Oregon, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, etc

[pdedse]

My wife and I have ridden all over the country and Bear Tooth Pass is her favorite road (as close to the Alps as you are liable to find in this country). We stayed at a B&B in Red Lodge (ate at a little Pizza place on Main Street) and the next day made our way back via Chief Joseph Pass. Special country out there.

Glad you listened to Kurt.

Yes, Chief Joseph, that's the one. I don't know the Alps, but, yeah that was a nice recommendation.
Chief Joseph Pass road, thanks Ferret for the name of that turnoff, which I believe was right after these shots...



A little disconcerting, but everybody slows down for them...


On the bridge, looking down to the river, not sure of its name

Looking one way

The other

The rocks

And then long, lovely zig-zags and twistys to climb out of the valley

[pdedse]

Was only a few hundred yards long

Then it was connect with 120 to Cody, 14 to Greybull, and 16 through Ten Sleep to begin ascent of the Big Horn Mts to Buffalo. It was getting late, I had called ahead to Buffalo and had a hotel waiting for me, so I really wanted to push through. Some photos opps before the ascent...

Dawn and dusk light in the desert is always a beautiful thing


The canyon though which 16 passes is beautiful but I was trying to get through the pass and down the other side with as much daylight as possible for I knew the deer would be out. Sure enough, as soon as I lost the last rays, they started popping up along side of the hiway...scary critters, but they seemed content to stay put even as I slowed wayyyy down. Sunset and elevation also made it too cool to continue without pulling out the warm clothes again.


When a few cars passed me 15 minutes later and with light fading, I found it reassuring to closely follow them, hoping that if any deer did freak out it would be in front of them and not me? I saw maybe 20 in less than a half hour, and Buffalo was a welcome arrival. That was quite the detour in the trip!

[Cormanus]

More fantastic pictures. What a great trip so far. Glad Kurt got you to detour.

[Elipten_imp]

The Beartooth pass cannot be beat. Great ride.

[pdedse]

The Beartooth pass cannot be beat. Great ride.

Thanks Elipten, it is indeed spectacular.

Day 3: Billings to Buffalo, WY: 363 miles via Beartooth pass
Day 4: Buffalo to Chamberlain, SD: 496 miles via Devil's Tower, Black Hills and Badlands, below...

I woke up in Buffalo not really knowing what the landscape looked like having arrived at night. Got an early Sunday morning start, on hiway 90 and basically had the pavement to myself. Stopped for no reason other than to appreciate the complete lack of noise other than the wind blowing. Waited about 7,8 minutes for a car to pass...arg, the traffic!!


After Gillette and at Moorcroft, veered north on 14 to finally see the star of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"--Devil's Tower!


Didn't feel the need to pay the park entrance fee to ride around it, so snacking here was good enough


Then it was back to 14 doing an arch to return to 90. In retrospect, I could have headed for Rushmore at Sundance, but I had never been to Sturgis, even though I knew the party was already over. Maybe more motorcycles were around than the average town, but nothing special going on here.


Time to head south for the Black Hills and Rushmore.
Out of Sturgis by 1pm and headed south on Vanocker Canyon Rd. Somehow even with I-phone maps I got mixed up and maybe missed a turn for Rushmore, started heading back to 90 and Rapid City, SD. By this time it was getting quite warm and I started thinking that I'm either going to have time for Rushmore, or the Badlands, but not both, unless I wanted to slow down and spend the night in Rapid City. Between the two, I knew that the Badlands appealed to me more, so I headed east knowing that I left Rushmore for another ride. Within the hills...

The Badlands! A painfull place to visit for those who like taking pictures! Literally, every curve offered up worthy photo opps.
Badlands continued


I went a little photo happy here, but it's a good place to do that. It's about a 40 mile loop from 90 to Badlands and then back, but crazy fun curves and lookouts


A few more shots of the Badlands before heading north back to hiway 90

Another person taking photos to give some perspective


A little closer

And that felt like enough photos, and then it was time to enjoy the curves!

