Parking
A trailhead parking point is listed at the western Beartooth Highway access near the Wyoming line. No formal Forest Service trailhead is recorded close by, and the parking area size and capacity aren’t documented.
Overview
About Line Creek Plateau Trail
Why go
- Open tundra and broad Beartooth high-country views
- Can link into the Mount Maurice corridor for a longer traverse
Heads up
- The one-way line ends at a remote junction, away from the highway
- High altitude and little shelter across the plateau
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Beartooth Highway map
Full mapElevation9,403–10,154 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
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 Line Creek Plateau Trail, 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
Line Creek Plateau Trailhead0:00 / 0:24
“You're approaching the highway trailhead for Line Creek Plateau, where the trail crosses open alpine tundra. The full route runs nearly eight miles one way to a backcountry junction, with no road pickup there.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Beartooth Highway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Twin Lakes Trailhead
- Quad Creek Scenic Overlook
- A Pika’s Winter Pantry
- Twin Lakes Overlook
- 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 Line Creek Plateau Trail
What this route isThe 7.
The 7.9-mile one-way Line Creek Plateau Trail starts at roadside access on Beartooth Highway and ends at the junction of Mount Maurice and North Line Creek. It crosses open alpine tundra for broad high-country views. The far end is a backcountry junction, not a road.
Plan the exit firstWith a ride waiting at the junction, allow about five hours for the traverse.
With a ride waiting at the junction, allow about five hours for the traverse. Without a ride, turn around there and retrace the trail: about 15.7 miles total, a much bigger day. Continuing down the separate Mount Maurice Trail to East Side Road makes a roughly 15.9-mile through route and needs its own shuttle plan; that lower trail is not part of the line mapped here.
Walking the plateauThis is native tread, typically 18–24 inches wide, with a usual grade around 8–10%.
This is native tread, typically 18–24 inches wide, with a usual grade around 8–10%. The route stays high, roughly 9,400–10,130 feet, and rolls across open ground rather than climbing to a single summit. Some reports on the longer combined corridor describe rocky, grassy stretches and a faint tread, so don't count on a broad, obvious path all the way across. The open plateau is the draw, but it leaves little shelter when weather changes.
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.
