Montana • Cooke City • September 2017
Goose Lake:The First Time Up
Bison on the way in, a rocky old mining road up top and camp by an alpine lake. My first trip up the Goose Lake jeep trail, two years before I went back.
The premise
Before There Was a 2019
I’ve already written up Cooke City and Goose Lake in 2019. This is the trip before that one: September 2017, the first time I took the FJ up the Goose Lake jeep trail.
Johnny came along in his 80 Series. I’d met him on the trail a couple of weeks earlier, and he was already back for more.
The FJ was in its early form: lifted that summer, still on the smaller tires, and wearing an orange Tepui rooftop tent instead of the Go Fast Camper that came later.
Getting there
The Long Way In
The fastest way to Cooke City from Bozeman goes through Yellowstone, and Yellowstone charges a toll in bison.
They don’t move for you. They walk down the middle of the road, graze right next to your window, and look at you like you’re the one who’s in the way. Which, to be fair, you are.
Then you roll out the Northeast Entrance and into Cooke City, which is one main street, a lot of log buildings and a mountain sitting right on top of it. Visit Yellowstone Country says that a century and a half ago this was the New World Mining District. The old mining roads are why there’s anything up there for us to drive.
The climb
Up the Old Mining Roads
The Goose Lake trail starts east of town. Visit Yellowstone Country lists the Lulu Pass–Goose Lake Road as passable in late summer with high-clearance vehicles only, and that’s accurate. It starts rocky and stays rocky.
The views start early. Bare, colorful slopes with the old road switchbacking up them, timber below and nothing but big country in every direction.
We stopped on a high saddle to regroup: Johnny’s 80, a second 80 Series, my FJ, a red Discovery and a red 4Runner. The dog did a lap to make sure everyone was accounted for.
The top
Lakes and the Wilderness Line
Up top it opens into granite, meadows and lakes. The road doesn’t go all the way to Goose Lake itself. It stops at the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness boundary, and IH8MUD posters put the lake about a half mile past it on foot. Vehicles stop where the road stops.
Past Goose Lake is Grasshopper Glacier. Visit Yellowstone Country says it’s famous for the now-extinct insects found frozen in the ice in 1914, and one IH8MUD poster describes the hike up as steep but short. I didn’t make the hike this time. Next time.
Camp
Home for the Night
We camped in a meadow right on the water, at what I’m pretty sure was Long Lake. The FJ got the Tepui popped, the 80 got its awning out, and the dogs handled security.
The panorama doesn’t really fit on a phone screen. That’s the point. It didn’t fit in my eyes either.
Know before you go
Know Before You Go
When. Late summer. Visit Yellowstone Country says the road and the Grasshopper Glacier hike are generally passable from late July through August. We went the second week of September and got lucky.
Vehicle. High clearance, good tires and skids. The trail is rocky from the start, and there’s a big boulder climb with a bypass.
Wilderness. Park at the boundary. Walk the rest.
Bison. Give them the road. They’re not moving for you.
Two years later I went back: Cooke City and the Goose Lake Jeep Trail, 2019. And the Lexus did it again in 2023.
More From Goose Lake 2017
Want Your Shots?
Every image is available as a lab print or a full-res download, and as RAW or a custom edit, crop or social version on request. Tell me the car, which photo and what you need.
CALL OR TEXT 406-404-6913
Never Lift.
Drive Fast · Take Chances · Never Lift
