I have a trip planned to ride from Chicago to the Black Hills with my girlfriend on the back of the bike. We will leave Chicago during the middle of July and 7 days later she will be flying out of the Rapid City airport to get home for work. We will have at least 3 full days to ride in the Black Hills area. I have those rides pretty well decided and will be hitting Mt. Rushmore, Custer Park and the loop, Nemo Hwy, Spearfish, Sturgis, Deadwood, Devils Tower and other places in the area. I will be dropping her off at the airport in Rapid City on a Tuesday morning and am trying to decide what I should do with the 5.75 days I will have to get back to Chicago for work on Monday.

I Am considering either spending more days solo in the Black Hills area or doing a loop West through Yellowstone and down into Colorado before heading east and heading back to Chicago. I I appreciate any advice and recommendations about how to spend these 5.75 days. I don't want to race anywhere or feel crunched for time come Saturday or Sunday but I'm not afraid of 400 to 500 mile days.

 

Thats a tough choice. I think I would head down to CO. IMO. Ride around the Rockies and Estes Park. Great riding around there.

 

Went to Yellowstone after Sturgis last year, worth every second to get there. Really amazing place. After that loop up to Glacier National Park, or down to Colorado as described.

Either way will be a great trip.

 

Nearest rooms to YNP could be Cody so figure Black Hills to Cody as one day. Cody to Old Faithful via Cody Canyon is about 100 miles so plan your day accordingly. I'd take Cody to YNP via Chief Joseph Hwy and come in the north side at Cooke City. It's a little longer but on of the 2 best rides in the area, the other being Beartooth. The park is laid out in a big figure 8 so if time permits you can see a lot of the park. I'd exit at Fishing Bridge and through Cody Canyon back. It'll be a big day but doable. Given your time, you might have to pick and choose your stops. Remember it's tourist season and the speed limit in the park is 45 MPH and enforced. If you come up on a herd of bison, don't follow the car ahead of you through. Let him go first and when he's clear you go. If you follow him in, 9 times out of 10 he'll stop in the middle to take a picture from the safety of his car. Hope you have a great trip.

 

Head over to Yellowstone across the Bighorn Mountains. Spend the night in Cody, Wyoming at the Irma Hotel. You are a very short ride to Yellowstone from Cody, but you won't make any high milage days in the Yellowstone area. Beartooth is a good ride. From Cody you can do a nice highway that I haven't done and end up in Red Lodge, Montana. I don't think you will have enough time to do Yellowstone and dip down into Colorado. Just too much to see in Yellowstone and Colorado. As mentioned in the previous post, Chief Joseph Highway is listed as a great ride.

 

Yellowstone and the Beartooth Highway in both directions, then down to Jackson Hole an poke around.

 

You plan on spending 3 days with your gal, might as well go see something new. I would head off to Colorado for the remainder.

 

I went down through Colorado after leaving Devil's Tower. I remember beautiful roads, awesome scenery, but a lot of empty...meaning desolate places. I was with a buddy and that was more fun than doing those very long empty miles solo I think.

 

Sounds like a great trip!


If you have to cut any of those destinations out, I would recommend it be Custer Park. With all the great riding in the area, we were really disappointed by Custer Park.

Beartooth Pass is a must...just outside of Yellowstone.

You can see a few pics we took while there at this link-

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/tri-g...2013-a-33.html

Here's a vid of us going through Beartooth Pass-

 

I rode up to Yellowstone before the rally and then hit Stugis last year when the rally started. As good as riding is around the black hills. I enjoyed Wyoming and Montana and the surrounding areas more.
I was camping most of the time and it got down to the lower 30's a couple of mornings in Jellystone. Be prepared for any type of weather. It seems to blow in fast around there.
I'd ride up from Sturgis up to Yellowstone and ride Jackson Hole and the surrounding areas for as long as I could ride around up there.Then ride back to Chicago. As stated Bear tooth pass and St.Joesph Hiway are awesome. The entire trip was spectacular. I was gonna ride Colorado but decided to ride Colorado some other time.