Beartooth Highway - 2011 Trip

Beartooth Highway Trip

Well it's time for our annual motorcycle trip.  This year we have several destinations planned.  Our first stop will be Yellowstone National Park.  We have visited Yellowstone numerous times but never made it to the Northeast corner so that's the first stop.  From there we will pick up the Beartooth Highway which takes us to Beartooth Pass.  We have always heard that this is one of the all time great motorcycle rides and this year we intend to find out.  From there we will work our way towards Mandan, ND.  Mandan is just across the river from Bismark both of which were inundated with the record floods this summer.  Our son Mike and his wife Karin moved to Mandan in January and this will be our first chance to visit with them in their new home.  Finally we will head to Naperville, IL to visit Linda's folks and for her to attend her 50th grade school reunion.

This trip will probably be a little different than previous years.  Many years we have attempted to stay off the Interstates but due to the time of the year, the number of stops we will be making, and the sheer distance we will attempt to cover, we will probably spend at least part of most days on Interstates.  That's not quite as bad as it sounds.  Until we get Minnesota the views aren't really much different from the Interstates than from the side roads and traveling is definitely quicker.

We also have a few concerns about the Beartooth Highway part of the trip.  The Beartooth Highway is actually US Route 212  Because of the elevations involved the road is closed during the winter normally closing sometime in October.  Beartooth Pass is 10,940 feet and on of the 10 highest passes in the US.  The road can be very treacherous and, if there happens to be some early snow or freezing, we may have to detour this year.  There is also road construction going on so we'll be keeping a close watch on road and pass conditions.  We're trying to decide whether to do the ride in the morning or afternoon and, due to conflicting information about best times of the day, we have not been able to decide.  We may just see when we get there and take our chances.

We're not trying out anything new this trip.  We still plan to attempt to update the website each evening with Google maps, pictures, and maybe a short write-up.  We'll see how it goes.

Time to get on the road, we hope you enjoy the trip.