Beartooth is the alternate northern return between Yellowstone's NE Entrance and Red Lodge, MT. It is not on Colter's reconstructed path — but it is one of the most-cited scenic byways in the country, and a defensible auto-route addition for tourism intent. We carry it on the map and name the caveat plainly.
The Beartooth Plateau is country with deep Crow, Shoshone, and historically Sheep Eater (Tukudika) Shoshone use. Tukudika groups had year-round high-country occupation; their presence in the Absaroka-Beartooth complex was systematically minimized by nineteenth-century writers and is now better documented by NPS.
The Beartooth high country was too high and too cold to be a primary trapping zone in the 1807-08 era. The fur-trade economy worked the river corridors below.
US-212 — the Beartooth Highway — climbs from Red Lodge, MT west across the Beartooth Plateau to a maximum of 10,947 ft and drops to Cooke City, MT and the Yellowstone NE Entrance. It was completed in 1936 as a federal works project and is one of the most-photographed alpine drives in the lower 48.
Whether Colter ever crossed the Beartooth at altitude — almost certainly not in a winter traverse, and probably never on foot at all. The route is a modern tourism addition, not a retracement.
US-212 is open seasonally, typically late May through early October. Red Lodge is the eastern anchor; Cooke City the western. The pass closes early in heavy snow years.
Phase 3 target: drone footage from the high plateau; 360° at the summit pullout. Pairing with Chief Joseph for the loop's two scenic-byway return options.
Sources & attribution: US Federal Highway Administration · Montana DOT · NPS