Wymodak Bike Tour

No van shuttle to start this tour! We are on our bikes right from our meeting hotel in Cody, Wyoming. Today we ride the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway from Cody to Cooke City, Montana. Get ready for 80 miles with 8300’ feet of climbing as we climb to the overlook at Dead Indian Hill. Enjoy the fabulous mountain views before descending almost a mile of vertical to our hotel for the night situated just outside Yellowstone National Park.

Charles Kuralt called the Beartooth Scenic Byway “…the most beautiful drive in America.” Breathe deeply; our high point on this stunning ride is just shy of 11,000 feet! The Shoshone National Forest has virtually all the original animal and plant species that were there when white explorers such as John Colter and Jim Bridger first visited the region. The forest is home to grizzly and black bear, cougar, moose, tens of thousands of elk as well as the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the U.S. The streams in the forest are considered to have some of the best game species fishing opportunities in the U.S. including Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Spend tonight in Red Lodge, Montana – once a raucous 1890s coal town.

Exit the big mountains today and head back to Wyoming as we journey on toward the Bighorn Mountains to the east. Fields of corn, sugar beets and alfalfa are interspersed with tiny towns as we trace the curves of Silver Tip Creek. Our destination, Lovell, is heralded as ‘Wyoming’s Rose City.’

Point your steeds east, cowboys and cowgirls – today we cross the northern portion of Bighorn National Forest. It’s a “mountain stage” so get an early start. One hundred miles and 8000 feet of climbing lie between us and our lodging tonight in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Continue generally eastward through foothills today, leaving the Bighorn Mountains, as well as most signs of civilization, behind. Cycle through deserted “towns” with names that like Spotted Horse (pop. 2) and Wildcat (pop. 0). Leiter is one of the few burgeoning communities, having grown from 28 residents in 2000 to 34 in 2016. Stay tonight in Gillette, WY. Early arrivals may want to explore the Rockpile Museum in order to learn more about the history of the Powder River Basin ranches, coal mines and oil development.

From Gillette, we head toward Hullett, Wyoming. First we cycle past Keyhole Reservoir, famous for record-sized fish and a haven for both resident and migrating birds, but the big attraction today is Devils Tower National Monument, made famous by the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Save some energy for the afternoon today. The highlight of today’s route Hulett to Deadwood, South Dakota is through Spearfish Canyon. Thousand-foot-high limestone palisades in shades of brown, pink and gray tower over Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Enjoy bicycling its wide shoulders and uniform 3% grade (Bicycling Magazine named Spearfish Canyon one of the top 50 scenic bike paths in the country!). Deadwood is a National Historic Landmark District, a former wild-and-wooly goldrush town that hosted the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Stay in the heart of Wild West tonight. Dinner is on your own.

Today’s amazing roads curve through meadows surrounded by birch, aspen and rugged granite mountains and needle-like granite formations, pine and spruce forests. Pass through picturesque Hill City, a former mining town that is the oldest in Pennington County on your way to the even-more-photogenic Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.

Pedal more of Custer State Park today on your way to Rapid City, South Dakota. Unique and scenic loop roads wind through its 71,000 acres where the prairies and ponderosa pine-studded hills host some 1,300 bison, as well as pronghorn antelope, mountain goat, deer, elk, wild turkey, and a band of friendly burros. Visit Mount Rushmore National Monument and Wind Cave National Park along the way!

The Badlands are a stunningly beautiful 244,000-acre preserve of mixed-grass prairie surrounding needled buttes, pinnacles and spires. Once blanketed by a warm, shallow sea, it contains one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat once roamed here; today it’s home to bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferret. Bicycle through this hauntingly beautiful National Park before returning to Rapid City in the late afternoon.

*Bicycle Adventures operates under special use permits while on Federal Lands managed by the National Forest Service (USDA), National Parks and Bureau of Land Management. In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) To file a complaint of discrimination: write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.