Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge)
Climb · Beartooth
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part of: The highest paved roads in North Americapart of: The vertical kilometre clubpart of: Roads built as statementspart of: When the pass opens
Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge) is a 48.4 km cycling climb averaging 3.4% (+1736 m), rising from 1714 m to 3338 m in Beartooth.
The highest highway point in Montana and Wyoming at 3,337 m, on the Depression-built road Charles Kuralt called the most beautiful drive in America. The spring window after the plows finish but before the gates open has become a tradition, with riders climbing from Red Lodge on a car-free road; PJAMM ranks it among the ten longest road climbs in the United States.
48.4 km · +1736 m · 3.4% avg · ~6.7% max · 1714 → 3338 m · 11 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
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Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 6.7% (km 30.1–30.4).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1729 m | 1.5% |
| 2 | 1749 m | 3.5% |
| 3 | 1769 m | 1.6% |
| 4 | 1792 m | 2.0% |
| 5 | 1810 m | 3.3% |
| 6 | 1827 m | 1.4% |
| 7 | 1856 m | 2.6% |
| 8 | 1880 m | 2.8% |
| 9 | 1910 m | 2.6% |
| 10 | 1929 m | 1.9% |
| 11 | 1939 m | 0.9% |
| 12 | 1950 m | 1.3% |
| 13 | 1969 m | 2.1% |
| 14 | 1986 m | 1.7% |
| 15 | 2020 m | 3.2% |
| 16 | 2052 m | 2.9% |
| 17 | 2099 m | 4.8% |
| 18 | 2137 m | 4.2% |
| 19 | 2199 m | 5.4% |
| 20 | 2243 m | 4.4% |
| 21 | 2284 m | 4.4% |
| 22 | 2337 m | 5.6% |
| 23 | 2392 m | 5.0% |
| 24 | 2432 m | 4.0% |
| 25 | 2467 m | 4.3% |
| 26 | 2518 m | 4.6% |
| 27 | 2569 m | 5.0% |
| 28 | 2619 m | 4.6% |
| 29 | 2667 m | 5.3% |
| 30 | 2707 m | 4.1% |
| 31 | 2757 m | 5.4% |
| 32 | 2808 m | 4.7% |
| 33 | 2848 m | 3.7% |
| 34 | 2901 m | 6.0% |
| 35 | 2943 m | 4.6% |
| 36 | 3014 m | 6.1% |
| 37 | 3066 m | 5.0% |
| 38 | 3109 m | 4.5% |
| 39 | 3140 m | 3.2% |
| 40 | 3189 m | 5.7% |
| 41 | 3245 m | 5.4% |
| 42 | 3278 m | 3.2% |
| 43 | 3323 m | 4.2% |
| 44 | 3299 m | -2.5% |
| 45 | 3242 m | -5.2% |
| 46 | 3223 m | -1.9% |
| 47 | 3268 m | 4.9% |
| 48 | 3307 m | 4.3% |
What it’s like to ride
Out of Red Lodge the road up Rock Creek Canyon barely feels like climbing, with the first 12 km averaging around 2%, before it settles into a steadier 4–5% through the forest. Around 23 km in, the famous switchbacks start: six wide hairpins stacked over roughly 9 km of smooth pavement at a friendly, consistent grade, with the road you have already ridden unspooling in ribbons below and waterfalls dropping off the canyon walls. You break above the trees at about 2,450 m and the rest is open alpine tundra: sheer drop-offs, wind, glacial lakes, the Vista Point overlook at 2,800 m. A second, shorter set of four hairpins and a small dip-and-reclimb come just before the top. The pass itself is 3,337 m, the highest highway point in Montana and Wyoming, and with a third less oxygen up there it is the altitude that hurts, never the gradient (the steepest 400 m touches 10%). There is nothing at the summit: no water, no café, no services anywhere on the climb, so carry everything from Red Lodge and pack a jacket for the cold descent. The road is only open roughly May to October.
History
The road this climb follows, the Beartooth Highway, was a Depression-era project: Red Lodge physician J.C. Siegfried campaigned for a direct route into Yellowstone, Congress's 1931 Park Approach Act supplied the money, and construction ran from 1932 to 1936, costing $2.5 million and two workers' lives before the highway opened on June 14, 1936. CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt later called it "the most beautiful drive in America," and a 54-mile stretch now holds All-American Road status. Snow shuts the road for more than half the year; it usually reopens around Memorial Day, the last route into Yellowstone, and the short window after the plows finish but before the gates open to motor traffic has become a spring tradition, with groups of riders climbing from Red Lodge on a car-free road. A hill-climb race, the Beartooth Blitz, has been run up the pass from Red Lodge, and PJAMM Cycling ranks the ascent among the ten longest road climbs in the United States.
Common questions
- How long and steep is Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge)?
- Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge) is a 48.4 km cycling climb averaging 3.4% (+1736 m), rising from 1714 m to 3338 m in Beartooth.
- Where is Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 6.7%, between km 30.1 and km 30.4 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge) have?
- Beartooth Pass (from Red Lodge) has 11 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.