Climate and Weather: Beartooth Wilderness
The Beartooth Range is the second largest contiguous roadless area in Montana, consisting of high granite mountains containing twenty-nine peaks above 12,000 feet. Summers are extremely short at this elevation and snow can cover the peaks on virtually any day of the year. The climbing and hiking season generally occurs during the months of July, August, and September, although some years winter snows don't arrive until the end of October. Intense thunderstorms often occur during summer, and hail and strong winds are not uncommon.
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The east-west aspect of the Beartooth Range means less summer sun, with lingering snow fields, slow runoff, and lots of swampy areas. Due to micro climates, foothills and canyons along the northwest face of the mountains nurture plants unusual to this eastern side of the Continental Divide. Grassy foothills and parks along the north face of the range provide winter forage for elk, deer and bighorn sheep. Granite Peak is the highest elevation in Montana at 12,799 feet. With names such as Avalanche Peak, Glacier Lake, Froze-to-Death, Thunder, and Hell Roaring Plateau, nearby summits reflect the ever-changing moods of this harsh wilderness area.
But none of this should scare you off. As the largest contiguous land mass above 10,000 feet in the United States, the Beartooths provide spectacular vistas of nearby Yellowstone National Park and the Absaroka Mountains to the south. Derived from a Precambrian base, the 4 million year old rocks are among the oldest known on earth. This foundation was covered with thousands of feet of sediments and than uplifted 70 million years ago. Thick ice scoured the southern side of the Beartooth Plateau, leaving a rolling landscape that is a climber's dream.
The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness has more than 640 lakes in the complex and along it's high mountain plateau. With an amazing 386 plant species discovered thus far, the Beartooth's has the richest flora of any mountain range in North America. This may be due to the considerable height of the range in combination with its unusual east-west orientation. With an incredible abundance of water, with three-hundred-foot waterfalls, countless cascades, remnant glaciers on the high north slopes, it is an undisturbed watershed for America's longest un-dammed river, the free flowing Yellowstone.