The Beartooth Highway is a real  Montana gem.  It is a crazy mountain road running 68 miles from Red Lodge, over Beartooth Pass (10,947′), to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park at Silvergate.  The Highway opened in 1936 after years of financial wrangling and deal making and became an instant classic.  The Highway is closed from mid-October through mid-May due to heavy snow.  This year’s heavy snows actually pushed back the opening until the second week of June.

The Beartooth Highway plays a prominent role in Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  So much so that it has become a right of passage for many motorcycle enthusiasts during their summer travel, especially during the annual pilgrimage to and from the Sturgis motorcycle ralley.  While I’m not a motorcycle rider, I do put my time in on two wheels in the form of a road bike.  Much more peaceful then the mind-numbing thumping cylinders of a classic Harley, though the pounding of my heart as I try to squeeze out a few extra molecules of oxygen from the rarified mountain air is almost as loud.  So after 16 years in Montana, and living only a couple of hours from Red Lodge, it was about time that I experienced it for myself.    I was in Red Lodge for a meeting on Thursday and Friday, so I was out of excuses.

From the parking lot at Custer County National Forest boundary at 6,400′ you would never guess that 14 miles up the road it is still full on winter.  I came prepared for some cold, though; gloves, hat, and extra vest.  You get about a mile to warm up your legs before the real work begins.  Then it is 13 miles, 5 massive switchebacks, and two + hours of climbing in first or second gear to reach the Beartooth Plateau at around 10,000′.   From there it is still about 900′ of climbing before you reach the pass itself.

I made it up onto the plateau, near where the road makes the right hand turn at the top of the Google Earth image above.  The wind was blowing around 30 miles per hour and the temperature was close to freezing.  My gloves, hat, and extra vest just were not keeping up with the last throes of winter.  Time to turn around.

This last shot is from just before my turn around point.  The snow removal equipment is still staged up here, proving that another storm may come at any time.  Two plus hours up was erased in 40 minutes of downhill, including stops to warm my hands and take some photos.  You must embrace the Zen….