My husband and I will be traveling from Gardner to Billings the first week of September as we travel home to NorthCarolina. Wanted to know if traveling from Gardner driving out of Yellowstone through the Northeast entrance at Cooke City and using the Beartooth Pass hwy to Billings is doable in a day. We won’t be stopping to hike - just photo ops along the way. How much time realistically should I allow?
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
921 posts
Yes, it is doable. We started at Bozeman, entered the park at West Yellowstone, made several stops in the park, and ended up at Red Lodge in one day.
Posted by
Chicagoland
1467 posts
We did the opposite direction several years ago. Left Billings about 9 am, spent some time in Red Lodge, made several stops along the Beartooth Highway, entered the Park and had a picnic lunch, made a couple stops for wildlife spotting, explored around Mammoth Hot Springs a bit and were checking into our motel in Gardiner about 4 pm.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
16381 posts
Yes, definitely doable. Here are the timings:
Gardiner/North Entrance to NE Entrance/Cooke City - 2hr 15 minutes (barring bison jams)
Cooke City to Red Lodge via Beartooth Highway - 2.5-3 hours with some stops for scenery.
- Don’t go by the drive times on any of the online mapping programs. They all underestimate drive times in the park and across Beartooth.
Red Lodge to Billings- about an hour, maybe a little more o
If you’re headed to the airport.
This time of year you need to keep an eye on the weather. I recommend stopping by the Albright Visitor Center in Mammoth the day before you travel and check to see if any winter weather is supposed to move thru overnight.
I would not do this on the same day as a flight. You didn’t mention that, but I thought I’d throw it out there.