Glacier - Day 7

From Columbus, MT to Buffalo, WY: about 350 miles

I really don’t think anything could have prepared us for the ride we were going to share today. Bikers of all ages continue to seek out the best roads that challenge your skills, stimulate your mind and touch your soul. We would spend most of the day on roads that did just that. This is the route we settled on prior to departure. Everything was already predetermined weeks ago, except for the initial run on 78 from Columbus to Red Lodge.

It was a crisp 47º when we headed out that morning. I doubled up on the top layers, but just went with the Levi’s on the bottom. With my larger engine I have a bit more protection than Kevin does. We headed south on 78 planning on having breakfast at Red Lodge. We thought it would just be a lively jaunt through some desolate areas. And it started out pretty much that way.

But shortly after we left, the famed ‘Big Sky Montana’ turned into ‘No Sky Montana’ as the cloud ceiling seemed drop in on us.

We slowed down a bit as the visibility decreased but then just before we entered Red Lodge the clouds disappeared as quickly as they appeared and we were able to locate the preferred café for breakfast right on the main drag through town.We parked in front of the café and headed in for some great fixings to break our fast and find out, in deed, this is the place to be as we have to wait for a table. While a bit slow, due to the heavy traffic, the food was good and served its purpose.

It’s about this time I could extrapolate on how Kevin ends up at another table expounding, yet again, on the incredible merits and capabilities of his V-Strom and its reigning superiority as the Adventurer Tourer of choice; except that I grow tired of such as I am sure you, the reader, are as well. I quickly point out how others are eyeing our table and that it would be in our best interest for him to gather up his things and we be off.

We head outside and as we’ve been informed it’s a full 20º cooler at the top of the pass than it is at Red Lodge, we wisely decide to dress for colder weather, which, in my case, is just about everything I brought with me. We bundled up and started up the rides after looking down the main drag from which we came;We point our steeds in this direction and head to the pass.

I’m not sure what I looked like in all that gear, but I felt like the Michelin man.

Our first stop after breakfast was at Rock Creek Vista Point. From here you could see the incredible roads we just navigated to get to this altitude on the mountain and we were not even at the top. We still had almost 2000 ft. more to climb to reach the top of the pass.

But this view point offered exceptional photo opportunities of the road just conquered. Some incredible turns and climbs make this road an absolute treasure. Red Lodge sits at 5555 ft. and we were now just over 9000 ft. These two pics give you and idea of the roads you encounter on the ride up.

The Rock Creek Vista also provided some exceptional views of the surrounding country side.

From here we could also see that the road ahead would quickly take us to higher ground.

So we headed off seeking the top of the pass…

Finding more and more signs like these… making our little hearts leap with delight and our throttle wrists twitchy.

Every time we completed a turn we were exposed to yet another.

And when you thought you were at the top… there was yet another turn.

And then a climb...

Till finally we reached the pull out at the top of the pass.

The view from the top is quite, well, massive, is about the only word I can think of here.

It was quite cold up here with about 40º and 40 MPH winds and I was reluctant to remove my helmet but eventually did to facilitate the picture taking. Did I mention the views were massive?

Found this guy at the very top… I think he owned the place and was just wondering what all of us were doing up there trampling in his backyard.

From the top you can see the road leading southward and down the mountain and it looked almost better than the road leading up.

Here’s a pic my brother took of me trying to stay warm and look cool at the same time. As you can easily tell I failed miserably at both.

Kevin had us head over to another area on the top of the pass, which was of course – dirt. But the wide tire mounted to the Valk handled it just fine.

One last pic from the top before we head down the mountain; it’s called Beartooth Pass, but seeing as how we were looking down on just about everything around us, I really think it was Beartooth Mountain. And at 10, 947 ft., I’d classify that as a mountain.

After that, we headed down the mountain with me following Kevin and trying to keep up with the Mad Stromtroooper.

Shortly after the descent from Beartooth we turned on 296 to head toward Cody, WY. This is also known as Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, and another outstanding motorcycle road. Kevin switched to the tail position and captured these pics as we swept our way to the Shoshone River.

I like to lead… here’s what Kevin looks like when I’m in the lead.

Here’s a few pics from the Shoshone river… there is a small pullout there that allows you to walk back across the bridge and take some pictures looking up and down the canyon.

As well as straight down.

After a light snack of trail mix and lukewarm Gatorade we continued our trek toward Cody. Next stop was Dead Indian Hill Summit at 8000 ft. I’m not kidding, that’s what it was called.

But it did have some breathtaking views.

And for you motorcycle riders... the road leading up to where we were... and yeah, it was a good one.

Then again, mounting up and heading out, we faced more of this during our ride to Cody.

Then we cruised through Cody with pretty much zero fanfare, although we did finally stop for gas. Timing was such that we needed to get on down the road in position to make the haul to Colorado Springs the next day. So no pics or info out of Cody, guess we’ll have to go back. We headed south out of Cody on 120 looking to link up with 20 and then over to 16, another scenic highway that Wyoming offers.

We stopped for lunch/dinner at this little Mexican place in Worland called Ranchita. Had to cruise through that little town twice to find something we could settle on, fortunately it was a small town. Decent food, but I’m used to my Mexican food being a bit more on the spicy side.

After that we picked up 17 and headed yet over another pass after first passing through the quaint little town of Ten Sleep. Situated on Ten Sleep creek this little town showed signs of both great wealth and very meager earnings. Highway 16 traverses through Ten Sleep Canyon up and over a pass and then down into Buffalo WY. Here’s a few pictures along the route.

Meadowlark Lake…

After that we headed down to Buffalo where we found a place to corral the steeds and bunk for the night.

It was a great day of riding and light enough in miles that we could have a few stops on the way to enhance the journey. This is a great route and I’d recommend it highly to anyone who is in the vicinity. Or, do like we did… make that your vicinity and then enjoy the ride.