Beartooth Highway
Switchbacks from Red Lodge up to 10,947 feet at Beartooth Pass, then down to Cooke City and the northeast entrance of Yellowstone. The route crosses into Wyoming and back, so Montana and Wyoming crews plow their own sections and the whole thing only counts as open when both are through.
This year
Live plow-season reports load here. For today's conditions, go straight to MDT's status page.
Conditions change by the hour at 10,947 feet — check MDT's status page before you drive.
The record
Crews aim for the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. A late storm has pushed it into the first week of June more than once.
Will it be open for your trip?
| If your dates start… | The road was already open in | That's |
|---|---|---|
| June 1 | 8 of 9 years | 89% |
| June 15 | 9 of 9 years | 100% |
Odds come from the full record below — past springs, not a promise about this one.
When does Beartooth Highway close?
Mid-October is the target, and a big storm can end the season earlier than that. The winter closure covers the high stretch over Beartooth Pass between Red Lodge and Cooke City.
| If you're driving on… | The road was still open in | That's |
|---|---|---|
| October 1 | 5 of 5 years | 100% |
| October 8 | 3 of 5 years | 60% |
| October 15 | 0 of 5 years | 0% |
Closing dates come from the same record as the openings — the year-by-year table below. Past autumns, not a promise about this one: a single storm can end the season a fortnight early.
Every year on record
| Year | Opened | Closed | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | May 23 | — | The Wyoming section was set to open May 22, but a winter storm held it back a day. | nps.gov |
| 2025 | May 23 | October 3 | MDT shut the pass at noon on October 3 ahead of a blizzard, twelve days short of the usual mid-October target, and it never reopened that fall. | kulr8.com |
| 2024 | June 1 | October 15 | Heavy late-May snow pushed the opening past Memorial Day weekend by more than a week. | nps.gov |
| 2023 | May 26 | — | A late-September storm shut the high section on September 30, and the Park Service named October 9 as the last day of the season. Whether the road reopened in between is not on the record, so no closing date is claimed here. | nps.gov |
| 2022 | June 9 | October 11 | The highway opened for a single day on May 27 before weather shut it again. Record flooding closed it days after the June 9 opening, and it partly reopened June 28. The Park Service's fall notice set the end of the season at October 11. | nps.gov |
| 2021 | May 28 | October 7 | Opened at 8 a.m. on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. The Wyoming section closed for the season on October 7, five days ahead of the planned October 12. | nps.gov |
| 2020 | May 22 | — | Opened on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend even with Yellowstone's north and northeast entrances shut for COVID-19 — cars were let through the park to reach Cooke City and Silver Gate, but not to stop. | ypradio.org |
| 2018 | June 1 | — | Snow on the Wyoming side took Memorial Day weekend off the table; the full highway went through a week late, on the Friday. | yellowstoneinsider.com |
| 2016 | — | October 11 | The Beartooth and Dunraven closed for the season on the same day, which shut the northeast entrance to incoming traffic. No announcement named that spring's opening day, so the opening cell stays blank. | yellowstoneinsider.com |
| 2014 | May 23 | — | Opened with Dunraven Pass on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, which put the whole park loop back in service. | yellowstoneinsider.com |
Why the table stops where it does. Neither MDT nor the Park Service keeps a year-by-year list for US 212 — both publish only the usual window, "the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to mid-October". So this record is put together one announcement at a time, and a season nobody announced stays out of it. That is the ceiling on this road, not a gap waiting to be filled: where the spring or fall announcement named a day, the year is here; where it did not, the cell is blank.
Record drawn from NPS Yellowstone: park roads, opening and closing schedule · NPS Yellowstone: 2026 opening and the storm delay · MDT closure notice: October 3, 2025 · Sheridan Wyoming: the 2025 season ended on October 3 · NPS Yellowstone: 2024 opening · NPS Yellowstone: 2024 season-closing notice · Wyoming Public Media: 2024 winter closure · NPS Yellowstone: 2023 opening · NPS Yellowstone: 2023 season-closing notice · NPS Yellowstone: 2022 opening · NPS Yellowstone: fall 2022 road closures, with the Beartooth's October 11 date · NPS Yellowstone: 2021 opening · NPS Yellowstone: 2021 seasonal closure of the Wyoming section · Yellowstone Public Radio: MDT's 2020 opening · Yellowstone Insider: the 2018 opening slips to June 1 · Yellowstone Insider: the road is open, June 1, 2018 · Yellowstone Insider: Dunraven and Beartooth close for the 2016 season · Yellowstone Insider: Beartooth Highway and Dunraven Pass open, May 23, 2014 · MDT: Beartooth Highway travel information. Years with their own link were taken from that record. Last checked September 4, 2026.
The road itself
The Wyoming stretch carries its own All-American Road designation from 2000, so the road appears twice on the federal roster.
The drive
-
Red Lodge, Montana
The north end. The highway enters the Custer Gallatin National Forest just south of town.
-
Vista Point
The pullout over the main canyon of Rock Creek, before the switchbacks.
-
Montana–Wyoming state line
The road leaves the Custer Gallatin and enters the Shoshone National Forest.
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Beartooth Pass 10,947 ft
The top of the drive, with lakes and pullouts on either side.
-
Cooke City, Montana
Back in the Custer Gallatin, at the door of Yellowstone's northeast entrance.
What's on the road
- The switchbacks above Rock Creek are the picture everyone comes for — the road stacked on itself up the canyon wall.
- Snow stays on the high ground long after the gate opens: the Forest Service warns it usually lingers until early or mid-July.
- May, June and late September into October bring winter temperatures and the chance of snow at the pass, whatever the calendar says.
Nearby: Going-to-the-Sun Road · Sylvan Pass · Dunraven Pass
Beartooth Highway is one of the roads on our scenic byway and seasonal road index — every road here, with its designation, length and winter in one table.
Where these facts come from
- FHWA: America's Byways, the designated roster
- FHWA America's Byways: Beartooth Highway — length and drive time
- USDA Forest Service, Custer Gallatin National Forest: Beartooth Scenic Byway — All American Road
- Montana DOT: Beartooth Highway travel information
Last checked August 25, 2026.
Beartooth Highway: opening and closing questions
- When does Beartooth Highway close for the winter?
- Mid-October is the target, and a big storm can end the season earlier than that. Across the 5 closings on record the gate has gone shut around October 11 — as early as October 3 in 2025, as late as October 15 in 2024. The winter closure covers the high stretch over Beartooth Pass between Red Lodge and Cooke City.
- When did Beartooth Highway close last?
- The most recent closing on the record is October 3, 2025. MDT shut the pass at noon on October 3 ahead of a blizzard, twelve days short of the usual mid-October target, and it never reopened that fall. Every other season we can source is in the table on this page.
- Can you drive Beartooth Highway in winter?
- No. The high stretch over Beartooth Pass between Red Lodge and Cooke City is gated once the season ends, and it stays shut until spring plowing gets through. MDT posts the gate's current state.
- Is Beartooth Highway open right now?
- This page is the season record, not the road's condition this morning. Montana Department of Transportation publishes today's state of the road, and that is the one to check before you drive — conditions turn over in hours at this elevation. For planning: the usual season runs from about May 26 to about October 11.
- When does Beartooth Highway open again?
- Crews aim for the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. A late storm has pushed it into the first week of June more than once. The median of the 9 openings on record is May 26; the earliest was May 22 in 2020 and the latest June 9 in 2022.