'The most beautiful drive in America' opens May 27

As the first motorists climb their way to the 10,947-foot summit of the Beartooth Highway when it opens at 8 a.m. on May 27, they likely won’t see free booze or a circus elephant.

But for 40 years, Red Lodge boosters put on a party like no other on the west summit of the pass. They called it the Top of the World Bar.

The free booze, donated by Red Lodge bars, was served from a bar carved into a snowbank. Over the years, the entertainment at the bar escalated with an elephant making an appearance in the mid-1980s, can-can dancers kicking their legs in the middle of the road, and Red Lodge resident Ernie Strum riding his white horse around the plateau near the state line between Montana and Wyoming.

Red Lodge still celebrates the opening of the Beartooth Highway, which is usually the Friday before Memorial Weekend, because it means businesses can finally turn a profit. But the Top of the World Bar hasn't served a cold beer since the mid-1980s.

Red Lodge will throw a free party to celebrate the opening of the All American Road on Saturday, May 28, with live music and complimentary snacks from noon to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the Beartooth Ranger District about a mile south of Red Lodge on Highway 212.

“It’s just an electric atmosphere here; you can just feel it,” said Laurel Larson, marketing director of the Red Lodge Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve already had quite a few visitors in town and phone calls, asking when the pass will open.”

Much has been made of CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt’s famous line about the Beartooth Highway being “the most beautiful drive in America.” But it is also one of the most hair-raising passes in the country with an elevation gain of 5,200 feet as the road winds its way 68 miles from Red Lodge to Cooke City. Many of the curves and switchbacks have colorful names, including the Mae West curve.

One of the snowbanks on the west summit is still known to Red Lodge old-timers as the "bar drift" because that was a prime location for the snow bar, said Red Lodge photographer Merv Coleman.

Red Lodge business owners initially came up with the idea to open the snow bar back in 1948, just 12 years after the highway opened in 1936.

The day was always kept secret around Red Lodge because it was supposed to be reserved for the tourists, said Glory Mahan, of Red Lodge.

“If somebody found out it was a great coup for them to get up there first,” Mahan said.

The look of shock on the motorists' faces when they came around a turn and found a party brewing in the middle of nowhere was priceless, Coleman said.

“One year we had the Grizzly Peak Peek-a-Boos, some can-can dancers. I can still remember this guy pedaling his bicycle up the switchbacks and he came around that corner and here were these beautiful women dancing in the road,” Coleman said.

Mahan remembers the year an older gentlemen in a fedora brought his family to the bar.

“It was on his bucket list to see the highway because he had worked on it in the 1930s. He and his family stopped in Cooke City and they told him about the bar. He was so happy to be there, he was crying.”

In the mid-1980s, the Top of the World Bar hosted an elephant which was trucked up the Beartooth Highway from the Red Lodge See 'Em Alive Zoo. Photo by Merve Coleman

Then there were the two years the Red Lodge See 'Em Alive Zoo rented an elephant for the summer and trucked him up to the bar.

“People got out of their cars and saw the pink elephant and thought they’d already been drinking,” Coleman said.

During the 1970s when the Festival of Nations was going strong in Red Lodge, the organizers would ask people with roots in specific countries to place their country’s flag in the snow.

In the mid-1980s, it was decided that it was too risky to serve free alcohol to motorists so the organizers started serving orange juice and coffee instead.

No one remembers an accident or injury at the bar, and even a former Red Lodge police chief would come serve alcohol.

“People just loved it. They would park their cars and come up to the bar just wide-eyed, ‘Do you do this every day?’ they’d ask. There must be a million pictures from people all over the world of the bar,” Mahan said.

So I have 5 days to get there...LOL. Been there a bunch of times during my pre-Freeper days, and I’ll be back, but not in 5 days.

The beauty of that drive is indescribable. Once I saw Billings (Montana) in the posting, I knew it only meant one thing...and I was right.

It is the best stretch of highway, I’ve ever driven…and the family did spend the night before in Red Lodge, Montana. That was back in the ‘80s on a vacation out west from Michigan and we knew absolutely nothing about the highway. WOW! Worth a drive BUMP!

"But for 40 years, Red Lodge boosters put on a party like no other on the west summit of the pass. They called it the Top of the World Bar.

The free booze, donated by Red Lodge bars, was served from a bar carved into a snowbank. Over the years, the entertainment at the bar escalated with an elephant making an appearance in the mid-1980s, can-can dancers kicking their legs in the middle of the road, and Red Lodge resident Ernie Strum riding his white horse around the plateau near the state line between Montana and Wyoming.

Snip

In the mid-1980s, it was decided that it was too risky to serve free alcohol to motorists so the organizers started serving orange juice and coffee instead.

“The enthusiasm for it waned quite a bit,” Mahan said."

Why would the enthusiasm wane?

Been there years ago, shortly after high school graduation. Don’t remember much other than it was cool for a 17- 18 year old on his own a long way from home for the first time. Guess it’s time to go back... Slightly off topic but travel excitement related, look up Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap, NC). Phenomenal driving road, not a lot of “vistas” though.

The beauty of that drive is indescribable.

<><<>><

Agreed.

To the list of the most beautiful drives I’ve been on I would add Glacier National Park’s Going to the Sun road, and Schnebly Hill Road - the back way down into Sedona.

Honorable mention goes to the highway coming down from yellowstone into the Grand Tetons and Jackson.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.