Kickstands Up!
Before our trip departure, we met several times to plan everything in advance. On August 06, 2017 @ 7:30 AM, both of us had kickstands up and were ready for our exciting trip! Check out the pictures below from our first day of the trip!
Judgement Day
The first day truly was the judgment day for us (especially for me) as we were both anticipating to cover 500+ miles but not having any prior experience riding long distance on my sports bike, I had doubts on whether we can cover that much ground.
But thanks to all the preparations and planning we had done prior to the trip, we managed to cover a little over 700 miles on our first day and we were almost in the middle of South Dakota (close to Chamberlain).
Personally, what really helped me cover so much ground on the first day were the following things (I have to thank my wife for some of the ideas she gave me when we were planning this trip - she is a Physical Therapist so she knows what can help to alleviate back/neck pain):
- Stretch during every fuel stop (occurred every 120-140 miles)
- Back insert that I initially purchased more for safety.
- And, the duffle tail bag that you see in the picture above (this was a perfect addition to assist my lower back!).
- Last but not least was the neck race collar I had on that helped keep my neck steady and provided support.
Point of Interests
We planned to cover the following point of interests along the way to Yellowstone from Chicago.
- Sturgis - the city of Riders
- Mount Rushmore, SD
- Black Hills National Forest, SD
- Badlands National Park, SD
- Devils Tower, WY
- Bighorn National Forest, WY
On our second day, we stumbled upon rock formations called Brule Rock Formation (made of layered sedimentary rock that formed between 20-30 million years ago). Honestly, the pictures you see below doesn't do justice. It is truly spectacular to see this in-person and the beauty of these formations over such a vast amount of land is breathtaking! We stopped here for about an hour and then headed over to Sturgis followed by Mount Rushmore.
Sturgis - City of Riders
As it's been told many times in the past already, Sturgis is a place you have to go if you are either a fan of motorcycles, own one yourself or both. It was a pure coincidence on our part that we managed to plan our trip to Yellowstone during Sturgis rally which is 10 days long that draws in more than 700,000 motorcyclists to this one city in South Dakota that has population of roughly 6000! It was quite phenomenal to see so many motorcycles in the streets within the town.
Black Hills National Forest and Needles Highway
Four words come to my mind when I think about our trip last year for Black Hills: Gorgeous and Adreline Rush! Our timing couldn't be any better when we reached there as the temperature was hovering around 70-80F with the partially cloudy weather. There is a national scenic byway within the national forest that people often times go through but don't know what it's called besides Hwy 87. Trust me, I am speaking from personal experience when we went there and didn't realize until we talked to another motorcyclist that it's famously referred to as "Needles Highway". This route is roughly 14 miles long with handful of single-lane tunnels, curvy roads, and some intense sharp turns that will make you feel like you're at the edge of a cliff and about to fall off!
My friend and I stopped after going through Needles Highway and we both felt that it was an extremely risky route to take as you have to watch out for cars and sometimes pedestrians trying to cross the other side ahead of you (unlike Tail of the Dragon where 90% of the traffic is all motorcycles with zero pedestrians). This leaves you with not much room to maneuver when you know you might be in trouble up ahead but knowing and understanding this left us full of adreline rush when we were there!
With all that said, I think this scenic byway deserves a visit regardless as long as you keep a good distance and enjoy the scenery that it has to offer.
Check out the highlighted route map below:
Bighorn National Forest & Powder River Pass
We took a chance to go through Bighorn National Forest and check out the Powder River Pass that has an elevation of roughly 9,500ft. This was on our way to Yellowstone and roughly 4 hours away from Black Hills. We took the US 16 route that was easily accessible from I-90. It was a fun little layover of couple of minutes along with taking in the natural scenary that this forest has to offer.
What I Learned
Honestly, I was not expecting to write about this trip when Vikash and I decided to travel such long distances on our motorcycles. Both of us learned tremendously from this trip and met so many friendly people along the way! We were both taken back by all the friendly people we came across during our journey that gave us tips and suggestions along with history about the part of the region we were in. It's surprising to see so many folks that are willing to share their stories of their journeys on their motorcycles. We met several individuals who were from New England and had plans to ride all the way to California!
Yellowstone and Glacier National Park
In the next post which will be my third and last post about our journey to Yellwstone, I will cover our trip to Yellowstone itself as well as our trip to Glacier National Park in Montana thereafter.