ive got the week before memorial weekend off.10 days total.i maped out a trip for last summer that never happened.i wanna take hwy 2 from grand forks nd west to glacier park. then follow 20 west through washington to the coast.i just cant imagine im gonna wanna be riding bike through the northern rockies at the end of may.i would expect there to be lots of snow and it being a cold miserable ride.my other option is to go to wyoming and pick up a stocking cap my wife left at my cosins.then head south.try head to southern utah.any body up north in the mountains have any input

 

Going to the Sun Road in Glacier will most likely be closed. I think Southern Utah would be a better idea.

 

Well most of that ride will not be in the mountains. You won't hit the mountains until Glacier NP. But the ride from ND along the high line will be WINDY that time of year.

The roads in Glacier won't be open before Memorial Day, most likely, and sometimes not until a week or two after. If you stick to US 2, you can pop in at West Glacier and maybe see the lake or something.

You will be in the mountains on US 2 when you keep going west past Whitefish and into ID.

WA 20 (North Cascadeds Hwy) is a beautiful ride, even before you get to the Cascades. I used to live in WA and it was one of my favorites. It will spit you on the coast at Anacortes. You should take the time to do a whale watching cruise or take the ferry to the San Juans or something. That area is classic Washington.

The weather in MT and ID that time of year will be windy, cool, and potentially wet. You'll have no big passes except in ID, but a snow shower is not out of the question, even on the high line.

But, if you're prepared for the weather, the riding is fine. Hell, I'm riding now.

Post is you have anymore questions.

 

yea that area kicks *** .in 86 i scuba dove out of oak harbor and anacortis.i was gonna do this last june with my uncle but got laid off.been through glacier before.i rode a bike to the show for this weekend and picked the road king up today.think the high was 32 deg
so if i go to southern utah. im thinking byron wy to rawlins wy to moab ut to page az then home.i know on I-94 the weather can be anywhere from sunnny and 80 to 34 and pouring rain.how about rest of the trip?

 

may might be a bit cool up here yet..April is always iffy.I'm an hour and a half south of glacier,and usually wait till june for any serious road trippin here.I have made trips in april and may,and also hit snow and cold rain.going to the sun road usually opens in may though..weather is nice today,i rode the 30 miles to work a,d will be riding home tonight at midnight.feel free to Pm me when it gets closer to may,I can tell ya what the weather is like around Missoula anyway.

 

I'm not up north, but I am in the mountains (southern Utah). I ride enough in the northern half of the state and in Colorado to be able to guarantee you'll have snow on the ground in lots of higher elevation spots. Even this far south, we will have snow on the ground at elevations of 8000 foot and higher well into May and June. We got a couple inches of snow where I live (6500 feet) just Wednesday night, and at the local ski resort (30 minutes away) they got about 9 inches this week.

Personally, I'd say come south for May. I usually take a trip across southern Utah and into northern Arizona every year in May. I ride back to Oklahoma City to see my pop, and I often run across to Highway 12/14 and then into the Four Corners area before cutting either back south toward Albuquerque, NM, or staying north through southern Colorado (Delores, Durango, and back down toward Santa Fe). My decision is usually made based on the type of weather they are having in either area. The trip across 12/14 in south-central Utah is usually decent, but it will be cold in the higher elevations around Boulder and Tropic. Again, it's all about elevation, so planning the trek across the different mountain ranges is key to keeping out of cold/wet weather.

Also, remember that in the mountains a storm can come up pretty quick. Kind of like the plains storms you may be used too, but only worse. When I was a kid in Oklahoma, you could watch the storms building in the west in the spring and then marching across the plains all day to hit you in the evening. In the mountains, you won't see them until they top the next ridge over from you, and then it's too late. When you're at 10,000 feet, and the clouds are at 9,000 feet, it's hard to see the storm coming. :-)

Now ... with all that said ... there's plenty of places to ride in the norther areas, even in early May. But you need to plan carefully and be prepared. Of course, layering is the key. Even on today's ride (about 150 miles) I went from 6500 feet (37 degrees) to 2000 feet (68 degrees) in just 20 miles, so being to take off and put on layers helps the ride comfort.

 

I would suggest a good set of rain gear if you are coming out through WA. Last year the Northern Rockies did not stop anyone from going the the Vitory Junction Ride that started in WA the first week of May.

 

If your gonna go down through Southern Utah, May is a great time to do it... June and July get crazy hot. Some of those roads you are talking about up north are pretty chilly even in the dead of summer so I can only imagine the frosty finger tips that would come out of a May ride!
If you need some good ride suggestions, PM me or Dan (theblackbastard... see above) and we can help you out.

 

I would suggest staying further south. Northern Rockies will have way to much snow that early yet. But it has been a lower snow year this year so could be different.

 

think we're pretty much doen with snow for this year here,around missoula...also,to see the current status of going to the sun road

http://home.nps.gov/applications/gla...roadstatus.cfm

next couple of days,i'm going to start checking passes for snow ,weather permitting.