The Custer National Forest includes a substantial portion of the northeastern corner of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Montana. Some of the forest lies further east, outside of the GYE, in the Pryor Mountains. There are also a number of national grasslands administered by the Custer National Forest. These are mostly former private lands that were given to the federal government or purchased for a small fee back in the dust bowl days of the Great Depression.
The GYE portion of the Custer includes a good portion of the scenic, rugged, cold, harsh, beautiful, and wild Beartooth Mountains -- the highest in Montana. Much of the Beartooth Range is inside the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area .
Custer N.F. boundary sign near the West Rosebud.
Copyright Ralph Maughan
The Beartooth Highway which runs from Red Lodge, Montana southward through the Custer National Forest and over the top of the Beartooth Mountains is regarded as perhaps the most beautiful mountain highway in America. Because of its great elevation and heavy snowpack it is usually open only from mid-June until about mid-September.
The Beartooth Highway near Beartooth Pass, on the
Custer National Forest near Beartooth Pass, Copyright © Ralph Maughan. 
The Beartooth Mountains lie to the south or southwest of the towns of Red Lodge, Nye, Absarokee, Roscoe, and Fishtail, Montana. There isn't much timbering in the non-wilderness portions of the Beartooth, although what does occur is at a loss to the American taxpayer. In fact, the Custer has, historically, lost more per board foot cut, than almost every other national forest.
The northern edge of the Beartooth Mountains contain the Stillwater Complex. This long, but narrow mineralized zone containing the largest known platinum and chrome deposits and the second largest nickel deposits in the United States. A platinum and palladium mine has been developed, the only one in the United States. This is located at the mouth of the Stillwater River Canyon near Nye. A new mine is under construction in the East Boulder River drainage upstream from Big Timber, MT.
The northern edge of the Beartooths -- the Beartooth Front -- is beautiful countryside of rolling hills, shallow canyons, sagebrush, aspen, farms, low mesas, and hogback ridges. The Front is mostly off of the Custer National Forest, consisting of deeded land and scattered parcels of federal BLM land and Montana State land. Many of the wolves reintroduced to the GYE have favored the Beartooth Front, although local ranchers have not been very happy about the wolves' affection for the area.
West Fork of the Stillwater River
Custer National Forest
© Ralph Maughan