I would have loved to get off 90 and meander through and along the less traveled roads, but I also thought that I wanted to make distance to actually spend some time with my mom and family in different states, so on 90 it was time to get it going, staying about 80-85 for several hours till I reached Chamberlain for the night. Not sure why hotels were expensive there, but the cheapest I could find was around $100. Still, I was happy to have seen what I did and didn't fret about Rushmore.

[Cormanus]

More great photos. Thanks pdedse!

[the Ferret]

Arrgggg last year or year before I blasted right past the entrance to Badlands on my way home. BY your pictures I can see that was a terrible mistake. NOw I have to go back.

[Cormanus]

A bloke would have to visit somewhere that was actually called 'The Badlands', wouldn't he?

[pdedse]

Day 5: Chamberlain, SD to Cedar Falls, Iowa, 463 miles

Early morning hotel breakfast, met a man named Scott who was staying at the hotel, and he told me about the TWO 2013 CB1100s he bought a few months ago, one has 137 miles on it, and the other is still in the crate! That's crazy cool to keep a pristine bike I guess for the ages, but ride that other one! More hiway 90 to cross S.Dakota. One day I'll return to ride SD the right way. Started heading into Minnesota but a large, billowing thunderhead seemed to threaten rain if I kept going east on 90, so I turned south into Iowa. Having spent the first 20 years of my life in Kansas, things were starting to look familiar, but I didn't want to ignore the beauty of the midwest just because I was familiar with it.



There's that rain cloud that looked a lot more threatening 30 miles closer to it north

In Iowa it was go east, turn south, go south, turn east, east, south, south, east...no diagonals! Then I ran into this creek some call the Mississippi

Arrgggg last year or year before I blasted right past the entrance to Badlands on my way home. BY your pictures I can see that was a terrible mistake. NOw I have to go back.

Forgot to mention that at the hotel in Chamberlain, talked to an elderly gent that said that the day before, Sunday, Rushmore was a total zoo with tourists so thick you couldn't move without bumping into someone. I was very happy to have made the "wrong turn" and missed it this trip for the Badlands were much higher on my list. Only thing I would change is to have planned for more time to pack a lunch to take out there, look into to hiking a bit, spend more time out there. The riding there is as fun as the views are good. Yes...go back! : )

A bloke would have to visit somewhere that was actually called 'The Badlands', wouldn't he?

Right?!? One ol' guy was there with a bunch of other elderlys that had arrived by bus, and he was looking out over a viewpoint, and then he exclaimed outloud..."wow, these lands sure are.....Baaaaad!" It sounded so funny, all the folks started laughing at his obvious over the top humor.
Woops! Got ahead of myself...no matter...Day 5 ended in Cedar Falls, and I was catching up to a huge storm late evening as I got within 30 miles. Called ahead to a hotel and the lady receptionist told me to hold off as it was still raining hard. Had dinner at a roadside while the storm advanced to the east and an hour later I got to arrive dry to the hotel. Lady told me to park my bike under the roof where cars pull up to check-in, helped me with my bags to my second floor room, was asking me about my MC trip...nice way to end a long day after staring at the road and clouds all day long.

Day 6 was from Cedar Falls, IA to Champaign, Illinois, where my mom lives: 362 miles

So Day six is where I ran into the Mississippi. Kind of surprised me as much as running into the Mississippi can. I mean that I wasn't really thinking about where I was...you know it's there obviously, but I go to Burlington, IA and there it was. Now the Columbia is nearly my back yard, and I think it's wider while the Mississippi is longer or something like that, but they both are impressive bodies of water.

More shots of the creek



Burlington steeples

[pdedse]

Suddenly, I was in Illinois and Champaign was on the horizon. I had the afternoon to ride what I saw fit, so it was the backroads thru Carman, Stronghurst, Raritan, Macomb and Adair and then 136 (not a good mc road for the asphalt bulges) to Champaign.


I grew up in Topeka, Kansas...did not know there was another one in Illinois!

I really should have visited, but I was getting tired and it was time to visit with my mom.