Blue Ridge Parkway and Natchez Trace Parkway). The Montana Department of Transportation does maintain its portions in Custer and Gallatin national forests at the east and west ends of the highway, respectively. Neither MDT nor NPS perform snow removal except for once in the spring, typically in May, but sometimes not until June if there has been heavy snowfall. Once the road opens, Beartooth Basin Ski Area opens near the state line at Beartooth Pass, for a short summer-only season that lasts until July. History In August 1872, the pass was crossed by Civil War General Philip Sheridan and 120 men returning from an inspection tour of Yellowstone National Park. Rather than take the long detour down the Clarks Fork Yellowstone River to return to Billings, Sheridan took the advice of an old hunter named Shuki 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 During the spring of 2005, several large mudslides and rockslides on May 19–20 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 however the highway did not reopen for a year. An estimated of rock was removed from a 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. Major intersections Gallery References Current Conditions Montana Scenic Byway: Beartooth Highway National Scenic Byways Project: Beartooth Highway, US Department of Transportation: National Scenic Highways Program. External links Beartooth Highway website Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation, filed under Cody vicinity, Park County, WY: All-American Roads Shoshone National Forest National Forest Scenic Byways Transportation in Carbon County, Montana Transportation in Park County, Montana Transportation in Park County, Wyoming Historic American Engineering Record in Montana Historic American Engineering Record in Wyoming