The Beartooth Highway Is Closing Early for Winter: Your Guide to the "Most Beautiful Drive in America"

Introduction: A Legendary Drive With a Deadline

Some roads give you months of warning. The Beartooth Highway just gave you a day.

The 68-mile ribbon of U.S. 212 over Beartooth Pass — the road the late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt called “most beautiful drive in America” — will close for the winter season at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9, after officials moved the closure up three days ahead of the previously planned date. A storm forecast for the Beartooth and Absaroka mountains left no room for negotiation: snow is coming, and at 10,947 feet, it stays.

The National Park Service lists the Beartooth Highway as a seasonal connection between Cooke City and Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance, and high-elevation routes like this one can always shut early when weather moves in. This time, weather moved in. For anyone who has ever wanted to drive it, the window is either this morning — or next May.

What Happened: An Early Winter Moves Up the Clock

The Montana Department of Transportation had penciled in October 13 for the winter closure of the Beartooth Highway, a seasonal date that was already understood to be weather-permitting. Then the forecast sharpened.

The National Weather Service in Billings called for rain and snow developing Saturday night, snow showers Sunday, and more chances of snow into Monday, with accumulation possible across the high mountains and temperatures dropping hard after an unusually warm start to October. Waiting until October 13 risked stranding drivers — or burying plows. So the call was made: the highway closes at 2:30 p.m. Friday, and it will not reopen to regular vehicle traffic until late spring.

This is the nature of a road that sits nearly 11,000 feet above sea level. The Beartooth is open only about five months of the year, roughly mid-May to mid-October. It climbs from about 5,200 feet at Red Lodge, Montana, to 10,947 feet at the summit — the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies — then descends toward Cooke City and the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Snow is possible in any month; locals describe it as a road where July can deliver sunshine and snowdrifts in the same afternoon.

There's a parallel story playing out across the park boundary: Yellowstone's Dunraven Pass and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway were also slated to wrap their vehicle seasons around October 12. The Chief Joseph route, the lower alternative between Red Lodge and Cooke City via Wyoming 296, generally stays open to wheeled vehicles a few weeks longer — into early November — which makes it the backup plan if you miss the Beartooth window.

The Drive: Red Lodge to Yellowstone, 68 Miles

The classic run starts in Red Lodge, Montana — a former coal town turned mountain town about an hour from Billings — and climbs west to the pass before dropping into Cooke City, the tiny gateway at Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance. (You can run it in either direction; the descent into Red Lodge has the switchbacks that make passengers gasp.)

Without stops, the drive takes about 90 minutes. With stops — and there is no reason to skip the stops — plan half a day.

Don't-miss stops, east to west:

• Rock Creek Vista — the first big reveal on the climb out of Red Lodge, with a sweeping look back over the valley you just left.
• Beartooth Falls — a short walk from the highway to a waterfall that feels like it belongs in a different climate entirely.
• Clay Butte Fire Lookout — a side spur to a 9,811-foot lookout tower with a 360-degree panorama of the Absaroka and Beartooth ranges.
• Island Lake and Beartooth Lake — alpine lakes on the summit plateau, glassy and photogenic, with mountain goats sometimes visible on the rocky slopes above.
• Top of the World Store — the lone outpost at 9,396 feet. The last chance for a snack, a souvenir, and a photo of the elevation sign before the final push.
• Beartooth Pass summit (10,947 ft) — the highest point of the highway, straddling the Montana–Wyoming line. The landscape turns arctic here: treeless, rocky, vast.
• Crazy Creek Falls — a roadside waterfall on the descent toward Cooke City, where the road finally relaxes.

The highway crosses into Wyoming at the summit, so you'll briefly leave Montana mid-drive — one more small delight on a road full of them.

Practical Tips: Driving It Right

This is not a road to improvise. The elevation, the weather, and the lack of services demand a little preparation.

1. Check the status the morning of your drive. Montana's 511 traveler information and Yellowstone's official road-status page are the authoritative sources; closures here move fast.
2. Fuel up in Red Lodge or Cooke City. There is no gas at the top — just the Top of the World Store and a whole lot of switchbacks.
3. Go early in the day. Tour buses own the switchbacks by noon, and afternoon weather builds quickly at altitude.
4. Bring layers and real weather gear. Snow is possible even in midsummer, and temperatures at the summit run far colder than at the trailhead in Red Lodge.
5. Drive defensively. Tight turns, steep drops, limited guardrails in spots, and drivers craning at the views — stay alert, use the pullouts, and keep the right side hugging the mountain.
6. Know the winter rules. The closure is firm until spring; the lower portion of the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway stays open year-round if you need to reach Cooke City in winter.

When to Go

The Beartooth Highway's driving season is short by design: typically mid-May through mid-October, weather permitting. June and July bring wildflowers and lingering snowfields side by side; September and early October trade the crowds for golden light and the first frosts at the summit. After the closure, the road goes quiet until the snowplow crews — who routinely carve through drifts 15 feet deep in the spring — open it again in late May.

If you missed this season, the smart move is to target the other end of it: late May or early June, when the pass has just opened and the summit still wears its winter coat.

The Bottom Line

The Beartooth Highway is a Federal Highway Administration-designated All-American Road, the highest rung of the National Scenic Byways program — a status reserved for roads with features found nowhere else in the country. Kuralt's famous line has been echoing for decades, and the road still earns it: alpine tundra, switchbacks carved into granite cliffs, lakes at the roof of the continent, and a drive that climbs two vertical miles in under 70 miles.

Winter closed the gate early this year. The drive will be waiting when the snow melts. Until then, watch the forecast, plan for May, and remember what every Beartooth veteran knows: the last week of the season is the best and the most uncertain week to be up there. This year, the mountains made the decision for everyone.

More high-country classics: the Old Fall River Road drive guide and the Million Dollar Drive from Silverton to Ouray.