Parking
From the Beartooth Ranger District office, take US 212 south 6.8 miles to the second East Side Road entrance, then continue 0.3 mile to the trailhead on the right. Parking is ample, with limited room for horse trailers.
Overview
About Corral Creek Trail #9
Why go
- Reaches Corral Creek's headwaters and the Line Creek Plateau.
Heads up
- About 3,000 feet of climbing in 4.1 miles; returning to the trailhead doubles the distance.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Beartooth Highway map
Full mapElevation6,401–9,560 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
1 active Beartooth Highway alert
- ClosureBeartooth Highway seasonal closure and falling-rock advisoryBeartooth Highway (US-212) is closed for the season between Cooke City and Red Lodge; do not plan to travel the highway as a through route.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Beartooth Highway Tour Guide
Your drive to Corral Creek Trail #9, narrated.
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 trailhead
Rattin Campground and Corral Creek0:00 / 0:30
“You're nearing Rattin Campground and the Corral Creek trailhead on East Side Road. Rattin has just seven wooded sites beside the Main Fork of Rock Creek, a shaded overnight option about seven miles from Red Lodge.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Beartooth Highway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- A Moving Tube of Sand
- A Moose's Underwater Meal
- Sheridan Campground
- Bear Track Trailhead
- 62 audio storiesacross Beartooth Highway’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf, Bison, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 82 trails, 36 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“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!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Corral Creek Trail #9
A committed climbCorral Creek Trail 9 is a 4.
Corral Creek Trail #9 is a 4.1-mile point-to-point climb from the East Side Road trailhead to the Line Creek Basin Trail #9A junction. The Forest Service lists about 3,000 feet of elevation change. Allow roughly four hours for the one-way climb; returning to the same trailhead makes it an 8.2-mile outing, while #9A continues south if this is one leg of a longer route. This is a hard, high-elevation commitment, not a quick side hike.
From Sheridan Point to the cairnThe trail curves around Sheridan Point toward Corral Creek's headwaters on the Line Creek…
The trail curves around Sheridan Point toward Corral Creek's headwaters on the Line Creek Plateau. From the headwaters it follows a rocky drainage to a five-foot cairn marking the #9A junction. The Forest Service classifies the route as a natural-ground trail. Use the cairn as your decision point: turn back along #9 if you are not continuing south on #9A.
Get to the right entranceFrom the Beartooth Ranger District office, head south on US 212 for 6.
From the Beartooth Ranger District office, head south on US 212 for 6.8 miles and take the second East Side Road entrance. The trailhead is 0.3 mile along the road, on the right; there are two entrances, and the second is the quicker approach. Parking is ample, though space for horse trailers is limited.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Beartooth Highway
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.
