Beartooth Highway in the opposite direction

After all that wind at the rodeo, a storm blew in the town. We really wanted to ride Beartooth Highway again, but in the opposite direction. But that storm blew in snow. It snowed in Yellowstone and of course at the Beartooth pass. The road over the pass was closed. We went to the rodeo on Sunday and that night the road closed. We were gonna ride again on Monday, but that didn’t happen so since we leave on Wednesday, our only opportunity to ride was Tuesday cross your fingers that the road reopens.

Tuesday morning we got up and the road was still closed. We figured we could at least ride out on chief Joseph and get as far as we can to Beartooth and see if hopefully maybe it opens just as we drive up.

It was a much colder ride than it was last time so not as many photos. We drove through chief Joseph and went into Cook city to stop at the visitor center because the sign showed that beartooth was still closed. The lady at the visitor center said we could get part of the way up the road with no issues as long as we do not cross any barriers we won’t get into trouble. So we headed up Beartooth highway as far as we could go.

We were able to stop at the of the world store which is not the very top of the mountain, but at the bottom of the switchbacks. You could tell that they had been snowed in, because of the storm because the lady that worked at the store was super chatty and was grateful to have somebody to talk to. We warmed up for a bit and then drove a little bit further up Beartooth before we got to the barrier where the road is officially closed.

The lady at the store was telling us that they weren’t able to open the road because the snow machine won’t start so they can’t get the road cleared. She also said that the wall of snow we drove through, with all the wind they had and the rain and the snow they had turned it into a bit of an ice cave. But then the ice cave collapsed. I bet that would’ve been cool to see.

We stopped at one of the waterfalls on the way back and then headed home. It was a cold ride.Read more