Yeah, the Yodeler in Red Lodge (or wherever--hard to go wrong in Red Lodge). You could also stay in Cooke City, but Cooke City isn't much of a muchness, as my grandfather used to say. You could also cough up the dough and stay at the Jackson Lake Lodge in GTNP. Expensive, but *beautiful*.

You could also stay in Gardiner, MT. It's a bit rough around the edges, but it's right on the Park boundary.

Yeah, so heading down the Beartooth Hwy---same advice. Hit it before 2 pm.

Place to see in the Park: Hayden Valley, Lamar Valley, Canyon, Firehole Falls, Mid Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, Norris Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs, and tons of other stuff.

 

What would the gas station situation be. I plaln on leaving Yellowstone and riding the Beartooth butam worried about having enough gas?

 

No problem, Cooke City to Red Lodge less than a tankfull. Nice watering hole in Cooke City gave us a chip good for a free drink in Red Lodge. Great ride!
Whoever built that road wanted to get to Red Lodge pretty darn bad!

 

There are two gas stations in Cooke City. Another on the Beartooth Hwy once you cross into WY and get off the pass. There are also gas stations in the Park at Fishing Bridge, Canyon, Tower Jct, Old Faithful, and Mammoth (prepare to pay!).

Also a gas station just south of the Park boundary in the no-man's-land between GTNP and YNP at Flagg Ranch. In GTNP, there are gas stations at Jackson Lake Lodge, Moose, and Colter Bay.

In short, plenty of places to get gas. Don't get fooled into thinking it's the wilderness

 

No, it's about getting to Cooke City.

In the summer, the Beartooth Hwy is the only way to get to Cooke City from the eastern side of the Beartooth plateau.

In the winter, Beartooth Pass is closed, which means the only road to Cooke City is in the Park, from Mammoth. And so the Park Service has to plow it, at great expense.

But, it is the only road open in the Park in winter, which means you can see the gazillion animals in the Lamar Valley including the Druid Peak wolves, as you dodge the fuel trucks and UPS vans going to Cooke, that is.

 

But also don't be fooled into thinking you can get gas late at night. Hopefully you'll plan better than I did on my first motorcycle ride to Cooke City. We left home late, kept going when we should have stopped for the night in Jackson, and rolled into Cooke City on fumes. Of course, now I have a 6 gallon tank on a bike that almost never gets less than 40 mpg.

The number of things I did wrong on that trip are too many to count.