The Beartooth Highway was closed at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday because of snow and extreme conditions at the highest points of the 10,947-foot-high All-American Road.
As of Friday afternoon, the entire 68.29-mile expanse still wasn’t fully open with no estimated time of reopening. That’s because it was still snowing across northwest Wyoming and southern Montana, with no signs of stopping.
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) posted pictures of deep snowdrifts covering the two-lane mountain pass and several inches of fresh snow across the landscape. The agency told tourists traveling between Wyoming and Montana to take the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway to reach Red Lodge, Montana, and beyond.
And, above all else, MDOT posted, “Please do not use map apps.”
Not That Late
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day hadn’t seen any snow totals reported from the Beartooth Highway. Based on pictures and reports out of Yellowstone National Park, he had a reasonable guess of how much snow had fallen at nearly 11,000 feet.
“It's probably in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 inches of snow, with a lot of wind and cold slicking things up,” he said. “There should be a fair amount of wind up there, and it’s chilly enough to make things icy.”
Meanwhile, a Winter Weather Advisory was issued for southern Montana, including the Beartooth Highway, until 9 a.m. Thursday. Additional snowfall of up to 2 inches was anticipated, along with wind gusts as high as 55 mph.
Tourists might be baffled to hit a snow-caused road closure in mid-June, but that’s the reality on the Beartooth Highway. It doesn’t happen frequently, but it does often enough, and sometimes even later in the summer.
“It snows every month of the year up there,” Day said. “I can remember some Fourth of July where they've had snow-related issues on the Beartooth Highway.”
Its Own Climate
Day believes people underestimate the elevation changes they experience when exploring northwest Wyoming. Drivers ascend from 5,200 feet to 10,947 feet in just 12 miles.
The Beartooth Highway sits at the northern edge of the Yellowstone Plateau, a massive landform that covers northwest Wyoming and southern Montana. An area that vast, high, and rugged is its own environment
“If you’re entering from the east, you go from the steppe desert of the Bighorn Basin to the cool, lush forests of Yellowstone, to a high-elevation mountain terrain very quickly,” Day said. “That terrain lifts the atmosphere and makes its own weather.”
It’s not uncommon for people to be driving through triple-digit temperatures in Cody, Greybull, and Lovell only to find snow flurries at the highest point of the Beartooth Highway later that day.
The Beartooth Highway wasn’t the only road closed by snow.
Yellowstone’s Dunraven Pass and Craig Pass, a section of the Grand Loop Road between the West Thumb Geyser Basin and Old Faithful, were closed to all travel on Tuesday night due to winter weather. Both corridors were reopened by 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Then, Craig Pass was closed again at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday due to “adverse road and weather conditions.” The entire park was covered with snow by Wednesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service (NWS) was anticipating snow showers all day Wednesday on the Beartooth Pass, with wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Daytime highs were in the 30s.
While astonishing to many, especially tourists, Day wasn’t surprised to see snow closing the Beartooth Highway. He was reminded how inhospitable the mountains can be, regardless of the season.
“I got a note from a guy who remembers treating people for frostbite in Rocky Mountain National Park in June 1976,” he said. “We tend to get these June patterns, and there’s another one coming.”
Anticipated Closure?
Plowing the Beartooth Highway is handled jointly by MDOT and the National Park Service. Both agencies had plows ready to clear the highway, but it’s still a day-long effort to get the road safe for vehicles, including massive RVs and tour buses.
The road-closing snow on Wednesday was caused by a “cold trough” that moved into Wyoming earlier this week. If that was enough to close the high-elevation highway, Day suspects we aren’t out of the woods yet.
“There’s another one of these coming in over the weekend,” he said. “As we reach Sunday night and go into Monday, they very well might get snowed on again. “
The NWS anticipates a mix of rain and snow showers on the Beartooth Highway starting Saturday and continuing through Sunday. Overnight temperatures could get as low as 28 degrees above 9,000 feet, which is enough to turn rain into snow and ice.
Day isn’t making any promises or predications, but he shared a word of caution. Anyone planning a trek over the Beartooths this weekend might want to reconsider or be prepared to stop, slide, and possibly get stuck.
“That part of Wyoming and Montana is going to be susceptible to cold fronts for another week or so,” he said. “It's going to be really chilly and wet in Yellowstone this weekend, and there’s going to be more weather next week.”
That’s the nature of the beast on the Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone, and northwest Wyoming. When it comes to snow, you’re never really out of the woods, even in summer.
Tourists and residents need to dress and drive accordingly.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
