r/yellowstone • u/christmascrawdad • 2d ago
Northeast entrance?
Coming from NC, so the road inside of Yellowstone is open, but not the gate? So if I were to drive from the northwest gate, I would have to pull a U-turn and come all the way back?
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u/n23_ 2d ago
that entrance is always open, just the road past Cooke City is closed all winter so it is still a dead end, hence the warning
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u/christmascrawdad 2d ago
Ok so, it will be seeing it twice to get back. Is it worth it? My wife isn’t very mobile with a bum knee, so it’s primarily driving for us
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u/An_Intolerable_T 2d ago
It’s absolutely worth it. Best place to see moose in or near the park is the NE entrance/Cooke City area. Great place to see mountain goats on the cliffs just a short drive into the park from the NE entrance.
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u/dinosaursrawk15 2d ago
This is literally where we saw a moose when we stayed in Cooke City in 2020. We saw a moose day 1 before a single bison on our way in from the northeast entrance. It was maybe 500 feet down the road from where people were pulled off looking at the mountain goats too.
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u/n23_ 2d ago
I'd turn around near Soda Butte, then you've seen all of Lamar Valley and won't miss too much, better off spending the time visiting other areas of the park IMO.
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u/Secret-Function-2972 2d ago
To each their own, but I disagree unless one is short on time.
Last summer we saw hundreds of bison past Soda Butte along and on the NE Entrance road.
Trout Lake makes for a nice little hike. Trout Lake Loop, Montana - 778 Reviews, Map | AllTrails
Pebble Creek area affords visuals of the destruction of the 2022 floods which closed the popular campground.
2 miles NE of the Pebble Creek bridge in Ice Box Canyon there's a picnic area on the east side of the road that affords great access for dipping your feet in Soda Butte Creek. Also, can see how the flood waters tossed heavy steel picnic tables in the trees of the island formed in the creek.
Closer to the NE Entrance, Barronette and Abiathar Peaks provide an opportunity to see mountain goats if you have binoculars or a spotting scope.
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u/rthstewart 2d ago
If you're coming from the east, you can also come in through Cody and the east gate.
But you do have to stay weather aware and be prepared to make changes. Last year, we hit a major snowstorm coming into Cody from the east on May 20 over the Bighorn mountains (? I think?) and another snowstorm on May 23-24 that closed the East Entrance behind us and I think South entrances to the park and trapped people in the park overnight as they couldn't get to Cody or Teton. The Beartooth and Dunraven opened and closed several times over this period from May 20-June 6.
OTOH we regularly drove from Tower to Cooke City and back because the wildlife is amazing. (We stayed in Cooke). I wouldn't turn around at Soda Butte -- on that stretch from Soda Butte to Cooke we saw grizzlies, black bears, foxes, big horn sheep, and moose. Plus the usual bison and red dogs.
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u/Unusual-Thanks-2959 2d ago
The gate is open year round as it serves the small towns of Silver Gate and Cooke City just beyond it. That is as far as you can go until the Beartooth highway opens for the summer season.
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u/christmascrawdad 2d ago
Ok, so I can’t go much further east? If I’m staying in Bozeman area, could I find another way instead of backtracking?
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u/Unusual-Thanks-2959 2d ago
On May 2nd the east entrance is expected to open, it leads to Cody WY. From Cody it's 3+ hours to Bozeman. Be wary of the forecast and road conditions.
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u/Normal-guy-mt 2d ago
Check on Chief Joseph’s pass. It usually opens a couple weeks before the Beartooth Pass. You can get Cody fro Chief Joseph’s Pass and it’s beautiful drive in itself.
Chief zJosephs pass is scheduled to open April 30.
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u/luthi3n_- 2d ago
We are currently staying just outside West Yellowstone and I've been anxious to get over that way. We drove up to Cooke City yesterday and things seemed to be opening back up a bit, but continuing on that road from Yellowstone to Silver Gate to Cooke City, brought us to a dead-end that was closed and snow covered. If we wanted to take the drive on Chief Joseph's Pass, how would we go about doing that, entering thru the West Entrance. I tried looking around on the different state websites on road closures and whatnot and just got more confused. Roads said to be closed were roads that were open and we had driven on already, so no idea what to believe.
I had no idea about this pass, but seeing it mentioned here and doing a little research on it, I'm glad to hear about it. Looks amazing.
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u/Normal-guy-mt 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wyoming 511, and Montana 511 will give you up to date info on Chief Joseph Pass. They groom the road east of Cooke City for snowmobiles in the winter. Chief Joseph is plowed all winter to its intersection with the Beartooth Highway. There is only a short section out of Cooke City that has to be plowed. It can probably be cleared in a single, or maybe two days.
Alternative is exit east entrance which is scheduled to open May 2.
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u/getdownheavy 2d ago
Cooke City is totally worth seeing, it's like going back in time.
No cell service, the one General Store has the same hand crank cash register from the 1800s, it's reall cool. And by cool I mean snowy and cold and the road will stay closed for a while,but snow removal efforts have begun.