Full trip details from Dallas, TX to Glacier Park and back to follow. First goal is to ride to Sun Valley, ID via Grand Junction, CO. Will be hitting MT on the 17th of July and will be up in Glacier on the 18th with a stay in Bigfork then back down the valley to Missoula on the 19th! Can't wait! Then then over to Red Lodge, MT via the Pintler Scenic Hwy, then the Bear Tooth Hwy to Yellowstone and Tetons. Then Sturgis. Back home via Cheyenne, WY to Estes Park. Down the front range to Colo Springs then home via Amarillo. 4500+ miles in 14-16 days. Can't wait!

 

Sounds like a great soul cleansing ride. Good luck my friend, be safe.

 

You will live it. I plan on being over there around the same time

 

Just rode through there on our way to Denver from home in Florida on Tuesday. Took the 287 out of Dallas and then the 87 to I24 in Raton. Some beautifull country riding with no cars almost the whole way.

 

I wrapped up a ride through Grand Teton and Yellowstone about 2 weeks ago and the Rockefeller Hwy
between the two is HOSED due to road construction. Expect a huge delay any time you transit that road
and plan accordingly. Both parks are great and well worth any hassle......

 

You may want to go thru Estes Park, over the Rocky Mountain National Park and down into Breckenridge and stay the night. Then get up head south over the other pass that drops you down near the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park in Canon City. (Of note the RGB Park is closed due to the fires last year..) Take 69 south down to Walsenberg (keeps you off 25 until you're closer to Raton).

Our trip last year: http://www.tripline.net/trip/Texas_t...F880506D87C3EB

 

red lodge over bear tooth and then down to cody via chief joseph or red lodge, bear tooth, and cooke city both gets you to yellowstone. i like going thru cody and coming into the middle of the park by the lake...closer to old faithful too.
you could spend your whole vacation in colorado or wyoming or montana or the black hills--lots to see in any of those areas. JMO, but you will not really get to experience all that any of those areas has to offer trying to cover that much ground on one trip. use this trip as a sampler, and go back and spend more time in one or two areas next year.

 

Based upon time constraints put upon us by my riding buddy's birthday we had to cut the Black Hills from this trip. Here is the revised plan. Please make any comments or suggestions. Highlights include: (Million Dollar Hwy (up and back), Sawtooth National Forest (Sun Valley), Going to the Sun Hwy (up and Back), Pintler Scenic Hwy, West Yellowstone to Red Lodge via Bear Tooth Hwy. Red Lodge to Cody, WY via Bear Tooth and Chief Joseph Hwys, Grand Tetons via Yellowstone Park. Map of the route below.

 

Looks good.

I rode the Chief Joseph from Bear Tooth to Cody a couple weeks ago and it's a fine ride.

"Road snakes", those crack-filling tar strips, are much higher in Montana and Wyoming than they are
here in New Mexico and they had a tendency to grab at the front wheel on some parts of the Chief
Joseph. Puckered me up a couple times and made me more cautious about dragging pegs in some turns.

FWIW...

 

Thanks for the feedback and the warning re: the Tar Snakes!