A paved road crosses a high plateau under a dark storm, with snow banks and one motorcycle parked at a pullout.
Touring

Beartooth Highway by Motorcycle: Hail at 10,947 Feet

An older rider tells of a June Beartooth Highway motorcycle ride that ended in hail at 10,947 feet, with ride facts from official pages.

By Walt Dunmore

This story is not medical advice. The facts about the road (length, elevation, seasons, services) come from the official sources linked in the post.

The Beartooth Highway motorcycle ride is 68.7 miles of switchbacks and open plateau, climbing to 10,947 feet at Beartooth Pass. In early June it can also hand you warm sun and winter weather in the same morning. Mine handed me hail.

I'm Walt Dunmore. I'm 68, I surveyed county roads for 41 years, and I ride a Gold Wing I call the Wing. I read the Forest Service page the winter before. It said, in plain words, to expect winter temperatures in May and June. I packed for the morning anyway.

I left Red Lodge, Montana, in a vented jacket and summer gloves under a clear sky. By late morning I was parked at the top with hail rattling off the windshield and a stranger holding out a spare pair of glove liners. Then I turned around. This is how that day went, with the road facts checked against official pages, so your day goes better than mine.

Key Takeaways

The Beartooth Highway motorcycle ride starts easy in Red Lodge

The morning in Red Lodge was warm, and that was my first mistake. I ate eggs at a diner counter, topped off the Wing at the edge of town, and checked Montana's road-status map on my phone. It showed the road open. I checked the forecast for Red Lodge too. It said sun. I should have checked the forecast for where I was going.

The plan was simple: ride US 212 to Cooke City, look at the edge of Yellowstone, eat lunch, and ride back. The Federal Highway Administration says to allow two hours to drive it or three to take it in. I gave myself the whole day.

I wore a vented jacket with the liner zipped out and my perforated summer gloves. The heavy gloves sat in the motel room; I had decided on the walk to the bike that I would not need them. The rain jacket rode in a saddlebag, where rain gear lives until the day it is needed.

Switchbacks and Vista Point above Rock Creek

The climb out of Red Lodge is where this road shows its work. The Forest Service says the highway enters the Custer Gallatin National Forest and climbs switchbacks to the Montana-Wyoming state line. I counted turns for a while and then quit, which is a bad sign in a surveyor.

I look at how a road meets a mountain, and this one felt patient. I could not feel a sudden pitch anywhere through the Wing. The Forest Service says construction began in 1932 and finished June 14, 1936, and I nodded to whoever drew it, inside my helmet where nobody could see.

I pulled in at Vista Point, which the Forest Service puts 18.9 miles south of Red Lodge. A short trail leads to a platform over the Rock Creek valley, and the agency's sign map lists glacial geology displays there. My trip meter matched the 18.9 to the tenth, and that pleased me more than the view. I stretched my back, the usual ritual at my age, and unzipped the jacket another inch.

Painted view of paved switchbacks climbing a green mountainside in warm morning light, with one tiny motorcycle on a curve

Old snow, wind and a changing sky above Vista Point

Above Vista Point the weather turned before I noticed it. The first sign was old snow in gray banks along the road. I took it for scenery, but it was a forecast: the Forest Service says snow usually stays at higher elevations until early to mid-July.

Somewhere along here the road crosses into Wyoming and Shoshone National Forest. I could not tell you where. I was watching the sky, which had gone the color of a wet slate roof. The Forest Service calls the drive often windy, and the gusts leaned on the Wing hard enough that I gripped tighter than I like. Then the rain started, cold and thin and sideways.

I pulled off at a wide spot and put on the rain jacket. My summer gloves were already soaked, and the vents that kept my hands cool in Red Lodge now let the cold in. I rode on slowly to the overlook at the top, the next wide place to stop. My fingers were cold but still working the levers, and I meant to be parked before that changed.

Hail at the top of Beartooth Pass

Two minutes after I parked at the high point, the sky let go. Montana's Yellowstone Country lists the overlook there as the highest point on the highway, at 10,947 feet, and warns that even in summer the stop can be chilly. That is a generous word for what I got.

The hail came sideways, with a sound like gravel thrown at the windshield. It piled white in the pavement cracks, and inside a minute the overlook looked like January. I stood behind the Wing with my back to the wind and my hands jammed in my armpits, like a boy waiting for a school bus. I listened for thunder. None came. That was the first piece of luck I'd had all day. The second pulled in right behind me.

A rider I had never met parked beside the Wing, shook the ice off his helmet, looked at my gloves, and said nothing. Then he opened his tank bag and held out a pair of thin glove liners.

"Those are summer gloves," he said.

"I know," I said.

