Sight · Beartooth Highway
A 1.3-mile trail walk reaches falls tucked into a rocky gorge.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Beartooth Highway Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Beartooth Highway. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Beartooth Highway audio tourRecorded for this place
West Fork Road: Calamity and Sentinel Falls“You're approaching West Fork Road, the access for the Calamity and Sentinel Falls hike. The trailhead is farther up the valley, with the final five and a half road miles on dirt.”
Plays as you drive up to Calamity Falls in the Parkwolf Beartooth Highway Tour Guide.
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Calamity Falls is a waterfall on the West Fork of Rock Creek, about 1.3 miles up West Fork Trail #1 from its trailhead. Water tumbles among boulders into a small gorge, then breaks into rapids below. Watch for the unsigned side path, about 100 yards long, that leaves the main trail for a closer look; listen for the water as you approach.
Calamity makes a natural turnaround if you want a shorter walk. Stay on West Fork Trail about another half mile and you reach Sentinel Falls, making a longer outing of two cascades on the same creek. The wider trail continues well beyond these falls, so you do not need to follow it to the end to enjoy this stop.
The creek squeezes through the rocks before spreading into whitewater below. The boulders give the falls their shape and break up the flow. For a photo, keep one of them in the foreground and include the water running downstream; that gives the cascade a sense of scale.
The approach follows Rock Creek over rocky ground and through patches of burned forest. West Fork Road leads to the trailhead near Red Lodge, where the Forest Service lists a vault toilet. Carry your own drinking water and food for the walk. The spur is unmarked.
Wildlife
42 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
22 sightingsGray WolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
49 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
122 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
260 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
16 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Beartooth Highway. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingLake Mary Trail #1B11.8 mi · 6 hr · 1.3 mi awayLong West Fork climb to two high lakes above the valley.
ChallengingWest Fork Trail #122 mi · 13 hr · 1.3 mi awayWaterfalls and alpine lakes lead to an 11,045-foot pass.
EasyCalamity and Sentinel Falls Trail4.5 mi · 2.5 hr · 1.3 mi awayTwo waterfalls, a creekside walk, and a long open stretch early.
ModerateQuinnebaugh Meadows Trail9 mi · 5.5 hr · 1.3 mi awayWaterfalls break up the long walk to a flower-filled meadow.
ChallengingCamp Senia Trail #167 mi · 5 hr · 1.3 mi awayA long climb to a high-country junction and wilderness connections.
ChallengingCrow Lake via Camp Senia Trail17.2 mi · 10 hr · 1.3 mi awayA long backcountry climb to Crow Lake's granite cirque.
ChallengingSylvan Lake via Camp Senia Trail20.6 mi · 12 hr · 1.3 mi awayA high-country out-and-back to Sylvan Lake via Camp Senia.
ChallengingEast Rosebud–Camp Senia Trail14.1 mi · 9.5 hr · 1.3 mi awayA hard alpine crossing links West Fork with East Rosebud Campground.Parkwolf’s Beartooth Highway ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
