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So last year I had the tremendous fortune to be able to ride from Chicago to Seattle via this route: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SZfgJvceHmNx1LKQ_bxuwW9_BD4&usp=sharing I saw the Badlands, Devil's Tower, rode Chief Joseph Highway & Beartooth Pass, spent about a week hiking in Banff, stopped by Jasper and booked it from there to end with friends in Bellingham. Along the way I met a lot of great people and stayed with some extremely nice people from advrider.com. After my trip was over I flew home from Seattle, leaving my bike with my friends in Bellingham. Now it's time to plan the trip to pick my bike back up and ride it home to Chicago. I'll be leaving from Bellingham on Sunday July 24th, and I have a week to get back to Chicago (back at work Monday the 31st). I would love to have any critiques or advice regarding my planned route back: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1v-1pr79LpLNwTMs8zv7HXBDg3Yo&usp=sharing Right now it's looking something like: Day 1: Take RT-20 east from Bellingham through the Cascades and then head southeast ending up somewhere around the southern Washington/Idaho border. Day 2: Continue on RT-12 through Lolo Pass, ending up around Kalispell on the west side of Glacier Day 3: Cross/explore Glacier via Going-to-the-Sun Road, and see where I end up on the east side of Glacier. Day 4: Try to make it to Red Lodge MT. Day 5: Ride Beartooth Pass (east to west this time!) and then take RT-212 to Tower Junction, and then go south across Mt Washburn to Canyon Village and alongside Yellowstone Lake, continuing via RT-191 to Jackson WY. Day 6: Take RT-191 southeast out of Jackson to I-80, see how far east I can make it. Day 7: I-80 the rest of the way home to Chicago. I'm gonna try to stay with couchsurfers mostly this time, with cheap motels/priceline hotels and maybe a night or two camping if there's an opportune spot with the right weather. Any changes you would make? I'd love to see the Badlands again but I don't think I have the time to head back north that far after going through Grand Teton. Also, any recommendations for specific things to stop and see or do in Glacier or Yellowstone? I won't have too much time to hike this time I don't think, but I don't mind taking little detours. or walking a bit. If the weather looks good, I might add a day staying in Glacier or Yellowstone camping I suppose. Thanks in advance for the help!
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Jul 11, 2016 18:42
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 23:57 |
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That looks like a pretty fantastic trip. Some advice. Day 1: That's a long day out of Bham if you're trying to get to the WA/ID border. Some fantastic riding on 20 between Tonasket and Kettle. Suggest 20-25-23 route. If you're heading past Lewisville/Clarksville, make sure to do Old Spiral Highway; small detour off the main highway. Day 2: If you ride eastbound on Lolo in the AM you will deal with sun in your eyes. Watch out for loving deer. Seriously, take it easy out there, giant hooved rats everywhere. I don't usually have close calls on the bike, but all of mine are right out there near Kamiah. Great Northern Brewing in Whitefish is real good. Day 3: Recommend pushing past Blackfeet nation if you can. Great Falls is totally doable. Day 4: Suggest 89 south out of Great Falls, nice scenery. That whole King's Hill scenic byway is a nice ride. Gets kind of high over that pass, about 7300 feet. Day 5: Traffic is super slow through Yellowstone so it will take forever. If you are trying to do Red Lodge to Jackson, that would be a good opportunity to add a camping day in YS.
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Jul 11, 2016 19:19
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Clutchpuck is bang on. The Sun Road/Logans pass is super scenic but can be insanely congested. To your benefit it looks like you'll not be there on the weekend so it helps, but prepare to take a couple hours to do 40-50 miles. As an alternative to your southern WA route, you might want to consider #2/93 on the north side and skirt the side of lake Koocanusa and get to Kalispell via Libby. The Blackfoot Indian reserve is a disaster. The town of Browning is like it's out of Mad Max Thunderdome. Drunks stumbling around everywhere regardless of time of day, some passed out on the street (seriously) fights on the corner, I just try to avoid it as I get a real bad vibe going through. Fill up in Cutbank if you need fuel. I will also 2nd 89 south of Great Falls towards the Bozeman/Livingstown/Yellowstone area. It's a surprisingly great 1.5-ish hour ride to White Sulphur Springs and they have a decent hot springs place there. The hotel is kind of divey but a good place for a swim and there is a local campground not far from there. I go to Yellowstone all the time and yes, the traffic on the main loop road will be brutal and not enjoyable at all. By all means, if you want to do the tourist thing do it but it will be bad. So if you know that going into it and you're fine with it, all the power to you. slidebite fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 19:51
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slidebite posted:As an alternative to your southern WA route, you might want to consider #2/93 on the north side and skirt the side of lake Koocanusa and get to Kalispell via Libby. I'm headed out there again next month for the Corb Lund Down from the Mountain thing in Eureka. Taking the truck though, it's a brutal 1100 mile weekend with drinking and staying up past my old man bed time in the middle. But yeah the Koocanusa run from Eureka to Libby is cool both ways, I recommend looking out for bighorns and, again, deer on the road. If I were doing that I'd cross the border at Nelway and take the Crowsnest to the Rykerts crossing. clutchpuck fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 20:04
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Also, forgot to mention but if you do stay north in Washington, Hwy 20 in the Okanagan area from Tonasket to Republic and Kettle Falls is also a really nice ride and not heavy traffic. e: If you do make it up to Canada I'm in Lethbridge, AB and might be able to host for 1 night. I have to clear it with Mrs. Slidebite. She got creeped out by the guy who stayed. slidebite fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 20:08
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Thanks so much for all the info everybody! I've adjusted the map according to some of the suggestions. The route I have now has the first two days worth of riding (Bellingham -> Kalispell) at 16.5 hours total, which should be OK split up into two days. I'll be fresh my first day and won't mind 8-10 hours on the road at once each day either. Lolo Pass seems awesome and worth the detour down to the southern parts of those states. Regarding Yellowstone: does anyone have any advice for visiting the park in general? I'm definitely open to alternate roads to skip some of the traffic. I do want to see some of the springs with all the wacky colors but I don't intend to do any day hiking there, and if Old Faithful is gonna take hours to detour and see I will probably skip it. Any other recommended can't miss stops? Also thanks for the potential offer slidebite! I would enjoy goon company but I don't think I will be making it that far north.
