If your tenting I'm sure you will find a spot in Sturgis, but if you reserve NOW it will be a little cheaper. Prices go up the closer to the rally it gets, and I would'nt want to try to run into all that traffic after riding for two days at 650 miles a day and have to try to find a place. If you've been to Laconia NH bike week its like that with 10 times the number of bikes and people, and instead of rain and 60-75 deg temps its more in the low to upper 90's with a little rain and good chance of hail.

We did three weeks this summer before the rally and if we made reservations it was the same day if we were a couple hours away and thought we might not make the camping area before the check in closed.

Yellowstone had every camping area completely full, we had to drive an hour out heading north to glacier to try to find an open camping area and ended up just getting a hotel because it was getting late.

 

I have done Sturgis for 9 years now. Not as wild as they let on. I tent at the chip cost 250 if you buy early. I did Yellowstone last year and Glacier I was gone for 21 days 5500 mile for me.

 

I rode up thru the badlands into Sturgis last year the week before the rally. Headed up riding thru Wyoming into Yellowstone for 3 days. we rode 3 of the four gates of the park. Rode back down thru Devils tower and back into Sturgis the first day of the rally. As great as the riding is around the black hills. I thought the riding in Wyoming / Yellowstone and Montana were better.
Don't miss the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole. Chief Joesph Hiway was great. We camped most of the time and in Yellowstone and the sites fill up fast and we almost didn't find a place. Best to start looking early in the day. Take your cold weather gear. It was in the low 30's 2 of the 3 nites we were there. If I hadn't had mine I'd have froze. Wished I'd took time to ride thru Idaho. Enjoy the trip.

 

I fully agree. In fact, next time I go I won't even pull in at the tourist center at the monument. Best views of the monument are looking through the tunnels on Iron Mt Road. Iron Mountain Road must have been designed and built specifically as an amusement park for bikes. Why else would they go to the trouble and expense of building corkscrew switchbacks?

Also second nominations for Bear Tooth and Spearfish. Chief Joseph is nice but if you have to budget your time Bear Tooth from Red Lodge to Yellowstone is the Must Do. Yellowstone Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Uncle Tom's Trail are the highlights of the park in my mind, but I understand everybody wants to see Old Faithful. Whole park steams and bubbles at every bend. Looks like it could all blow up at any minute, and it could. After I read the history on it I felt like I was riding around on a huge atomic bomb for the rest of the trip. Buffalo Jams in the park can slow you down big time. I sat there for an hour while a pair of 2000 lb bulls fought it out right there in the middle of the road. Caution! The park has film of one attacking a bike. Way More people injured by Buffalo than bears!

 

Lots of good information here. I will be making a similar trip this July. Leaving IL and heading for Sturgis, see the sights, ride around then head for Yellowstone. Then head south to AZ(?), Texas and try to catch Rte. 66 to get home.

 

Per the following link, it appears you do not need reservations to tent camp at the Buffalo Chip.

http://www.buffalochip.com/RESERVATI...g-Rally-Passes

 

...if you're camping off the bike it can.

 

Pretty close to the trip we have planned, except we're only doing Sturgis on the unofficial opening weekend, staying in Deadwood 2 nights, Aug 1-3. 1 day of riding and 1/2 day in Sturgis is enough for me. Then making our way to Hulett WY (mainly to see Devil's Tower since I've never seen it, but have heard Hulett is fun too) for 1 night before heading across WY to Cody on the 4th. Then through Yellowstone to the west entrance for 2 nights. Then out the NE entrance and across Beartooth Pass with a stop in Red Lodge. The rest of the way home to MN we're wingin it.

 

True, and if you look at the bottom those are the limited time prices for reserving now, the price goes up the closer it gets.
$50 a night Is the cheapest they have now which includes the shows that day and night. Guess it depends if the OP is wanting to go see shows or just ride and camp, I'm guessing to pay same day will be close to $70 or higher. That's a lot to pitch a tent.

 

We stayed at the Chip no reservations. Just find a piece of dirt set tent up 60 bucks a night don't plan on getting any sleep though unless your hammered.