Tetons view from historic cabin
Motorcycle Adventure
A motorcycle adventure traveling through the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, cruising the Beartooth Highway, visiting Montana’s authentic mountain town of Red Lodge and Wyoming’s town of Cody along with a night camping in the Wind River Mountains was one of my greatest adventures.
I rode on the back of my friend’s Tiger Triumph. We packed enough gear to meet our basic camping and weather needs. My friend expertly drove while I appreciated the breeze on my face, the captivating terrain and our vulnerability through precarious weather and charging buffalo!
Yellowstone Road & Motorcycle Travel
Cruising on a Motorcycle in Yellowstone National Park is a fantastic way to see the sights and experience your vacation. It provides a charged sensory experience feeling the wind in your face, smelling the fresh air and vividly seeing the changing scenery. Your vulnerably to the exposure of the wind, rain, sun, thunder clouds, gravel terrain and irritated bison snorting at you crossing their path enhances the adventure. This exposure you feel riding provides a sense of freedom and involvement with your trip like no other.
While everyone in Yellowstone National Park becomes your friend in an unbelievable shared experience, a unique understanding and camaraderie is shared with fellow motorcyclists.
Chasing Tail
Old Faithful always blows!
The Adventure Trip and Yellowstone!
In Yellowstone, we visited Old Faithful, Lower Geyser Basin, Hayden Valley, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Yellowstone Lake as well as other well-known, incredible attractions. I would highly recommend spending time in Hayden Valley. It is very peaceful and less crowded than the western part of the park yet full of wildlife.
Read more about my Yellowstone travels!
Buffalo and Fog in Yellowstone
Yellowstone Buffalo
On my birthday, we woke up at sunrise to a beautiful sunny day in Yellowstone. A bison strolled through our campsite. We were very polite and respectful as one should be when a 2000-pound wild animal with horns snorts at you as he passes by! As the signs posted in the park warn, “Many visitors have been gored by buffalo. Buffalo can weigh 2000 pounds and can sprint at 30 MPH. Three times faster than you can run. These animals may appear tame but are wild, unpredictable, and dangerous.” It also suggested to never grab a buffalo by the tail – probably very sound advice!
Yellowstone: Bison and Geysers
It was very daunting driving through the park only to be stopped by a herd of buffalo crossing the street in front of you. We felt very vulnerable sitting totally exposed on a motorcycle with no room to escape as cars and buffalo surrounded us. Within a mere few feet of us, a massive bison looked right at us, stuck his tongue out, and hissed. We had hoped for a close viewing of animals, yet I sure didn’t expect to get this frightfully close!
Beartooth Highway on a Motorcycle
Motorcycle Beartooth Highway
We left Yellowstone to travel the Bearthooth Highway. The Beartooth Highway is a stunning adventure for motorcycle enthusiasts. This inspiring rugged alpine highway offers panoramic views of snow covered mountains, granite peaks and glacier lakes. To add to the adventure, we raced ahead of huge thunderclouds!
After traveling the Beartooth highway, we stayed at the Yodeler Inn in Red Lodge, a very motorcycle friendly motel in a very charming mountain town. On our way back into the park from Red Lodge, we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. I would highly recommend visiting this museum and allowing plenty of time to tour the exhibits.
Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park
The Grand Tetons are incredibly beautiful, and we kept on stopping to appreciate the views and take pictures! We camped and dined at Jackson Lake’s Signal Mountain with a forested, lakeside campsite and organic delicious food at the restaurant.
Motorcycle setup for two!
Wind River Mountains & Fremont Lake
On our return trip home we stopped to camp and picnic at Fremont Lake in the Wind River Mountains. This area is splendid with granite peaks, wildlife, alpine lakes, forested wilderness and an abundance of trails to explore. I hope to return and spend time exploring this rugged and scenic area in Wyoming.
Motorcycle Set-up & Miles
Here is our motorcycle setup for two. I was very comfortable viewing the spectacular scenery all through the trip! Many thanks to my friend who skillfully guided us on this wonderful adventure!
5 nights and 6 days of adventures – 1200 miles total! I look forward to my next motorcycle adventure – maybe next time I will cruise on my own motorcycle! Let me know if you want to join me on the adventure.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
We really enjoyed, with much interest, your Yellowstone adventure. We are going on our adventure to Sturgis and then to Wyoming. We have put aside two weeks and are getting very excited!! We each have our own motorcycle. We are from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. Thank you for sharing your experience, it will help us with our trip!!! ~Monique
Hi Monique & BIlly.
Your planned trip sounds fantastic. Enjoy your adventure!
Thanks! ~ Kari
thanks for the info, and enjoy your backpacking – that’s way too much work for us! A short hike is all we enjoy. Alaska Highway and all the way to Patagonia are my dream trips. We’ll let you know how it went.
