Chief Joseph Highway

After some late evening wildlife viewing in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, we headed back toward Cody via the Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways. The Beartooth begins in Montana's Gallatin National Forest at Yellowstone's northeast gate, immediately passing through the tiny town of Silver Gate and then the slightly more developed town of Cooke City. We didn't stop, but they seem a cute towns driven almost entirely by the tourist economy trickling through this most remote gateway to Yellowstone. The drive then enters Wyoming and the wilderness of the Shoshone National Forest, passing no more towns until Cody (about 80 miles).
The route is a renowned scenic drive, but I'm sad to say that I can't confirm this because the sun set a few minutes before we left Yellowstone, so beyond some scenic mountain silhouettes early in the drive we didn't see much. What I can confirm is that the Chief Joseph Highway has a section that is insanely curvy. The attached map doesn't even do it justice as it has smoothed out a lot of the curves. At several points I glanced at the Garmin to see a route that resembled very closely a small intestine.


The pitch dark along with my level of exhaustion from a busy day exploring the park made the drive a challenge, but I can only imagine what the views must have looked like. I'm putting this drive on my list of things to do again, but the next time during the day.



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Location:Cody, WY