Rock Creek Vista Point

Rock Creek Vista Point is a roadside overlook on US 212, 18.9 miles south of Red Lodge. A hard-surface path leads from the turnout to a platform above Rock Creek Valley, just where the highway begins its steep, winding descent. Give it a few minutes if you're driving the Beartooth; this is one of the route's standout wide-open views.

The large parking lot serves a short paved path to the platform and its interpretive displays. The path's exact length and grade aren't posted, so a hard surface alone doesn't tell you whether it will work for your mobility needs. There are vault toilets, but no potable water or trash service. Bring your water and pack out your rubbish.

The site is day use, open sunrise to sunset, with no fee. Its listed season runs from Memorial Day to mid-October, weather permitting, so plan around the highway's seasonal access.

From the platform, look down to Rock Creek and across to Hellroaring Plateau, with Mt. Rearguard on the skyline. For a photo, keep the creek low in the frame and include a stretch of Beartooth Highway winding across the slopes; both make the valley's depth easier to read.

Rock Creek Valley is a classic U-shaped valley carved by glaciers. The platform gives you a clear view of its broad floor and steep sides, along with the highway cut into the mountain above the creek.

The cliffs show layered ancient gneiss and metasupracrustal rock enclosed among lighter rocks of the Long Lake Magmatic Complex, about 2.8 billion years old. Across the creek, dark marks on the rim of Hellroaring Plateau are abandoned chrome mines.

Visitors often spot chipmunks around the rest area. Keep an eye out while you take in the much bigger view.