Personaly I would rather spend time on the Beartooth than Jackson. When we were there it was all yuppies shopping. Cool place, but way overcrowded. If you go into Red lodge check out Gunsmoke subs. Mom and Pop sandwich shop. Great sandwichs. The guy at the HD shop turned us on to it. Told them we were going to eat lunch at the Beartooth summit. The lady really hooked us up with everything we needed. Do the BT bothways you will love it. Buffalo Bill musem in Cody is way cool espically if you are into Guns. In YS I liked MT Washburn overlook, but the road isn't paved. I went anyhow. YS /Beartooth is an unforgetable place, really the whole area. Some of the roads in YS are a little bumpy from winter so watch. I envy you because I can't go.

 

Deadwood is, like, not even a half-hour from Rapid City. Fun sort of place, for what it is, though. There's a lot of nice day rides all over the Black Hills. Maybe that's your plan.

Spend the night in Cody. It's fun. Go to the rodeo.

Do not spend the night in West Yellowstone. It's a schlocky tourist trap of the worst kind, and all run by tweakers and illegals.

Jackson is fun, but $$$. If you don't mind spending the money, stay in GTNP at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Really nice place. The views are amazing.

Red Lodge is a great town in any season. Be sure to check out the 'Creek! Personlly, I like riding up to the 'Tooth from RL. But it's a great ride from any angle.

You have the time to do the full figure 8 of YNP and spend some time in GTNP.

Here's another suggestion: from Belle Fourche (in Black Hills) take US 212 to Crow Agency. This is amazing high plains riding, and it saves you an hour from taking I-90. Stop at the Little Bighorn. Then take I-90 to Laurel, and US 212 to Red Lodge. Spend the night. Go up the Beartooth. Enter YNP at Cooke City. Go through the Lamar Valley then at Tower go south over Dunraven Pass to Canyon and to Hayden Valley (lots of wildlife). Keep going past Fishing Bridge to West Thumb. Take a walk. Then go south to GTNP. Stay at Jackson Lake Lodge. No point going all the way to Jackson, unless you really want to. You won't see Harrison Ford. Wake up and go back into YNP. At West Thumb, go west towards Old Faithful. Stop at Mid Geyser Basin, too. Do the Firehole Falls drive. Keep going north through Madison Jct to Norris. Spend some time there. Then go to Mammoth. Either spend the night in Mammoth, in Gardiner (go soak in the Boiling River) or go up Paradise Valley and stay at Chico Hot Springs. You can then either go back to YNP or explore a little of Montana. If you're up for that, let me know. Otherwise, just exit YNP at Cooke City and take the Chief Joseph Hwy down to Cody. Work your way to the Bighorns from there.

 

We made the trip to Lake Tahoe and Yellowstone in mid August 08. We were not prepared for the cool weather, lower 40s. My foul weather gear was a flannel shirt, unlined denim jacket and rain suit. It rained on us two days out of 16, but we wore the rain suits almost every day. Yellowstone was great and we went thru the Grand Tetons on the way home. My recommendation, take leathers and pictures.

 

I was thinking about doing most of the Black Hills in one day. We would leave Rapid City on 44 to 365, then head south. Visit Mount Rushmore, ride Iron Mountain Road, ride Needles Highway, visit Crazy Horse Monument, ride north on 365 up to Deadwood to spend the night. We would ride through the Spearfish Canyon the following day on the way to Cody. Is this too much to do the first day? Are there other things we want to make time for in the Black Hills.

 

That is a lot for one day. You can do all that, though. Just don't linger in any one place.

But, those are all great rides. Well worth spending the time there to do......unless you are going further west

Just decide where you want to spend the time.

 

Yes, we are riding west to Yellowstone too and we only have so many days to do the entire trip. My initial plan is to spend one day in the Black Hills and do Spearfish Canyon on the way west the next day, while hitting Devil's Tower and Sturgis on the way back from Yellowstone to Rapid City later in the week before heading home.

I calculated the ride around the Black Hills that I mentioned in my previous post will be 161 miles and should take 4 1/2 hours saddle time. How much additional time do you think we will need for the stops and sightseeing? I just want to make sure we can get to Deadwood by early evening.

 

The wife and I left Columbus IN on 7-2-10. We were gone 14 days and had a great time.
Went to Cody, Beartooth, Yellowstone, Red Lodge and others. We stayed at Sheridan and it was an easy ride from there to Rapid City. We took the road to Shell over the Big Horns on the way to Sheridan. It was beautiful but really any road out of Cody is that way.
Had 4.5 inches of snow on the beartooth on 7-6-10. Some was still there on the 8th when we went over.
Do yourself a favor and take FABER's advice. He really knows the area gives excellant advice. PM me if you would like. Good Luck

 

Hard for me to judge how much sightseeing time you need. Other than Rushmore and Crazy Horse, not much there is of interest to me. But, I live in the west, so "restored" towns and thousands of slot-machine casinos aren't exactly a novelty for me.

I'd suggest just one ride in the Black Hills. That is enough to give you an idea of the place. The Needles is probably the most unique ride in the area. Extend your Rushmore loop and work that in, then just bust your way up to Lead (****. leed, not led) and onto I-90. If you do that, get up early, because the Needles is a slow ride, and you'll want to stop a lot. Have lunch in Lead, Deadwood, or Spearfish. You can then have dinner easily in Cody or Red Lodge, depending on how you head west.

 

Wow, great info. We are planning a ride out from here first week of June. We plan on spending 2 nights in Deadwood with 1 full day to ride the area. Then ride over to Red Lodge (per Faber's recommendation), then ride into YS over Beartooth but because of time we will cut that part short and head west out through West Yellowstone then south to Salt Lake to visit some friends there for a few days. Runnin 212 from Sturgis over to Billings so we can see the 'Last Stand' monument. Headed back east we'll take 50 through Colorado and over to Dodge City Kansas. It looks like it'll be 4500 miles or so and we'll do it in about 14 days.

 

yellowstone is just so bizy, we took a RV trip west last summer & YS was our least favorite place by far. Much better scenery in Grand Tetons & also up north in Glacier, out favorite place by far. Not many people, amazing scenery & fun roads just not-so-fun in a RV

Theodore Rosevelt NP is another cool place, seeing wild horses a few feet away from you is really cool but I am not sure if that's out of your way or not.

We stayed a few nights at West Glacier KOA & one of the employe's stated Aug (or was it July) is the only month they do not usually get snow.