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Colter Pass
Colter Pass is on the Beartooth
Highway between Red Lodge and Yellowstone National
Park. Compared with its big neighbor Beartooth Pass,
Colter Pass is just a little hill in the forest.
It is still a superb bikeride with little traffic
and unusual scenery on its eastern side.
Approaches From East. The approach starts at the
junction of three passes, Beartooth Pass,
Dead Indian Pass
and Colter Pass. The strinking image of Pilot Peak
( first picture ) guides up this aproach.
From West. The ride from West Yellowstone
is a short climb in the forest. Cooke City (
second picture ) may look like a regular little
town. However, unlike a regular town, it does not
have a "regular grocery". Residents drive to the
next state, to Cody, to buy their potatoes. Cooke
City does of course have a gas station. It sells
drinking water at a price that is generally
charged for gasoline, and the price of gasoline -
well - luckily that is a matter of passing
interest for cyclists. But if Cooke City residents
want potatoes they must have gasoline, and lots of
it (Aug/2004).
Two or Three Day road Tour. The pass
can be cycled in a circle combined with Chief
Joseph Highway over Dead Indian Pass
and Beartooth Pass,
completing the circle over Wy120 between Cody and
Red Lodge. In order to sleep somewhere halfways
civilized on a three day tour it is necessary to
add on an out and back section to Cody. The other
overnight stop is Red Lodge. A two day version of
this ride, starting in Silver Gate ( located
between Cooke City and West Yellowstone ) and
skipping the detour to Cody, measured 112 miles
over Colter Pass, Dead Indian Pass and Wy120,
between Silver Gate and Red Lodge, 70 miles
between the same endpoints over Beartooth Pass and
Colter Pass again (no measured altitude data
available). It is also described on this page under
the heading "my first Rocky Mountain Pass".  |
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