Beartooth Pass Tour

The Beartooth Pass drive is widely considered one of the most spectacular mountain roads in North America — a true bucket-list scenic tour. It climbs from the historic western town of Red Lodge, Montana up to nearly 11,000 feet above sea level and then drops toward the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park near Cooke City & Silver Gate.

This is not just a drive — it feels like traveling across another planet. Above tree line you’re in an alpine tundra environment more similar to Alaska than Montana.

What Guests Experience on a Beartooth Pass Tour

Elevation & Landscape

• Start: West Yellowstone (6,667 ft)

• Summit: Beartooth Pass (10,947 ft)

• Over 20 high-alpine lakes

• Glaciers, permanent snowfields (even July & August)

• Mountain goats and marmots commonly seen

Scenic Stops

• Lamar Valley

• Soda Butte

• Shoshone National Forest’

• Absarka Wilderness

• Beartooth Summit

• Rock Creek Vista overlook (the famous postcard view)

• Top-of-the-world alpine plateaus

• Island Lake & Beartooth Lake

• Pilot & Index Peaks

Why It’s Special

Unlike Yellowstone, the Beartooth Highway is not a valley road.
You spend hours above tree line, where:

• Trees disappear

• The air thins

• The horizon stretches 100+ miles

• You can literally stand in snow in midsummer

It is one of the very few roads in the lower 48 where guests experience true alpine tundra without hiking.

 Best Time to Run Tours

• Late May–June: snow walls 10–20 ft tall (very dramatic photos)

• July–August: wildflowers, clear lakes, wildlife

• September: golden tundra colors + far fewer crowds

(Road typically closes mid-October due to snow.)

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