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Jul 11, 2016 20:39
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From Pullman, WA take Wawawai Road into Lewiston/Clarkston. It'll drop you off at the bottom of Spiral Highway so you can ride up, turn around and ride back down. There's lots of fun back ways to get south from Kettle Falls and Colville to Pullman but looks like you're pressed for time. Lolo Pass is fun, seconding watching out for deer, especially in the morning and evening. Watch your speed on hills and blind corners.
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Jul 11, 2016 20:51
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No problem. If you are going to do parks on your trip remember to buy the inter-agency yearly pass for the parks so you won't have to screw with it for the rest of your trip. I think it's $80? Regarding Yellowstone, If you want to see any of the pools/springs/geysers you pretty much have to take the main loop road in the heart of the park - there really aren't any alternates. They're all on the west side of the ring from about Norris to Old Faithful area. Bumper-to-bumper RV and bus city in the middle of summer. Sorry. If you are going to do it though, Bozeman is kind of a nice town to spend the night and not that far from the park (1hr?) and it will be 1/3 the price of staying in West Yellowstone or anywhere closer. Gardiner might be a possibility but you might not get any vacancies - it's a pretty small armpit town. West Yellowstone has pretty much nothing but hotels but the place we stayed at in late April for $125 is now $375 per night. If you ARE going to go into the park the must see areas are the Norris Basin and then south of Madison to Old Faithful. That's where Paint pots, Grand Prismatic, Excelsior etc are. Unfortunately you have to bite the bullet and brave the tourists. If you just want to see wildlife and high country, the east side from Gardiner/Mammoth/Yellowstone Canyon are fine but you won't see the springs or geysers. Mammoth is pretty cool though. e: Oh, this is a little thing but just looked at your map. The stretch from the Blackfoot reserve to Great Falls is OK on I-15 if you want to get through ASAP but you might want to consider staying on 89 a bit longer to stay off the super-slab. I-15 is easily 85MPH highway with minimal enforcement, but boring as hell and not much to look at. There is a Minuteman nuclear silo readily visible at the Power overpass/junction that is kind of cool to look at though. Ee: I might have missed it but what are you riding? Also keep in mind that a lot of those areas especially in Northern Washington in the okanagan area and Southern Montana can be very warm during the summer. Borderline oppressively hot at times. slidebite fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 21:03
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Hmm... I will have to figure out if I want to suck it up and deal with tourists to see the geysers. I would probably get a lot of crap for not coming back with pictures of OLD FAITHFUL. Maybe I will ride a long day the day before Yellowstone to try to make it all the way to somewhere like Red Lodge, or maybe I will skip riding Beartooth from east to west. I'll be on my DL650 so it's pretty comfy for long highway days. And yeah, I'm gonna bring a mesh jacket but with some layers and a heated jacket liner for when it's needed.
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Jul 11, 2016 22:58
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Don't do this http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/us/man-falls-into-hot-spring-yellowstone.html?_r=0
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Jul 11, 2016 23:05
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No, don't do that If you're coming in to Yellowstone from the East gate, don't go down to Canyon Village, stay east at Tower Junction and to Mammoth. The distance won't be much of a difference and it's pretty cool to see if you're almost there anyhow.
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Jul 12, 2016 01:27
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If I do Beartooth east to west, I'd be coming into the park via 212 through Tower Junction. Better to head south to Canyon Village and then cut across Norris Canyon road to get to the west side of the loop, right?
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Jul 12, 2016 15:33
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 23:57 |
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"Better" is relative. Better in the sense it might be a bit faster, but you also will miss Mammoth. If that's not important to you, that's fine. You could just as easily hit the loop road west to Mammoth @ Tower Junction, and then just go south from Mammoth as far as you want. Wouldn't ad much, BUT, traffic probably would be heavier on that side than going down to Canyon from Tower. Who am I kidding though, it's going to be heavy either way. Completely up to you and your schedule though. The only thing you would miss doing that is Yellowstone Canyon/falls which are near Canyon village, but I think Mammoth is more impressive than the canyon, but that's just me.
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Jul 12, 2016 21:19
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