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Beartooth Highway, Montana and Wyoming -
http://www.youtube.c...p;v=VHVvcQ3Oo6E
39 second video ..scenery from 11,000 feet..highest elevation of any US highway I believe -
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general info.
* History
Beartooth Highway weaving its way through the Beartooth Mountains
In August 1872, the pass was crossed by Civil War General Phillip Sheridan and 120 men returning from an inspection tour of Yellowstone. Rather than take the long detour down the Clarks Fork River to return to Billings, Sheridan took the advice of an old hunter named Greer, who claimed intimate knowledge of the Beartooth Mountains. When the road was opened in 1936, it essentially followed Sheridan's route over the pass.
* 2005 closure
Several large mudslides and rockslides on May 19 and May 20, 2005 damaged or destroyed the Montana side of the Beartooth Highway in a dozen places between mile markers 39 and 51. The road was closed for reconstruction, and a $20.4 million construction contract issued which stipulated an October 2005 completion date. Construction was completed ahead of schedule and the road was re-opened.
An estimated 100,000 cubic yards (76,000 m3) of rock were removed from a half-mile (800 m) section of the highway near the top of the switchbacks, and construction crews drilled down to solid bedrock to create new supports for the road.
* 2006 road opening
Repairs to the Beartooth Highway were completed in time to open to traffic for a few short days in October 2005. This All-American Road, which closes each winter because of excessive snow and adverse winter conditions re-opens in May of each year. The section of US Highway 212 from its intersection with the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, (WY 296) to Cooke City and into the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park is usually open to traffic during the first 10 days in May. The entire highway from Red Lodge over the Beartooth Plateau and on to Cooke City has its official opening each year on the Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend.
Edited by hiker, 15 December 2011 - 12:10 PM.
