US Route 212 runs from the Minneapolis area in Minnesota, westward to the northeastern gate into Yellowstone National Park.  It's an important route to rural areas across central Minnesota, South Dakota, and southeastern Wyoming.  The eastern end of US Route 212 is at a freeway interchange with US Route 169 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.  It heads west from there across mainly rural areas in central Minnesota. In South Dakota, US Route 212 roughly splits the northern third of South Dakota from the southern two-thirds.  Continuing westward, it barely clips the northeastern corner of Wyoming before entering southeastern Montana.  It moves through rural areas before joining Interstate 90 into Billings. The last stretch of US Route 212 leaves Billings for areas to the southwest, like Red Lodge and Cooke City.  It winds back and forth across the Wyoming border before committing to a dive into Wyoming to its western endpoint, at Yellowstone Park's northeast entrance.

An older photo of US Route 212 signage once took center stage on this page, but I have replaced that photo with a new and improved photo. The older photo is still viewable, though, but it now appears at the bottom of this page.

My newer photo of US Route 212 shows a trailblazer, viewed by those leaving the route's concurrency with Interstate 90 in Laurel, Montana. US Route 212 shares a long concurrency with Interstate 90 across the emptiness of eastern Montana (and the happening city of Billings). Note that US Route 212 has joined one of the northernmost pieces of US Route 310 southward out of Laurel. In its effort to continue westward toward Yellowstone National Park, US Route 212 is turning off of Interstate 90 toward the south. It joins US Route 310 for a while, but the two routes soon split up, several miles ahead. This photo was taken in September 2025 during a trip involving Washington, Montana, Las Vegas, and Southern California.

My older photo for US Route 212, formerly featured on this page, is a northbound junction marker on Wyoming Highway 296, just southeast of Cooke City, Montana.  Southwest of Billings, Montana, US Route 212 passes through Red Lodge, takes its first dip into Wyoming, comes back into Montana to pass through Cooke City, and turns southwesterly again into Wyoming.  Wyoming Highway 296 meets US Route 212 at a point along its first (eastern) dip into Wyoming.  Though US Route 212 barely spends any time in Wyoming, my US Route 212 photo happens to come from that state.  I took this picture looking to see northern portions of Yellowstone National Park, during one of the sightseeing days of my August 2018 trip, wherein I drove west to Astoria, Oregon via Glacier National Park and drove home via Yellowstone National Park.
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