Cooke City is More Unique Than Ever

I fell in love with Montana when I first arrived in Cooke City. I was 18.

Nestled high in the Beartooth Mountains just north of Yellowstone Park, Cooke was miles from anywhere. The closest town, Gardiner, was more than an hour away through the park. Red Lodge, the next closest, was a long drive over the Beartooth Pass. Cody was just a bit more than 80 miles away, but the road to get there was still gravel interspersed with sections of dirt two-track.

It felt very remote.

And still does.

Maybe even more so.

Following the flooding that wiped out roads and bridges in the area on June 13, Cooke wa...