The western terminus of Highway 212 is at Tower Junction on the Grand Loop within the Wyoming portion of Yellowstone National Park. Within the park, it is unsigned as a US highway and is contiguous with Northeast Entrance Road, which accordingly ends at the same junction. Highway 212 passes through Cooke City, Montana, then crosses the Wyoming state line and re-emerges into Montana approximately later. The section of Highway 212 between Cooke City and Red Lodge is known as the Beartooth Highway. Rising to an elevation of above sea level at Beartooth Pass, the highway traces the historical route of Civil War General Philip Sheridan over the Beartooth Mountains. In his book "Dateline America" published in 1979, the late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt referred to the highway as "the most beautiful drive in America."