The East Entrance is where the modern auto route enters Yellowstone, and it is the scenic-byway proxy for Colter's Shoshone-River leg west of his Hell. It is not, on its own, a piece of his probable route — but it is the practical place where most summer 2026 visitors will cross from the Cody chapter into the YELL chapter.
The Absaroka front above the East Entrance is country with seasonal use across multiple tribes — Crow, Eastern Shoshone, Bannock — and modern park boundaries do not correspond to historical use patterns. NPS YELL has been formalizing tribal-consultation programs in recent years; co-authored interpretive copy at the East Entrance is a Phase 2 target.
The country immediately west of present-day Cody was peripheral to the main fur-trade transit corridors of 1807-08 (the Yellowstone, the Bighorn, the Snake). It was higher and harder than the river corridors that paid the bills, but it was not unknown country.
Modern US-14/16/20 — the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway — climbs from Cody west up the South Fork of the Shoshone and over the Absaroka to the East Entrance. It is a designated National Scenic Byway and one of the highest-traffic summer entries into Yellowstone. The route does not exactly retrace any 1807 path; it is the modern proxy.
Whether Colter himself entered what is now Yellowstone at all on this leg of the loop is uncertain. He almost certainly cut south through the Absaroka country well below the East Entrance; modern park boundaries are a 1872 artifact, not an 1807 one.
The East Entrance is open mid-May through early November (weather permitting). The closest visitor services are in Cody (50 mi east) and the Pahaska Tepee complex just outside the gate. Inside the park, the Lake Hotel and Fishing Bridge developments are the first major stops.
Phase 3: drone footage along the South Fork; 360° at the gate marker; audio segment linking the Colter's Hell chapter to the YELL chapter.
Sources & attribution: NPS Yellowstone · Cody/Yellowstone Country tourism · Wyoming Scenic Byways