Kathy and I decided this past winter to take a road trip over the Beartooth Highway and loop through Yellowstone and eventually the Pioneers Scenic BiWay. Neither of us had been over the Beartooth Hwy nor the Pioneers before, so that filled a couple bucket list items. My sister Debbie and her husband Roger joined us for the trip. Skye also came along, we knew we would have some limitations in Yellowstone with her along. We stayed Saturday night at Debbie's & Roger's in Lolo then proceeded to Greenough Lake campground about 11 miles South of Red Lodge on Sunday.
There are 3 campgrounds near the same entrance off the biway; Greenough Lake, Limber Pine & Parkside. There isn't great signage at the turn, just a small sign that says "Campgrounds". They are nice campgrounds and located at the start of the main climb to the pass. We stayed 2 nights. The drive over the pass is well worth it; with great views and opportunities to get out and explore a bit along the route. The weather was very cooperative with lots of sunshine. We even took a hike past Island Lake to Night Lake in the afternoon on the Yellowstone side of the pass. We all agreed that we could have spent another day exploring the area and doing some additional hikes.
The next day we drove back over the pass, through Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks and spending the night at Mike Harris Campground on the other side of Teton Pass; stopping at Canyon Village in Yellowstone to shower and shop. We have all been through Yellowstone a number of times over the years so it wasn't a big deal to just drive through. In retrospect, I would not do this again as we started the day at 8 am and arrived at Mike Harris at 7:30 pm. Way too much driving and really unable to enjoy either park. We were late in the day coming through the Tetons so the sun was really low and the view of the mountains just wasn't the best.
The Mike Harris Campground was also nice and just off the Teton Pass road. The only thing was the road noise early in the morning as people were heading over the pass from Victor to Jackson for work was quite a bit and loud as the campground was located at the start of the main climb to the pass. We did see a moose at the top of Teton Pass chewing on a wooden sign post.
The plan was to stay the next night at one of the campgrounds along the Pioneer Scenic Biway, but we decided to just head to Lolo. I hate to say this but the Pioneer Scenic drive was a bit underwhelming. Granted, it is a nice drive and there are a number of very nice campgrounds along the way, but it would have worked better to start here and end on the Beartooth Highway.
We saw quite a few bicyclist traveling on the route and the road doesn't have a ton of traffic. We stopped in Wisdom and had dinner at Fetty's, a small bar and resturant on the main drag. The food was "outstanding", definitely will stop there again when passing through. Colter and I are planning on climbing the East & West Goat Peaks in the Pintler Wilderness from the East side in September, so we will be passing through Wisdom at that time. Between Wise River and Wisdom we were stopped for about 10-15 minutes as Harley Davidson was filming a commercial for their 2025 Pan American adventure bike, so look for that commercial in the future.
Overall, this was a fun trip but we did way too much driving over a couple days. Skye was such a well behaved dog for the entire trip. Definitely will have to take more time in the future in the Yellowstone and Teton parks.
Stevens Lakes: On Sunday, Skye and I took an afternoon hike into the Stevens Lakes. I was surprised, but not surprised that the trailhead had 7-8 vehicles. The weather was cool with some cloud cover. I met a couple parties coming out of the lakes as I was going in. Skye and I caught up with a guy (Blaine from Iowa), hope that is right, about the creek crossing. He was heading up to do some fishing. We chatted for the rest of the way to Lower Stevens and as Skye and I were having lunch. He is just in the area temporarily for a few months, but has really liked being here. I took some pictures and then headed to the upper lake. No one was at the upper lake so I took some pictures, had a snack and wandered partway around the lake. I headed back down to the lower lake and then back to the trailhead. So overall, I met about 22 people on the trail or at the lakes during the 5 hours I was out.
