Inaugural Trike Tour - 2015 Trip - Day 16

Start Location: Mandan, ND
Ending Location: Hulett, WY
Miles Today: 363
Trip Miles: 1725
States Visited: 6
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 58.1° F
High Temp: 96.6° F
Min Elevation: 1609'
Max Elevation: 4689'

Route Map:

So, after 11 days off, we are back on the bike and heading home.  We left Mandan around 9:00 and headed west.  We spent most of the morning on I-94 and it was cool and very windy - not much fun.  On top of that, because of the higher speeds and headwind, we got our worst mileage yet.

Eventually we turned south on route 85 and from there had a very enjoyable afternoon. There were very few cars on the road and the temperature and winds were very favorable.  We also saw of the longest and straightest roads we have seen in a long time.  We arrived at our destination, Hulett, WY., early and, after checking in, headed for Devils Tower.

We arrived at Devils Tower and, after visiting the Visitor Center, hiked the 1.5 mile Tower Trail which goes completely around the Tower.  The Tower is very impressive - it seems to be completely vertical and we were amazed at the number of climbers who were either ascending or descending the Tower - definitely not on our bucket list.  If you look very carefully at some of the pictures you can pick out some of the climbers.  They look like ants on the side of the tower. We saw the Tower in 2000 when we did Sturgis but didn't actually go all the way to the Tower and enter the Monument.  On the ride out of the Monument, we saw a lot of cars parked along the side of the monument road and assumed it was people taking pictures of the Tower but, on closer inspection, they were taking pictures of prairie dogs of which there were hundreds - fun sighting.

After that we returned to our motel and had an enjoyable stint in the hot tub before retiring for the night.  Tomorrow we head for the Beartooth Highway.