USA 2023, Day 4 – July 2
“Updated in May 2026 with new information about the trip preparation.”
The plan: a pass among the best in the world
There were days on the trip you knew from the very start were going to be special. This was one of them.
The plan was to enter Yellowstone — barely a kilometer from the hotel — and from there head east toward Bear Tooth Pass, at 3,300 meters of altitude. Depending on where you look, it ranks among the top ten motorcycle roads in the United States. Some call it outright the country’s first scenic route.
It opens in June and closes in September. We had to make the most of it.
For reference: the highest passes in Europe — the Col de l’Iseran and the Stelvio — reach 2,750 meters. Bear Tooth beats them comfortably.
Here’s the route
The day dawned completely clear, all blue, without a single cloud. A huge stroke of luck, because at 3,300 meters it’s perfectly normal for a snowstorm to hit in the middle of summer. That day, it didn’t.
The traffic light from hell
Before the wonders, the ordeal.
The previous year, major flooding had forced Yellowstone to close entirely. By the time it reopened, the park had spent time and money restoring it, and there was still construction going on in several spots. At one of them, a traffic light stopped us dead in our tracks.
Fifteen or twenty minutes under the sun, no shade, no shelter, 37 degrees on the asphalt. Our iPhones shut themselves off from overheating. Your boots would leave marks on the asphalt if you pressed down hard.
All we could do was wait. And watch the paving machine crawl along at three kilometers an hour.
Yellowstone, what a marvel
But of course, all this is well and good, but first we had to actually get into Yellowstone. For that you need an annual pass for 80 dollars, and then a reservation for your car or motorcycle, since there’s a daily limit on how many vehicles can enter.
Like anyone who hadn’t been to Yellowstone before, our idea was to see a bear, which is hard, and then get a close look at the bison. There’s also a huge variety of other wildlife, but those were roughly the expectations we had going in, since we weren’t going to do any trails where you truly connect with nature 100%.
JP and I talked a lot about how to describe Yellowstone. It’s something unique and special, and it’s hard to pin down with one adjective. We agreed that “impressive” was a good one, because it is, along with “vast,” since it truly is immense.
The different shades of green are spectacular, along with the endless meadows, canyons, and the countless trails you can walk once you’ve parked the car. There were plenty of people heading off to spend hours lost in Yellowstone’s lush nature.
The bear: 20 meters away, at 9:20 in the morning
Past the traffic light, Yellowstone started to show its good side.
We saw a car stopped on the shoulder. We pulled over to drink some water. The driver was looking through binoculars at something ahead, with the focus of someone who didn’t want to miss the moment.
We asked him quietly what he was looking at.
“A bear. With two cubs. Right up there.”
JP and I looked. Nothing. A hundred meters off, roughly speaking, we couldn’t see a thing.
“No, no. Twenty meters away. Right there.”
And then we saw them. A mother bear with two cubs, calmly eating and wandering around, twenty meters from us. Amazing.
It was 9:20 in the morning. We’d only been riding through Yellowstone for an hour.
Little by little more cars started showing up, photographers with professional gear, curious onlookers. We took our photos and decided to move on. We still had a long way to go.
The bison: they call the shots, we wait
Twenty minutes later, more cars stopped.
JP was riding ahead and braked behind the car in front of him. Bison were crossing right in front of that car. Truly massive. Photos give you a sense of the scale, but it’s only when you have them right in front of you that you really understand you’re in their territory, not the other way around.
I don’t even want to imagine being in that car in front, with a huge bison glancing over at you.
JP and I, on our bikes, a few meters back, trying to enjoy the moment and trying not to think about it too much.
Cooke City and the best espresso of the pass
After the bison, we took the road toward Cooke City. A small town, right before the climb up Bear Tooth Pass begins, with a really cute café where JP declared the espresso quite decent. JP’s word, and he doesn’t get these things wrong.
There weren’t many people around. A 3,300-meter pass scares plenty of people off.
A couple we spoke with confirmed it was worth it. We started climbing.
Bear Tooth Pass: 3,300 meters of reason
It was worth it. Very much so.
There isn’t much more to say about Bear Tooth Pass that the photos don’t already say. At that altitude, in the middle of July, the landscape changes completely. The weather could have too, but that day the sky stayed clear right to the end.
Between the bear, the bison, Cooke City and the pass, time got away from us. Once we’d spent a while at the top, we headed back the same way — the alternate route via Big Timber and Highway 90 was left for another time — stopping again in Cooke City for a second espresso on the terrace.
The right call.
The smoking rocks
Already on the way back to Antler Lodge in Gardiner, JP got sidetracked — as happens to him when something catches his eye — and went off to see some rocks giving off smoke, in a landscape completely different from the one we’d just left.
Yellowstone right up to the very last moment.
It had been a spectacular day. Every goal met, and then some.
📍 Resources and recommendations
🏔️ Yellowstone National Park — Annual pass for 80 dollars. Vehicle reservation required. Worth every cent.
🛣️ Beartooth Highway — 3,300 meters. One of the best motorcycle roads in the United States. Opens June, closes September.
☕ Coffee shop in Cooke City — No confirmed name, but stop at the first one you see. The espresso is a pleasant surprise.
🏨 Antler Lodge, Gardiner (MT) — The perfect base for exploring Yellowstone.
Route from Seattle to Yellowstone and Glacier Park
- 2022 USA, a dream trip … failed!
- USA, a dream trip 2, we did it!
- Seattle (WA) to Walla Walla (WA)
- Walla Walla (WA) to Lochsa Lodge (ID)
- Lochsa Lodge (ID) to Gardiner (MT)
- Yellowstone & Bear Tooth Pass (WY)
- Yellowstone (WY) to Idaho – Irwin (ID)
- Idaho via Salmon on the way to Missoula – Stevensville (ID)
- Idaho to Montana, to Glacier Park – Kalispell (MT)
- Going to the Sun – Glacier National Park (MT)
- Glacier Park (MT) to Colville (MT), riding along the Canadian border
- Highway 20 Along the Canadian Border, heading to Concrete (WA)