Beartooth Highway Opening Delayed By Snow, Should Be Ready Saturday

The Beartooth Highway wasn’t open Friday as scheduled after another snowstorm covered the mountain pass at nearly 11,000 feet with wet, heavy snow. The highway always tries to open on the Friday before Memorial Day—”tries” being the operative word. Plow crews from Yellowstone National Park were still working at West Summit, clearing around a foot of snow Thursday. The National Park Service said it “tentatively” hopes the entire 64 miles will be open to travelers by Saturday morning.

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day thinks that is more than likely. The last week has been eventful for winter weather, but that should not return before Memorial Day weekend ends. “If you’re camping, barbecuing, going to a parade, or driving the Beartooth Highway, the weather is not going to be much of a factor,” Day said. “Some years it is, this year it’s not.”

Wyoming got a lot of snow this week. Over an inch of liquid water fell across southern Wyoming, and as much as 30 inches of snow fell in the mountains. “That wave of precipitation that came through yesterday dropped a goodly amount of snow in the Beartooths,” Day said Friday. The National Weather Service anticipated as much as 15 inches of new snow between Wednesday and Thursday night. The opening delay is not unusual; the highway has been delayed by sudden late-season snowstorms several times over the years, most recently in 2024.

The Beartooth Highway is jointly managed by the NPS and the Montana Department of Transportation. MDOT started plowing from Red Lodge, Montana, to the Wyoming state line in mid-April. The NPS handles the remaining stretch from the junction of Wyoming Highway 296 to the Montana state line. Walt Houghton, maintenance chief of MDOT’s Billings office, said his crew finished the first 20 miles to Vista Point within three days. But even if the highway is bone dry before Memorial Day weekend, it will not open until that Friday. “May 22 is a hard-set date,” Houghton said. “There are quite a few other projects that we need to do to make sure everything’s good and spit-shined for this opening. We will not be opening any earlier than Memorial Day weekend.”

The NPS hopes the Beartooth Highway will be open by Saturday morning, and Day said the weather will cooperate. “Today will be pretty chilly, but tomorrow temperatures are going to ramp up into the 60s and lower 70s,” he said. “By Sunday, we’ll be in the 70s and lower 80s, and Monday might get even warmer than that.” According to the National Weather Service, there is a slight chance of scattered rain and snow showers on the Beartooth Highway Saturday morning, with daytime highs in the low 50s. Sunday brings more scattered showers and thunderstorms with a high of 58. Memorial Day will be mostly sunny with a high near 62.

The rest of Wyoming should be warm and mostly sunny for the three-day holiday weekend, with only scattered late-day thunderstorms Sunday and Monday. “For folks planning activities for the three-day weekend, it’s going to be pretty darn nice other than those late-day thunderstorms,” Day said. If the Beartooth Highway opens, Day issued a precautionary warning for anyone hoping to reach its 10,947-foot summit: “I would plan on mud if you’re going up high. With all these recent weather events, it’s going to be really muddy up there.”