May 5, 2022
It was going to be an absolutely beautiful spring day in Montana and just begged for a ride so I texted my friend, Bill, and he agreed to a day-long ride.
I started the day at the gym and got in 1,000 yard swim in the pool before meeting Bill at 9am. We headed east and dodged most of the nasty traffic on Main Street in Billings Heights by taking Yellowstone River Road to Bitterroot to Mary Street and going past Dover Park to get to Highway 312. The temperature felt great and I wore my summer mesh jacket, my riding pants, and my summer gloves and was more than comfortable. The goal was to take some back roads and eventually get to Colstrip, MT, a place I’d never visited.
It was a day of riding and I didn’t take as many photos as I usually do, mostly because I’ve covered most of these roads before. We did a quick stop outside Pompey’s Pillar about 35 miles into the ride. Bill rides a Victory.
The next leg took us on the frontage road of I-94 but eventually moved away from the freeway and followed a rail track and the Yellowstone River. When we arrived at the turn off to the town of Custer, we turned away from it and headed west a few miles to Pease Bottom Road. I’ve traveled this route numerous times and it’s been featured on this blog in the past so I won’t go into much detail. The road is a bit rough but it’s a beautiful ride with rimrocks close by on the left and farm/ranch land on the right. We did stop to enjoy the country air and grab a few pictures.
We finally arrived in the town of Hysham and although it is a sleepy little place, only a few blocks long, it is home to the Yucca Theater, a Mission style building that was constructed in 1931. I toured it in the past and if you ever find yourself in Hysham, it is worth doing. In the meantime, you can read about on Wikipedia: Yucca Theater.
We headed out and had to do an almost panic stop as an old man pulled right out on the highway in front of us. He never even looked.
We continued on the same road which was relatively flat with some sweeping curves until we came to the Colstrip turnoff, Highway 39. The sign indicated that the town was 29 miles ahead so with little other traffic and good road conditions, I just set the cruise control and enjoyed the ride. When we got to town we stopped for gas as we’d gone 140 miles and the Victory was getting thirsty. I wanted to get a closer look at one of the power plants there so we stayed on Willow Avenue which took us to the security gate that accesses the site. We pulled over to side and I shot a photo or two.
We’d only been there a few minutes before a security guard walked over and said the people in the office building next to the plant saw us and were concerned about what we were up to. We assured him that were tourists, not terrorists and he was very polite and friendly and said he just had to check and to enjoy our day out.
As we left town and headed south I could see a massive conveyor system that moved coal from the strip mine to the power plant. A real engineering marvel. Not wanting to stop and make anyone else nervous, I didn’t take photos of it but snagged these off Google Streetview.
The next town is Lame Deer and we scooted down the highway at a good clip, especially when passing some slow moving equipment. We went through the roundabout and got in Highway 212 and road that past Busby and to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, AKA the location of Custer’s Last Stand. We stopped there for a restroom and a butt break.
We headed for Crow Agency, crossed under Interstate 90, and took Highway 1 west through some nice rolling hills and big sweeping curves to the intersection with Highway 313. We are repeating, in reverse, the ride I did, and wrote about here, on April 8. We drove through St. Xavier and continued the 44 miles on Highway 91 to Pryor. This is the road that signage indicates is a “Rough Road” and it’s not really that bad but there are potholes to be avoided. We didn’t stop for photos and if you want to see some, just got to my posting from a month ago, April 8.
We turned right at Pryor and headed north to Highway 416 which will become Blue Creek Road and take us back to Billings. We stopped for a moment and took a couple pictures,
Since it had been a pretty hot and dusty trail we did a debriefing at Canyon Creek Brewing. Then it was to home. A 322 mile day and only 10 more miles until my bike has 14,000 miles on it.
