jancien

How long of a drive is it from Yellowstone Lake area or Mammoth area to the Beartooth Highway, and is it more than a days excursion? Is it worth taking the time away from the park to see it?

xanthippe

I believe it is 3-4 hour journey east across the Lamar Valley to where you exit the park. Then it is perhaps another half hour to the beginning of the Beartooth Highway. You need an hour or two to see the scenery of the Beartooth, basically going to the top, walking around a bit, the then driving back down. It would be a long one-day trip from the Mammoth area. It might be better to drive down the Chief Joseph Highway to Cody for the night, where you can see the wonderful Buffalo Bill Museum the next day.

I definitely think it is worth it to drive out of yellowstone to see the Beartooth. Do a little hiking there if you have time.

mmouse52

The Beartooth is definately worth seeing it's a spectacular drive. My opinion would be to go out the east gate to Cody. If you can stop at the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. It's a great place but does take several hours to tour. From Cody take the Chief Joseph Highway to the Beartooth Hwy. From The Yellowstone Lake area to downtown Cody it would be about a two hour drive, then from Cody to reach the Beartooth would take about an hour and that is without stopping at the view points. You can continue on the Beartooth and come back into the park through Cooke City to the Roosevelt area. It would be a long day but I think well worth it. If you have the time to add another day to your trip you could stay overnight in Red Lodge to break the drive. Red Lodge has nice restaurants and shops.

jancien

So what your suggesting is to drive to the Beartooth via Cody, spend the day there, stay in Red lodge for the night, then drive back to Yellowstone via Cooke City the next day?How long does it take to get from Red Lodge back to the Grand Canyon area (where I thought that we would spend the day)? And does it make sense for us to then stay in the Mammoth Hot springs Hotel as previosly planned that night?

mmouse52

I think you would enjoy Cody the museum there is excellent it'a apretty ride out the east gate to Cody the town also has nice shops and restaurants then continue driving The Chief Joseph Highway to Red Lodge stay there overnight next day continue on the Beartooth you'll come back into the park at the northeast entrance near Roosevelt. Looking at the Yellowstone map it's about an equal distance to drive to the Mammoth area or Canyon Village area.

mmouse52

I forgot to answer you question about how long from Red Lodge back to park it probably would take a few hours just to get to park entrance of course that depends on how long you stop at viewpoints. So I would say it could be a half day trip back.

jancien

Thanks so much for all your helpful input. I really appriciate all your ideas. I don't think that we want to go to the museum in Cody. I know that people love it, but our time is limited, and we really want to be outdoors. So, does it make sense to leave Yellowstone lake in the morning, heading toward Cody, drive The Chief Joseph Hwy, to the Beartooth, spend the day seeing all the sights, stay in Red Lodge that night, and then head back to Yellowstone the next morning? Do you guys think that there may be a better way of doing it, or does this sound well planned?

mmouse52

I think your plan to leave Yellowstone area in the morning drive to Cody and continue on Chief Joseph and Beartooth and stay overnight in Red Lodge would be good there are so many viewpoints to stop along the way and it sounds like you may even do some hiking so it could easily take all day.Just keep in mind you could probably do the whole loop and come back into the park. You didn't say what time of year you are planning to travel but if it's summertime you will have a lot of daylight hours it dosen't get really dark until almost 10pm so if you don't mind a long day it may be doable to not stay overnight. Check out these sites www.allredlodge.com and www.byway.org they have good information on the Chief Joseph and Beartooth

BayouGal

That sounds like a good plan. We debated doing the exact same thing or staying in Cody. We stayed in Cody and are so glad we did. The museum admission covers 2 days. We focused our time on the Native American section, which is outstanding, since we wanted get back to YNP in time to soak in Boiling River. Plus, we stop a lot along the way.

We left Canyon (YNP) around 8:30 AM that morning and drove out the east gate (beautiful drive). We spent about an hour in the museum after we'd gotten to Cody around lunchtime (slow going - icy road and construction in mid-Sept). Then we had the most excellent meal of our entire trip at the Wyoming's Rib and Chop House in Cody. We stayed the night at the refurbished Chamberlin Inn, which is right downtown and beautiful. We had a great breakfast at Irma's, spent another hour or two in the museum, then took the Chief Joseph Hwy to Beartooth.

We turned around on Beartooth and headed back to YNP via the northeast gate and headed to Mammoth. We got there in plenty of time to see the elk, check in, and take a dip in the Boiling River.

There are many great stops along these drives. You will enjoy it no matter which route you take.

wtm003

If your night in Red Lodge falls on or between Thursday & Sunday and you are up for something fun & different check out the pig races at the Bear Creek Saloon.

www.redlodge.com/bearcreek/

Very entertaining! The food was also good.

wtm003

I forgot to add - If you want to do any hiking along the Beartooth Highway, pick up a topographic map in Cooke City before heading out. I bought my map after the drive - oh well, at least I'll be ready for my next trip.