Way back when, when Kris and I rode chrome laden bikes with lots of rake, fancy paint and raucous exhaust systems, we took a ride to Sturgis South Dakota for the annual Bike Rally. Don't believe that we had our humble roots in cruiser-dom, well, ha! Look at these old photos, taken exactly 10 years prior.
As with many of the most memorable CanyonChasers adventures, this one started out with virtually no planning, and what's more, we didn't even plan on going to The Black Hills when we left home. It wasn't until two days into the trip that we decided to go East instead of our original plan of heading into Northern Idaho.
Our first day of riding was very uneventful. We actually put the bikes on the trailer and loaded the dog into the pickup and took him up to my parents house for the week. Jake would much rather spend time with my dad than be boarded. Sometimes I wonder if Jake would rather hang out with my dad than hang out with us... Anyway, from there we simply ran north to spend our fist night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Since we didn't ride very far, we didn't feel the need for a heavy dinner. So it was wine and cheese on the hotel stoop.
Since we were traveling the week after the big Sturgis motorcycle rally, there were plenty of cruisers out and about as well, providing for some interesting photo opportunities.
The next morning started out as most mornings in Jackson Hole start, with a trip to Jedidiahs Original House of Sourdough[/url] for the best sourdough pancakes the world has ever known. Then it was time to head north into the park. The plan for the day was to ride up into the park, then to Cody, Wyoming where we'd run Chief Joseph Highway, then Bear Tooth Pass before ending up in Red Lodge, Montana for 287 miles or riding pleasure.
we'd heard of the major repaving taking place on the southern route into Yellowstone, but nobody told us it would be quite as bad as it actually was. The lack of asphalt was no big deal, but when it was combined with a constant addition of "dust abatement" from water trucks and so much traffic that we could barely roll in first gear resulted in seriously high engine temperatures and some really exciting slipping and sliding.
After all that traffic and construction it was lunch time and we were fairly tired. So we stopped at the East Entrance Fishing Bridge Gift Shop for some snacks and trinket shopping.
There were still lots of Harley's leaving Sturgis and one local worker came out and asked us if we were on the red bikes. When we said we were he started talking about another red bike parked nearby and how much it reminded him of his Electra Glide. We didn't have the heart to correct him and let him think the Screaming Eagle Ultra Classic was ours. We just hoped that the real owners wouldn't come out and ride away on it before we left.
Once we started on our way out of Yellowstone, the riding immediately got really good. Suddenly there was no traffic to be seen as we made our way East over Sylvan Pass.
Sylvan Pass proved to be a gloriously sweeping mountain pass with the occasional tight corner to help keep you on your toes. They just finished resurfacing this part of the park too, the asphalt was spectacular!
As soon as we'd gotten out the East gate, the road started to mellow out and become a lot more gentle. Within a few more miles, we were passing Buffalo Bill State Park and Reservoir. The last time I'd taken this road was in 1990 when I ride on the back seat of my dads Tour Glide for the 50th year of Sturgis. I'd remembered that as a 17-year old I'd vowed to come back and ride this road on my own bike. Now, 19 years later, it was just as great as I'd hoped it would have been.
We stopped briefly in Cody for gas then north to Chief Joseph Highway where we enjoyed virtually no traffic. Onto Bear Tooth Pass, there was even less traffic than on Chief Joseph. This was a major contrast to our previous years experience on Bear Tooth where we were riding with 10,000 of our closest friends. This year we passed three cars as we crossed the 11,000 foot mountain pass.
Arriving in Red Lodge, we deposited our gear in the hotel room and then wandered into town for dinner. We found ourselves at the
http://www.eatfooddrinkwine.com Bridge Creek Back country Kitchen and Wine Bar. Red Lodge has fantastic eateries since the town was settled mostly by Italians as well as many other European influences. Migrates outnumbered the small coal mining town and resulted in what city records refer to as "riotous and violent living."
I had one of the best tuna steaks I've ever had. Who could have possibly guessed? Great seafood in Red Lodge Montana?
[b-=]Tuesday, August 11=-[/b]
We started out the next morning with a quick stop at a local bakery and Kris started out her tradition of taking photos of me while stuffing my face with sugary foods.
It was also during this breakfast and playing with the Zumo that we decided to revise the entire trip. We had originally planned on riding into northern Idaho to enjoy Lolo Pass and another few roads we'd heard about. However, we thought maybe now would be a good time to head towards the Black Hills of South Dakota. Sturgis had just ended to the masses were all heading to other locations.
It was 70-degrees, sunny and we were quite happy with our new decision while watching weekday morning life in this small, quaint town.
There's a whole lot of flat terrain between us and the Black Hills, it was likely going to be a long day of riding; 350 miles worth... The first few miles seemed to slip by easily. A quick stop in Lowell, Wyoming and we were at the foothills of Big Horn Mountains.
A quick climb off the valley floor and were offered a spectacular view of the desert off to our west. On a clear day I'd swear you could see all the way to California.
We chatted with two older couples from South Carolina. They were quite impressed with the Rocky Mountains, and for good reason. They also took this quick snap of Kris and I.
Back on the road and heading East we were riding the tops of the Big Horn Mountains themselves and while the road was mostly straight, it was also empty and offered mostly stunning views of alpine ecosystems.
It was a spectacular day with perfect temperatures and the riding was just stunning. This is
essenza del motociclismo.
Unfortunately, what goes up... We'd left the lower elevations and their heat while the day was still young, now as we dropped back down the eastern side of the Big Horn Mountains, the temperatures seemed to grow exponentially.
