Red Lodge

History An 1851 treaty confirmed the area as Crow land. Coal was found here in 1866, and an 1880 treaty opened the district to settlement from 1882. The post office opened in 1884, the railway arrived in 1889, and coal shipments began that June. Miners came from Italy, the British Isles, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the town had twenty saloons by 1896. The population peaked at about 6,000 in 1915. The Depression closed many mines, and bootleg liquor sold as "syrup" kept the economy going. Work on the Beartooth Highway started in 1931 and the road opened in 1936. In 1943 an explosion at Smith Mine No. 3 near Bearcreek killed 74 men, the worst coal-mine disaster in Montana's history; there is a memorial in the Red Lodge cemetery. The town was hit hard by the June 2022 floods.

What to See The main street is lined with the brick and stone buildings of the Red Lodge Commercial Historic District, redeveloped since the 1980s for visitors. The Red Lodge cemetery holds the memorial to the Smith Mine victims, and the mine itself was at Bearcreek, east of town. The Beartooth Highway is the main event: 68 miles from Red Lodge to Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance, climbing switchbacks onto the Beartooth Plateau and over Beartooth Pass, which lies across the line in Wyoming. Charles Kuralt called it "the most beautiful drive in America". Allow most of a day for the round trip with stops.

Skiing Red Lodge Mountain sits on Grizzly Peak west of town. The resort lists a 9,416-foot summit, 2,400 feet of vertical, 1,635 acres and 70 runs served by six chairlifts and two surface lifts. For 2026–27 the resort lists opening day as Friday, 27 November. Red Lodge also hosts the national skijoring finals, a race in which a rider on horseback tows a skier through a course. In summer the same country is used for mountain biking, fly fishing on Rock Creek and backpacking in the Beartooths.

Getting There Billings Logan International Airport is about 60 miles away, roughly an hour and a half by car via US-212. From Cooke City and the Northeast Entrance the Beartooth Highway brings you in after about 60 miles, but only in season: it normally opens around Memorial Day weekend and closes in mid-October, and in 2026 it closed for the season on 9 October. Outside that window, Yellowstone is reached by going round through Livingston and Gardiner. Yellowstone charges an entrance fee, and from 2026 non-US residents aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 per person unless they hold an annual pass.

When to Go Late June to mid-September is the best time for the Beartooth Highway, when the high road is open and the long summer days leave time for stops on the plateau. Spring and autumn are quieter, with the risk of the high road closing in a storm. For skiing, the season runs from late November into spring, and the town is at its liveliest during the skijoring weekend. The town's population grows in summer as visitors arrive on the Beartooth.