cooke City just outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone Park to have dinner and refuel before returning to the K-Bar-Z guest ranch. We had decided to cut short our planned 5-day exploration of the Beartooths due to my hike ending back problem and the wildfire induced smoky haze which had pretty much destroyed any long distance views of the mountains. |
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