Cooke City is near the southeast corner of Park County, bordered to the south by the
North Absaroka Wilderness within
Shoshone National Forest in the state of
Wyoming, and to the west by the community of
Silver Gate, Montana. The two towns sit in the valley of Soda Butte Creek, which flows southwest into Wyoming to join the
Lamar River in
Yellowstone National Park. The valley is part of the
Yellowstone River watershed.
U.S. Route 212, the Beartooth Highway, passes through the center of Cooke City, leading southwest into Yellowstone National Park, and east over Colter Pass in the eastern part of the CDP to continue southeast back into Wyoming in the valley of the
Clarks Fork Yellowstone River and thence into the
Beartooth Mountains.
Climate Cooke City has a
subarctic climate (
Dfc) or
subalpine climate due to its high elevation at , with only two months averaging above . Summers consist of mild to warm days with crisp, cool mornings, and winters are long and very cold, with many nights falling below zero. Snowfall is abundant, with most of it falling between the months of October to May, though snow does occasionally fall in the months of June and September. Cooke City is listed as the snowiest community in Montana. ==Demographics==