How much gear did you pack for this trip? My girlfriend and I are considering a similar trip this fall and she wants to pack the kitchen sink. I’m worried about weight on the bike and being able to load/unload quickly. Any advice would be helpful, she has never been on the bike more than a day at a time and is quite nervous.
Great site btw
Hi Matt! Thanks so much for reading my post. This was the most amazing trip, and I would highly recommend it!!! We brought a tent, sleeping bags and sleeping pads along with one duffel bag each. A few miscellaneous extra items we kept assessable included maps, sunscreen, rain gear and water. There are several options to consider. If you stay in motels, you can eliminate all the camping gear, bring more personal stuff and travel lighter. If you eat out, you can limit bringing cooking items and food. In our case, we chose to camp but eat out or buy cold cuts at the store right before getting to our campsite. We spent one night at a hotel to relax and clean up. It was a nice break.
This was my first long trip on the bike! I wanted to pack the kitchen sink also! It took me days to narrow down what I really needed. At the end of the trip, we decided we had brought too much. The bike was heavy and more difficult to handle. It also took time to quickly load and unload. We felt it would be safer and easier to pack lighter next time. Yet, we also realized so many items we brought were important for our comfort. Finding the right balance is a real challenge!
You will both need to work together on making this work. Planning for the trip can be just as important as the actual trip. Here are a few tips that we learned.
• Pack lightly for your safety in steering the motorcycle, yet make sure you both bring enough to be comfortable and enjoy your trip.
• Ensure you have waterproof bags and a tarp to cover up everything when it rains. Plan on rain!
• Ensure she is comfortable. It is a long trip. The set-up you see in the picture was very comfortable for me.
• Plan to take plenty of short stretching breaks and carefully break up your trip in segments. If you ride too many miles each day and push too hard, the trip will become more stressful than fun. Find that right balance to ride, play and enjoy.
• If you bring the right gear and pack wisely, you don’t really need too much.
• Focus on packing functional, warm, waterproof, and weather smart clothes. I am very much the girl, but in the end, the only clothes I cared about were those that kept me warm and comfortable.
• Take a test ride a day or two before you leave. Ensure you are comfortable with the heavy load. Ensure you have everything strapped down. Ensure she is comfortable too. After your test ride, plan to modify if needed.
Good luck! Feel free to ask more questions. If you want more specifics, you can also email me. I would also be happy to recommend some packing trips from a girl’s perspective!
~Kari
Thanks for the quick reply!! We are going from Taos, NM to Glacier NP, MT thru Colorado and into Yellowstone. How many miles a day did you average? I have done up to 850 in one day, but it was brutal!! Thinking about 450 per day will be a good compromise for the time we have available. Will be about 16 days total. We leave on the 12th, we’re so excited.
Wow! You both have an amazing trip planned. We did around 450 miles or more on our major travel days; however, we put in much less miles on the days we wanted to enjoy the parks and take a break from being on the road. Make sure you check and plan for construction on the roads through the parks because it can really slow you down.
You’ll have to let me know how it goes! You are planing a trip that I would love to do one day, so I hope to hear more from you both on how it goes!
Thanks again. Leigh is very freaked out about 7 hour days on the bike. We are planning to be tourists at least 2 days in each park. One more question – what did you guys carry for tools in case of breakdown? Also what size bike is that? We have a Suzuki Vstrom 1000, but your bike looks bigger? Any trips for you this fall?
Hi Matt and Leigh. Sorry, I am not savvy about what type of tools we brought or bike comparisons. I am just the lucky passenger who gets to enjoy the ride! As far as the hours on the bike, we modified our route several times and cut the miles down before deciding on a final route plan because we were also worried about too many long days being on the bike. I think Leigh will be fine with a few 7 hour days, but I recommend following each long 7 hours day of riding with a few shorter days on the bike so you can relax and play.
This fall a few backpacking trips are planned, and I hope to post some of the adventures before ski season. Hopefully, I will be back on the motorcycle next summer and fall. I want to do Glacier NP next year, so I hope you and Leigh tell me how it goes! Another dream I want to make come true in a few years is the Alaska Highway.
We are planning a similar road trip. Thank you for your recommendations.
Hi Denny, Thanks for reading my website. Enjoy your trip and let me know how it goes!
~Kari
LOL, Kari. I want to join you. Let’s get our own motorcycles and tour next summer!
Where should we go?
That would be so much fun! It’s tough to decide where to go – so many incredible places left to explore. We could meet halfway and explore the amazing Glacier National Park?
Sounds fun!
How ’bout round trip to Sturgis SD on my “Fatboy” and my friends “Road King”, leaving Aug 6th, 2010 from Seattle.
Hey Larry! Thanks for looking at my site! What an incredible trip you have planned. When I passed through Red Lodge, Montana, I spoke with some bikers who rode from Montana through Wyoming and to Sturgis, SD and back. They said the ride was amazing!
I would love to see your itinerary and the route you plan to travel!
~Kari