Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This store on Cooke City's only paved street, U.S. 212, was built in 1886 to serve miners.
Mineral Mountain
(10,531 ft / 3,210 m) is seen northwest of Cooke City, and
Republic
Mountain
(10,170 ft / 3,100 m) rises to the south. Inquire locally or see the Forest Service
maps for four-wheel-drive roads and hiking trails in the area.
An all-day hike or horseback trip can be made to a famous spot about 12 miles (19 km)
above Cooke City to the north: Grasshopper Glacier, where grasshoppers were frozen into the
ice about three hundred years ago. This glacier has been known and photographed since the
1890s. There are others in the Beartooth Mountains, but no glaciers at all inside Yellowstone
Park today.
Silver Gate,
the smaller and newer town 3 miles (5 km) from Cooke City, was founded
in the 1930s. The architectural standards for the town site require log construction and rustic
architecture.
On the hillsides to the north, you can see how the Storm Creek fire seriously threatened
Silver Gate and Cooke City in 1988. The fierce Clover-Mist fire to the south also dropped
burning embers in the area. A backfire was set, destroying four buildings when it raged out of
control, but in the end, both communities were spared serious damage. A sign along the road
(later removed) was altered by a local wit to read “Cooked City.”
There are several motels and a few restaurants in Cooke City and Silver Gate. The nearest
park accommodations are about 30 miles (48 km) west in the Tower-Roosevelt area.