In an attempt to avoid the bleary, dreary freeway system, we took to some secondary roads. WY-14/16 between Sheridan and Gillette. Few places we've been are as desolate as this. We'd ride for 50 miles never seeing another vehicle, passing by towns with names like Recluseand Spotted Horse. Worse than the desolation was the brazillions of grasshoppers that were crossing the roads around us. It didn't take long before both the bikes and us were covered with grasshopper gore.
We stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming to survey the damage. One bird strike...
And the remnants of a brazillion grasshoppers... Gross. But the slime wasn't near as bad as the smell.
Having enjoyed some of the finest cuisine Sheridan has to offer (Applebee's), we only had a few miles of freeway left before we were back onto smaller secondary roads. However, the world was already starting to become greener. Greener, in fact, than I've ever seen it before. The wet spring was still paying dividends.
While the corners were nothing spectacular they were the first corners we'd seen in several hours, but mostly I just like how this photo turned out.
Despite it only being three days since the massive Sturgis rally had ended, motorcycles were a fairly rare site.
Back to our regularly scheduled cornering...
But then we crested a rise and came upon this view; it looks kinda' like mashed potatoes, or something... So... So... Familiar. (Obscure
Close Encounters reference.)
Welcome to "Devils Tower" is the long since cooled core of a volcano, called the volcanic neck, now stands defiant to the Wyoming landscape. The native peoples of the land had much more creative names for the monolithic tower, Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), Bear's House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), Bear's Tipi (Arapaho, Cheyenne) and Tree Rock (Kiowa).
The name Devil's Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition when the interpreter misinterpreted the name to mean Bad God's Tower. This was later shortened to the Devil's Tower. Then shortened even more when it became a national monument and the apostrophe was dropped.
Thanks to our Interagency Recreation Pass, we didn't hesitate to enter the National Monument and take a look-see.
Evening light makes for the coolest photographs.
We don't have these back home, so we were pretty excited to see Prairie Dogs out and about, chattering and eating away.
Whole families of the little dogs were enjoying the evening as much as we were.
At the closest point to the monument, we stopped to put our earplugs back in and get ready for the next leg of riding. I tried to get Kris to throw the bird to let the world know how we feel about RV's that clog our canyons with their gluttonous, gas consuming, exhaust spewing meanderings, particularly when they don't use pullouts to let traffic by. But of course, Kris would not give the salute.
There was more spectacular light as we made our way out of the National Monument. No traffic, great light and lots of wildlife made the ride gleeful.
Motorcycles are cool.
As with most things, the Indian story behind the tower is much more interesting than that silly science stuff; most of the stories involve two young children who are being pursued by a bear until the great spirit takes pity on them and raises the ground beneath them. The bear tries to get at the children from every side leaving huge scratch marks on all sides.
Kris and I leaving Devils Tower behind.
Leaving Devils Tower behind as we made our way towards the next hotel room.
We stopped in Hulett, Wyoming and got the keys for cabin 14, right on the river. We finished off a bottle of wine, watching the cute, little white-tailed deer graze as the sun set. Not bad.
-=Wednesday, August 12=-Before getting on the road, we grabbed a bit to eat at the only eatery that seemed open that morning. The food was, uhm, unforgettable in the sense that either Kris nor I have ever seen so much plasti-cheese in one omelet before. Gross. But there were two gray-beard bikers who were talking about some "ass standing right in the middle of the road begging for food." Kris and I thought that the economic times must be getting bad in South Dakota.
In Spearfish we made a quick stop at a drug store to pick up a few things and that's when we noticed where the stench was coming from. All the dead grasshoppers caked all over our bikes were making for a horrid stench. So we did something that we save for the most extreme situations, we took the bikes to a car wash.
The thing was, this was the best car-wash I'd ever seen, the bikes came out looking show-room clean. Too bad we don't have anything like this back home.
Being in South Dakota, we figured that we'd have to do the American thing and go see Mt. Rushmore. It is, after all, South Dakota's biggest tourist attraction in the entire state. This proved to be a big mistake and a huge disappointment. Mt. Rushmore is a National Monument and is free to the public, but a private company purchased the parking area outside the monument and charged us $20 to park in their garage. That sucked, but they were pretty nasty about the whole thing and the parking attendant made a comment about knocking our bikes over if we didn't fully comply with their guidelines. Not so cool.
Beyond that, there were scads of people, the concession stands were overwhelmed, the kids standing behind the counters looked like they were woefully understaffed. We got an ice cream cone and tried to enjoy the mountain, but found the whole experience to be kinda' lame. As soon as we finished our snack's we returned to the bikes and would discourage anybody from visiting Mt Rushmore if you are in the area. It's just not that worth it and you can see the mountain from lots of other vantage points around the area.
We left Mt. Rushmore and the biggest disappointment of our trip to Iron Mountain Road and the biggest surprise and treat of the entire trip. The road was originally laid out by the governor of the state, Peter Norbeck, who wanted to create a slow, scenic road where visitors could enjoy the area. These bridges are called "pigtails" because the road circles over itself through endless corners that go on and on and on and on. Absolutely perfect riding!
Here's the top of the same bridge from the previous photograph. Like we said, perfect riding conditions!
The road featured more technical corners in one area than we've ever enjoyed, and that's including some really spectacular routes in California. The riding is just brilliant!
We were just not getting tired of this. We found some tiny little county road, and I just took it. More spectacular corners that doubled our way back the head of Iron Mountain Road, so we started the pigtails and the tunnels and the technical brilliance all over again and were very happy to do it.
When Governor Norbeck laid out the road, he aligned several to the tunnels so that they would frame Mt. Rushmore perfectly while you were riding through the area. This is much better than paying $20 to park, listen to kids scream and adults bicker. Much better.