Not that close, but kind of. I am in the Coeur D'alene, Idaho area. Three hour trip to Glacier. Outstanding riding here on the rivers and Palouse area of Eastern Washington and North Idaho. We are doing a Glacier run late summer, looping up into Canada. Bring all weather gear, I have run into snow in Glacier in late summer.
@OP
My wife and I went through Yellowstone and the Tetons last year in July. Overnight the YNP temps were around 45 and the daytime temps were usually above 80.
This trip topic came up earlier in this year or late last year and my comment was anyone visiting the YNP [on a bike] should check first to see what roads are affected by construction. There were sections through the park that were soft gravel road bed with alternating traffic around crews. Not bike friendly but not a deal breaker.
Here is a link to historical temps in the area September last year. You can tinker with the data as you require..mid September appears to be the tipping point for weather change.
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...th=9&year=2018
https://www.yellowstonepark.com/park/national-park-maps
Happy trails..
Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a "B"
What does the B stand for? B-Courteous. B-Safe. B-Seen.....B-CNU on the road!
Did a run last summer to California from Ohio and back. Went a Southern route out and Northern on the way back through the Tetons, Yellowstone, Bear Tooth Pass, Idaho, Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Sturgis, etc.
If you decide to drop down South, on the way back, two real "Don't Miss" areas are Bryce Canyon and Zion! Mind blowing! If you do Zion, ride the roads on the back side of the Park Untraveled, twisties and beautiful.
It is "cool" on the top of Bear Tooth even in July. When I came across, the road at the very top of the mountain was gravel and mud for about 7 miles. If you want some real fun coming down the Pass into Red Lodge, shift into neutral and just coast! Super quiet and not traffic in the evening. You can get from the top into Red Lodge without ever having to hit the throttle; just the brakes.
If you stay in Red Lodge, that little red caboose diner at the end on main street is a nice little local place to grab a quick bite. Do make sure you gas up in Red Lodge if you go back to Yellowstone because there is a lot of road and one little gas station in Cooke.
Be prepared to wait a LOOONG time in Lamar Valley because all traffic is controlled by buffalo. They have fun just standing in the middle of the road and backing up traffic for a hour or until they decide to move on. They figure this is their back yard and you are just passing through. I was surrounded by a heard of them on the bike and they just rolled their eyes toward me and stood there while a calf had a road snack with it's mama! Turned the bike off and just waited and waited. Didn't dare want to "hurry them on", they are massive!
If you have time, Cody is a nice way to get back into Yellowstone from Red Lodge via the Chief Highway.
It is a GREAT ride!
Last August I found ice, sleet and snow in both Yelowstone and the top of Beartooth Pass. So bad at Beartooth I had to wait a day for the weather to clear a little.
I left the Smoky Mountain N park on the Parkway in October and it was snowing and blowing at higher altitude.Originally Posted by 2wheelsforme
Sheet of ice on the steps going down to the rest rooms.
When we got back down, 70 and sunshine.
ITS ALL GOOD
Did you also ride hwy 12 in UT? Damn one of my favorite hwys up to Torrey. And yeah, I also put it neutral at the top of beartooth down do the flats coming into Red Lodge. Cool experience.
Last edited by adventurous1; 06-02-2019 at 04:21 PM.
"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own." Bruce Lee
"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." - Helen Keller
"Get busy living, or get busy dying." Andy Dufresne
I had such a great ride out and back and I think I did HW 70 to 24, then down 12 to the 247 to 18 to San Bern. Little traffic and great twisties!
However, once I got to the 10 traffic sucked! I found that if I left more than 8 feet between me and the car in front, some CA driver would dart in and then slam on his brakes! Seemed like I walked the bike for miles on the highway before I finally decided to jump off to some side streets to get to Studio City. I left CA thinking that a MoPed is better suited for LA highways than the F6!
When I coasted down, it was late afternoon and absolutely NO traffic in either direction. As you know, you can see a few curves ahead so I could drift a little wide with the speed and not worry about meeting someone coming in the other direction. The biggest thing about coasting down from the top of Beartooth is going into the switchbacks and then realizing you are coasting at 60+miles per hour and have to climb on the brakes half way into a 20 mph curve!
If you end up going from Jellystone to Glacier I recommend coming in from the West Yellowstone entrance to Butte. This will bring you through Montana's Virginia City following Hwy 287. From Butte go to Anaconda to see the big smelter smoke stack and see the pile of black tailings, this is State Route 1. Then continue on that road to do the Pintler Scenic Loop. You will come back to I-90 close to where you need to head north to Glacier. Take Hwy 83 on the east side of Flathead Lake it's more scenic and less full of summer cabins than going up Hwy 93. The Road to the Sun in Glacier is beautiful.
Last edited by TheWalrus; 06-07-2019 at 01:12 PM.
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