Chief Joseph and the Beartooth again

September 17, 2025

With fall coming soon, I want to get in all the rides I can before snow shows up.  I talked to my friend, Keith, last week about this ride and he was in.  I just rode it a week or two ago and it’s just one of the best ones in this part of the country.

We met at 8:00am at my place.  Keith rides a perfect 1977 Goldwing.  We headed out on the usual Westend Escape Route, to the end of Grand Ave., to Lipp Road.  The morning is just gorgeous.  Temperature in the low-50s.  We stopped at the Canyon Creek Battle memorial for a couple photos.

Now it was south on Buffalo Trail, through Laurel, and riding Hwy 212 to Rockvale where we turns south and headed to Fromberg.  After Fromberg we stopped for gas in Bridger.

Now it was south agin, passing through Belfry and the across the state line into Wyoming.  The road is long and straight, about 40 miles to the turn off for the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.  Traffic was light and the weather continued to impress.

We road up the beautiful route toward Dead Indian Pass.  We stopped for a break on the way up.

At the pass, we took a longer break.  Always time for some photos.

A couple came over to talk motorcycles.  The guy was older than we are (which means he was really old) and is still riding.  He has BMWs.  They live in Colorado and she used to ride with him but hip issues make that too uncomfortable these days.  They were on a car tour.

We headed down the mountain and stopped at the bridge for a break.

We pulled in and quickly took car of business at the vault toilet before the people off the tour bus lined up.  We talked to the driver and he said they are on a 15-day tour of the west and the passengers are from all over the world: Australia, New Zealand, England.

We headed out again and the next 20 miles or so were GREAT.  When I rode with the last time it was starting to rain and I was stuck behind a stream of slow ars.  This time the road was wide open and I took advantage of that.

About 5 miles from the intersection with Hwy 212 we encountered the same construction I’d hit a few weeks ago.  We stopped and had to wait for a pilot car.

The pilot car led us through, well, a 2-lane paved road.  It was nearing lunch time so I’m guessing that whatever they were doing that reduced the road down to one lane was on hold.  

The next stop is Cooke City for gas.  We hadn’t seen many motorcycles today but there were plans in Cooke City.  We also noted that almost all the bikes we saw were dual sports.

We got gassed up and headed out, back toward the Beartooth Highway.

Keith went riding by.

A little way along we stopped for a break and some photos.  That’s Pilot Peak.

This is the life.

A few miles from Beartooth Lake there is a pullout.  There were a few tourists there.  How about this rig?

There is a great view there.

The next stop was the top of Beartooth Pass.

This guy rode by while we were there.

Now it was a ride down to Vista Point for a quick break before riding, pretty much nonstop the rest of the way home.  We went through Red Lodge, Robert’s, Joliet, and took River Road past Laurel and the Shilo to Rimrock in Billings.

A great day all around.

It was a 283 mile day. 

A short ride to Columbus

September 9, 2025

I hadn’t ridden in a few days and had the itch so it was a short ride to Columbus to check out the new mural there.

I rode down Shilo and then worked my way to Laurel on Neibauer and Laurel Airport roads.  Then it was the old highway through Park City and to Columbus. The weather was pleasent and there was no wind.  I stopped to check out the mural.

On the way back I saw this nice Volvo 245.

That was it.  About 80 miles.

Chief Joseph/Beartooth Pass Loop

August 28, 2025

It was a perfect day for a ride.  It was my day off from going to the gym so I did the grocery shopping early and since I'd got the bike ready yesterday I was on the road by 8:10.  The goal is the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, Cooke City, and then the Beartooth Highway.  The weather looked pretty good with a chance of rain on the afternoon.  Rain gear was packed in one of my side cases.

I did the traditional ride out of town, heading west on Grand to its end and then working my way to Buffalo Trail and on to Laurel.  From there I hopped on Hwy 212 to Rockvale, passed through Fromberg, Bridger, and Belfry, and then south to Wyoming.

Here is looking west toward the mountains from that state line.

The turnoff to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, Hwy 296, is easier to see now with additional signage up which must have been done as part of the road improvement they did recently.  That construction was taking place when I did this ride last August, which I wrote up here.  Previously it was easy to miss the turn and end up in Cody wondering where it was.

As I was turning, two Harleys came from the south and I let them go ahead of me.  I ended up following them to the top, Dead Indian Pass.

I stopped at the lookout, took a few photos, and talked to those Harley folks along with some other riders who pulled in.  They were from all over: North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and had a variety of bikes.

It was time to head on down into Sunlight Basin.  See the road down below.

Here's an edited video of the ride down.

I stopped at the Sunlight Bridge that goes over the big gorge and chatted with another rider.  He was riding a KTM and his partner was on a Ducati.  They were from Colorado.  I grabbed a photo of my bike with some nice background and a photo of the gorge and the bridge.

I have some photos taken from the bridge on a previous ride here.

I continued on and up a head I could see the weather changing.  A wet front was coming in.  I pulled over to grab a couple photos while it was still dry.

I continued on, the ride being GREAT, and saw that there was some construction ahead.

I had to stop and wait for the pilot car.  The guy with the stop sign told me that it would be 10-15 minutes.  With the heavy clouds up ahead and now feeling a few drops, it seemed like a good time to don the rain gear.

After a bit the pilot car showed up and off I went.  The road was milled asphalt and not too bad.  We did get to switch to the newly paved section and that was nice since it was about then that the rain came.

The new road went all the way to the end of the Scenic Byway at the intersection with Hwy 212.  I turned left and headed for Cooke City.

Every time I've done this ride I've been tempted to skip this side trip to Cooke City and head over the pass as I am pretty sure that I have enough gas to make it Red Lodge but I don't want to have any range anxiety so a stop for gas isn't really that out of the way.  It was definitely raining.  When I arrived at the gas station some people on Harleys were taking refuge under the canopy.  I'm so accustomed to riding in the rain I hardly notice it.

I headed back the way I came and up toward Beartooth Pass.  Near Beartooth Lake I pulled over at an Interpretive Site to grab a few photos.  While things were wet, I had pretty much left the rain behind.

Here's an edited video of my ride from Cooke City to the Beartooth Pass.

As always, I took a photo of my bike and the elevation sign, which is in the background. 

These guys there were on newer BMWs, GS types.  One of them was from Utah and the other from the southwest and they was on a multi-week adventure.

A couple photos before heading down.

The ride down was mostly uneventful until a guy wanted some of my lane.

I decided to take a break and eat my sandwich at Vista Point.

While there I got out my 70-year old Bolsey 35mm rangefinder camera and took a couple shots.  They aren't posted here because I have to finish the roll and then develop the film.  Just like the old days.

The ride home was pleasant.  No issues and no rain.  I arrived at 3:30.

It was a 290 mile day.