The United States Congress designated the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in 1978 and it now has a total of 943,648 acres. Spanning the Montana-Wyoming border on the Shoshone, Gallatin, and Custer National Forests, the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness is the juncture of two mountain ranges (Beartooth and Absaroka) with differing geologic types.
The Absaroka Range (prounounced ab-ZORE-kuh, the Crow Indian word for crow) is of volcanic origin, while the Beartooth Range, named for a spike of rock resembling a bear's tooth, is granitic in formation.
The extremely rugged and picturesque topography contains hundreds of lakes, high-rolling plateaus, and deep, glacier-carved valleys. Granite Peak, Montana's highest point at 12,799 feet, is located near the Wyoming-Montana border. This area also is known for several grasshopper glaciers, glaciers containing millions of grasshoppers frozen in ice.
Please view the special regulations associated with Wilderness and always use Leave No Trace techniques to help keep this area wild, clean, and pristine.
- Wilderness.net: Absorka-Beartooth Wilderness.net web page
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