"Wear these under them. Give them back when you're warm."

They were thin fleece, and I had no business being so grateful for something that small. Within ten minutes I could feel my fingers again, and I decided thin fleece was the best thing anyone had ever handed me on a mountain.

A turnaround at 10,947 feet

I turned around at the top, and deciding took me longer than it should have. The hail quit after about twenty minutes. The rain did not. The road ahead ran on across the plateau toward Cooke City, open to the wind and to whatever else the sky had saved up. Behind me was the way I knew.

In my working years I would have told any crew that a job you cannot finish safely gets rescheduled. I never once said it to myself. I stood there in borrowed liners with my pride and my Wing, and the pride weighed more.

The other rider did not push. He was turning around himself. "I've turned around up here twice," he said. "It's allowed."

Nobody had ever said that to me about a road. I was a little ashamed of how good it sounded. I turned the Wing around, and he pulled out ahead of me, slow.

Painted view of a wet road winding down from a snowy plateau to a misty forest valley, with one small motorcycle

Riding down, and what I will pack next time

Going down, I stayed in a low gear and left a bigger gap behind the other rider than I would on dry pavement. The rain thinned to a drizzle and quit about where the trees came back.

At a wide spot lower down, with the sun out and the road steaming, we stopped. I handed back the liners. He took them, nodded, and rode off. That was the whole conversation, and it was enough.

I ate a late lunch at a diner counter in Red Lodge and watched the mountain sit in the sun, looking innocent. Then I made a list on a napkin. Heavy gloves in the saddlebag, not the motel. Liners of my own. A warm layer under the rain jacket. The jacket within reach. A turnaround time on a strip of tape across the tank bag.

The Forest Service had told me most of that in one sentence: plan ahead and bring warm clothes. I had read it. I had not believed it.

I did not reach Cooke City that day. I rode the part that was mine to ride and came down with all ten fingers working. Next time the heavy gloves ride with me, whatever the morning says.

Ride facts: Beartooth Highway (US 212)

Check the road-status links before you ride, because conditions change.

Fact Detail Source
Route US 212 from Red Lodge to Cooke City, Montana, with a stretch through Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. Forest Service
Length and time 68.7 miles. Two hours to drive it or three to experience it. FHWA America's Byways
High point Beartooth Pass, 10,947 feet. Forest Service
Season Typically the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to mid-October, but a storm can delay the opening. NPS park roads, NPS release, May 2026
Winter closure Montana lists US 212 mileposts 45 to 56 as seasonally closed. Travel is prohibited once it shuts. MDT seasonally closed roads
Speed and vehicle rules None found on the official pages read for this post. Obey posted signs. 511MT, WYDOT 511
Fuel and food The regional tourism board says to fill up in Cooke City if you start there, and that a store with food, fuel and lodging sits about 25 miles east of Cooke City. Confirm its hours. Yellowstone Country
Named stops Vista Point, 18.9 miles south of Red Lodge, milepost 49 on the Forest Service sign map (which counts from the Yellowstone end). West Beartooth Pass Overlook, 10,947 feet. Forest Service Vista Point, sign map, Yellowstone Country
Road status Montana: 511MT. Wyoming: WYDOT 511. Yellowstone: the Park Service road page. 511MT, WYDOT 511, NPS park roads

Practical advice for riders:

More trip-planning notes are on the Hexrider touring blog, the long-distance riding blog and the gear blog.

Questions riders ask about the Beartooth Highway

When is the Beartooth Highway open?

The National Park Service says it is typically open from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to mid-October. The Forest Service gives Memorial Day to October 15, weather dependent. A storm can move those dates: in May 2026 one delayed the opening of the Wyoming section. This post cannot give today's status, so check 511MT and WYDOT 511 before you go.

How long does it take to drive the Beartooth Highway?

The Federal Highway Administration says the 68.7-mile road takes two hours to drive or three to experience. The Forest Service says the often-windy drive takes at least two to three hours, and Montana's Yellowstone Country suggests 3 to 4 hours. Stops and weather add to that.

Is the Beartooth Highway dangerous on a motorcycle?

No official page read for this post rates the road for motorcycles or gives crash figures. The agencies do name the hazards. The Forest Service calls the drive often windy and says to expect winter temperatures and a chance of snow in May and June. The Park Service says to prepare for winter driving conditions and watch for quickly changing weather.

From the Hexrider team

Hexrider sells the Hexcushion, so read this section with that in mind. This story does not involve any product. The Hexcushion is a strap-on seat pad for riders who put in long days: see the Hexcushion product page, the rider reviews and the refund policy.

About this blog

This story is on the Hexrider touring blog; learn more on the about page or reach the team on the contact page.

Sources

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