I ride nothing but 2 lane twisties at home. In Colorado all I rode except one day going to Pikes Peak were 2 lane twisties. I spent hours sitting idling in many traffic jams in CO also that I never had to do here at home. I haven't ridden my Dyna (have other bikes) any since getting back week and a half ago, but I'm hoping the mapping has changed a little and get my mileage back up to 40 like it was before my PV dropped it to 27-32.

 

Cool!

 

Thinner air means less fuel mixed with it, so less fuel used per mile. It also means lower hp and torque.

 

So the yesterday, when I left Jackson, I went west into Idaho to enter Yellowstone at the Northwest entrance. Got to see some pretty golden fields. Yellowstone was cool, finally got to see some Buffalo. The traffic wasn't so great. I think it was well over a hundred miles to get to that entrance from Jackson. Maybe I could have picked a better route, but I really haven't planned out too much. Still, I went straight from the entrance to Beartooth Pass. Saw some cool stuff on the way, but I don't stop too often. Went over Bearthooth into Red Lodge. Got gas drove through Red Lodge then turned around and went back to go to Cody and take Chief Joseph which was also pretty fun. Going up Beartooth the first time eventually caught up to another Harley with Missouri plates. Thought that was cool, but the dude eventually got tired of the two cars in front of us and passed them both in a double yellow. It was an SUV then a Ram pickup. After that dude passed the Ram pulled over to let me by. The SUV wasn't having any of that though, he was crawling and wouldn't use the pull offs to let me by, so eventually I passed him on a double yellow too. I caught up to the MO Harley soon enough. When he pulled off at a look out station I almost followed to chat it up, but frankly I needed to **** and was in hurry to get to a rest room. I had my GoPro taking pics every 10 seconds. Eventually I'll put some of those pics up. On the way back I took a video, had the angle of the go pro off which irritates me so you get to see more of my bike and less of the horizon than I normally like. I won't be able to upload that till I get home. But the way back was event better because it was almost empty of other cars, so I got to set my own pace for the most part. I had to pass a few cars but not many.

So by the time I got into Cody it was getting late, I just set up camp at the KOA, for $17.

This morning, I packed up and decided to go to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful. The ride to Yellowstone from Cody was pretty nice, but I kind of wished I had turned around once I got to the park. Old Faitfull was farther from the entrance than I expected, and while some of the ride was pretty nice, it was long with a lot of traffic. Then when I got to Old Faithfull, it wasn't set to go off for an hour. I think it was 11 or 12 when I got there, so I had lunch, but wanted to make Buffalo, WY today so I didn't stick around. I've seen it erupting enough on tv anyway. I blitzed out on my way back passing cars up until I ran in to a line of cars too long.

So the ride to Buffalo from Cody also had some cool parts. Another pass I don't know the name of was cool, even if some of the road was pretty rough, so I didn't go as fast as I would have. Then you climb up to about 9000 feet elevation and just stay at that elevation for miles. I made it into Buffalo and made sure to stop at the Dash Inn and had the ribs. They really hit the spot especially after the overpriced and underwhelming turkey sandwich I had at Yellowstone.

So tomorrow, the Blackhills. Guess Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore and that stuff.


A few pics, probably out of order.

Bottom of Beartooth Pass on the Red Lodge side.


My sleeping bag and mattress, what is filling up most of the green jump bag. One thing about the mattress I didn't think about before hand was I have to fill it up inside the tent. The air pump wont quite get it as full as I would like, so once I fill it up, I have to lay down beside it and do the rest by lung power. Its a bit awkward.


The Yellowstone East entrance/exit.


Leaving Jackson, WY.


Think this was pretty close to the North West Yellowstone entrance.


Did you know they have buffalo in Yellowstone?


Between Cody and Buffalo. Right before I went up another pass that was kind of cool, except for several spots of bad pavement.


Same spot as the above pic just a different angle. This one shows the direction I would be going.

