Three adults traveling soon to above parks and Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings and destinations unknown from southeast. Entering from east side of Yellowstone as YNP official web site says Bear Tooth Highway is now open. Any must sees...have 16 days to tour.

Booked lodging late so only have a few nights inside Yellowstone. Any suggestons for reasonably priced places to stay?

Thanks.

The Beartooth Highway is still closed and will be all summer.

http://www.mdt.mt.gov/travinfo/beartooth/

You've really passsed along very little information about your 16-day trip. It's kind of hard to give any suggestions with knowing more.

Not sure where on the Yellowstone Offical site you got your miss information but as wtm003 said, the Beartooth Highway is closed to through traffic this year. There are sections that can be driven on but you can not make it from the NE entrance to Red Lodge.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/or...l/roadclos.htm

As Howard mentioned...you didn't give us a lot to work with.

Mesa Verde to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons is over 700 miles and will take two of your 16 days. On the way you could easily go to Moab and visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks OR you could drive the Million Dollar Highway between Durango and Ouray, CO and then a side trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument. You could also see Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.

Save at least 4 days for Yellowstone and 2 days for the Grand Tetons.

Where do you have to travel to get home and is that part of the 16 days?

Utahtea

Thanks for your prompt responses.

As I have not traveled this area before, I went YNP official site and found the following: Due to mudslides in May, US 212 southwest of Red Lodge, Montana did not open to the public Memorial Day weekend as scheduled. Regular updates are available from the Central Federal Lands Highway Division Website. The portion of the Beartooth Highway that connects Yellowstone's NE Entrance to Cody, WY via Chief Joseph Byway opened at 8 a.m. on May 27 as scheduled. Red Lodge, MT is accessible via the Chief Joseph Byway.

Beartooth Highway/Chief Joseph Byway Update
June 24, 2005 (548 KB pdf)


Does this mean it is open to entrance but not from entrance to the interior of the park. When reference is made to Bear Tooth Hwy, where is exactly is this Bear Tooth Hwy? I thought it was from entrance to some interior point. Tour book says it offers great views. Does anyone have an alternate route to suggest? Will visit the site you suggested.

Regarding 16-day trip, two-day drive to get from southeast to the area (four days round trip). We plan aforementioned destinations but the rest is open to suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

Visited the Beartooth Highway site. Thanks. WOW!

We were in that area last week. The Beartooth Highway is still closed and probably will be for quite a while. There are alternate routes from Red Lodge to YNP. We decided to stay in Cody. A good choice for Cody is visiting the Museum (plan on a full day-a 2 day pass is $15 adult). We then went up the Chief Joseph Highway to Cooke City to the NE entrance of YNP. Lots of great views. There is construction about 2 miles outside of Cooke City. Not too bad with probably a 15 minute wait at times.

Thanks Minnie!

I am going to Yellowstone and the Grand T next month and will be staying in Jackson some. I think there are some relatively (for Jackson) cheap places as I recall.