 

I've also noticed that a few times I went to pass people at high elevation. Wasn't blowing past them quite like I do back home.

 

I had to pass several going up Pikes Peak. It was quite noticeable! I was glad they were creeping along at 15-20 mph

 

You should also notice less wind resistance at altitude, compared to the same speed close to sea level.

 

Nice pics and write-up. That is some beautiful country. I usually go out there every year, but skipped the trip this year. Enjoying your post. I have to laugh sometimes in YS. There will be cars stopped because there is a buffalo in the edge of the woods. What they do not know is there are a thousand around the nest curve.

 

Great write up. Love the areas you are going to. The Big Horns are wonderful there

 

Sitting in a hotel... in Austin, Minnesota. Decided I wanted to see a "Great Lake" so going to Milwaukee tomorrow. Maybe go to Chicago and see the Cards play the Cubs, but doubt I'll make it in time. Yesterday, I left Buffalo, WY to go towards Deadwood, SD. On the way I saw a sign for Devil's Tower. I hadn't even thought about it and wasn't even sure where it was but I headed over to see it.





There were a crap load of prairie dogs around Devil's Tower. So many they almost looked like ants. Anyway, I left Devil's Tower and rode to Deadwood. I rode through Deadwood and then to Sturgis. Now I had noticed back in Jackson, WY that my right rear running light had blown. The blinker and brake where still working, but I hadn't been near a Harley Dealer that was open for a while. I stopped at the one in Cody, WY but it was just a clothes shop no parts. At some point the bulb blew completely so I really wanted a replacement. I had a pack of them at home (my Wide Glide seems to blow them regularly) and almost brought some spares with me but didn't. But I was able to get a replacement and a spare in Sturgis. Went to some restaurant in Sturgis that said seat yourself, did so and waited about 10 minutes without seeing any type of staff, so I got up and left. There had been several people eating in there. Outside, it had a for sale sign, no wonder if you don't check your main floor for so long. I decided to try the Harley's GPS for food. It asked what kind of food, and I chose BBQ. It took me to Dickey's in Rapid City I had never heard of it, but it appeared to be a chain restaurant, oh well, I was hungry so I went in anyway and had some baby back pork ribs which were good, but their baked beans weren't that good. After lunch I went on over to Mount Rushmore, but didn't go into the park as you could pretty much see it all from riding by.

After Rushmore I decided to go to the campground I had scoped out, in Wall, SD. It was actually in part of the Badlands park and was down about 12 miles of gravel road. The gravel road was in somewhat good shape but a lot of portions were like a wash board. Those really tested the shocks and some required first gear and a crawl. Reviews of the campsite said that buffalo sometimes roamed through, and sure enough in the evening we had a bull come through twice. It was a nice camp but did get windy in the middle of the night. When I left this morning I saw so many deer and I guess antelope on the side of the road. You would see a big buck up on a hill just off the road just surveying what he wanted, bet I saw about 10 of these. Then I did the Badlands park loop and finally saw a big horn. After the Badlands, I didn't have any ideas of where to ride, I didn't do much research on the area before hand so I started heading east. That's when I decided to shoot all the way to Milwaukee. Slowly but surely I plan to ride one of my bikes in all the states except for Hawaii (would like to do it but not shipping my bike there), going to Milwaukee would add Minnesota and Wisconsin. On the way I stopped in some small place near the Missouri river called Al's Oasis and had a buffalo burger. It was really good. At this point it had warmed up quite a bit, so my leather jacket went on top of my knock off Camelback water bladder and under that orange cargo net. Well at some point the water bladder slipped out and I lost it on the highway. Irritated at that, hope it didn't causing any issues for drivers behind me. Today was a long day, about 550 miles, the gravel included that was very slow and the Badlands loop was slow going too.


My campsite in Wall, SD.


The bull buffalo that came through the edge of camp a couple times.


Leaving camp this morning.




The Badlands




This thing was in Al's Oasis and was huge, almost as big as a horse.