A Southern Loop around Wyoming

[Bogus Jim]

I'd planned to ride the Continental Divide this fall, but after sorting out this fiasco, I had 4 days of vacation left, and realized I had to downsize the trip. I decided to ride a loop around Wyoming, based loosely on hayduke.klr07's Tour de Wyoming IV route.

The result was 1433 miles, 4 full days of riding, amazing scenery, and lots of fun dual-sport roads.





Day 1 - Rapid City to Rock River, 388 miles
Highlights: Old Highway 85, Esterbrook Road




I loaded up the trusty wrr and left about 6:30 am Tuesday morning. What do you think, too much luggage for 4 days?




One nice thing about living in Rapid is you can get onto dirt fairly quickly. I took Sheridan Lake Road, Victoria Lake, Horse Creek, China Gulch, Deerfield Road, and Boles Canyon to Newcastle. This is a trail connecting Horse Creek to China Gulch:




A few minutes south of Newcastle, and it's starting to look like Eastern Wyoming. Wall to wall prairie, and floor to ceiling blue sky. A good day to be riding.




I headed south on Old Highway 85. The first stretch is still a maintained road. Once you get south of Dewey, the road is not maintained at all and there are a few rough sections.

This is the "good" stretch of Old Highway 85:




South of Douglas, the flat prairie of Eastern Wyoming ends, and the terrain becomes more mountainous. I was riding Esterbrook Road, a fun gravel road that winds through genuine cowboy country. Here they still use horses to round up the cattle, not ATV's.




A view of Laramie Peak:




It was getting dark when I pulled into Rock River. I set up camp on this empty lot near the meat packing plant.




Rock River was not a good place to camp; I discovered during the night that there are high speed freight trains passing outside of town about once every hour. I probably slept a total of 2 hours. Around 5:30 am, a stray dog let out a loud snort outside my tent, then barked and ran away. That's the first time I've ever been woken by a dog snort, but it's always nice to have new experiences.

[Bogus Jim]

Day 2 - Rock River to Rock Springs, 351 miles
Highlights: the ride through Medicine Bow Mountains, 412 trail on the spine of Sierra Madre




The next morning, I said goodbye to Rock River and the freight trains. Most of the trains are hauling coal. Hydrocarbons for humanity, burn 'em while you can. Here's an empty train, going back for a refill.




Speaking of hydrocarbons, there are several hundred wind generators outside of Rock River. I suppose if we built about 500,000 more of these, that might put a dent in our coal usage.




I planned to fill gas at Arlington and cross I-80 there. When I got to the station, there were two wooden totem poles where the gas pumps used to be. Not what I wanted to see. I detoured along I-80 to Elk Mountain and found gas there, then headed into the Medicine Bow Mountains on Forest Road 101.

101 was a decent road and I made pretty good time. I saw this view of Elk Mountain as I was heading south.




The road became heavily forested as I got closer to the mountains. The peaks of the Snowy Range appeared through a clearing in the forest and I saw snow for the first time on this trip.




I headed west on 130. There are a few observation points on this road; I stopped at Libby Flats and took a few photos.






Some of the trails in the Medicine Bow Mountains get a bit rocky:




A view near the Continental Divide:




I rode the 412 trail that runs along the spine of the Sierra Madre range. This is a really fun 12-14 mile trail with some amazing fews from the top of the range.






Eventually the 412 trail pops out at a lower elevation on a gravel road and you feel like you're back in civilization. This is a valley on the west side of the Sierra Madre range:




I rode part of the Continental Divide route. This is the semi-famous Aspen Alley that you see in a lot of Continental Divide ride reports.




I stopped in Saratoga for gas and lunch. I asked one of the locals if there was gas in Baggs and she said she thought the station was closed. This was going to be a problem as I didn't have enough range to safely make Rock Springs.

Heading west on 70 towards Baggs, Wyoming:




When I got to Baggs, the old station was indeed closed but there was a nice new little station with a card reader. Crisis avoided, I fueled and headed west again on County Road 4 towards Rock Springs. The first 20 or so miles are paved, then it turns into a dirt superhighway with 4 tire tracks. I'm sure it was constructed that way to allow 2 trucks to pass without sliding into the ditch. I met a few semis but overall the traffic was light. The scenery was quite different from the two mountain ranges I'd ridden through earlier in the day.




I made Rock Springs as the sun was setting and set up camp. I slept much better without the freight train noise of Rock River.

[Bogus Jim]

Day 3 - Rock Springs to Thermopolis, 338 miles
Highlights: Old Highway 191, Big Sandy and Lander Cutoff roads, Union Pass, Wildcat Road, Wind River Canyon




When I left Rock Springs the next morning, it was cold, and a 30 mph wind was blowing out of the east. I headed north on Yellowstone Road to avoid some of the traffic on 191, and then found Old Highway 191. There are no signs marking this old abandoned highway, just a barbed wire gate in the fence along 191. It would've been hard to find without a GPS. Once on the road, there was a sign saying the road was not maintained by the Wyoming State highway department. Anyone who needs a sign to figure that out probably shouldn't be driving.




There were some pretty serious potholes in this road - up to a foot deep. After nearly bottoming out the front forks on a bad one, I slowed to a more reasonable 30 mph so I could dodge the worst of them. The high sagebrush along the road provided a welcome wind break from the high winds this morning.

Next I jumped on Little Sandy, a decent gravel road that heads north towards the Lander Cutoff road. The Wind River mountains grew larger on the horizon as I rode north, and the views were magnificent.




Next up was the Lander Cutoff road, which heads west towards Pinedale. Lander Cutoff runs along the foothills of the Wind River mountains and offers more amazing scenery. I stopped and took a photo of this ranch house... they have a pretty nice backyard, I thought.




When I got to Pinedale, the pump at the gas station wouldn't work. A guy sitting on a Harley walked up to me and said the pumps are dead at both stations in town. The whole town is without power, and rumor is it won't be back on for 2 1/2 hours. I sat in the parking lot and pondered whether I should backtrack for fuel, but after only 30 minutes the power was restored. I fueled and grabbed lunch at the Wrangler Cafe, then headed for Union Pass road.

It's really hard to do justice to the scenery on Union Pass with a camera. The views are literally 360 degrees and every direction looks as beautiful as the next. It's an experience of Wyoming you will never get from the Interstate.








I found a trail that left Union Pass road and headed down into Dubois. I picked this trail (Wildcat Road) more or less at random, but it turned out to be a great choice, as the trail climbed to nearly the same height as Union Pass and then steeply dropped down into Dubois. The end of the trail joins up with a new paved road, Soda Springs, that winds down some switchbacks into town. The area is dotted with $400k+ homes and I can see why - the views of the red rock canyon and the mountains north of Dubois were stunning in the evening sun. On every trip it seems there is one photo you wished you would've stopped and taken, and this was the one I missed.

Here's an elevation profile of the ride from Pinedale to Dubois. The highest peak is Union Pass. The peak to the right of that is the climb up Wildcat and the steep drop into town. A fun trail.




I wanted to make Thermopolis that night so I jumped on some pavement. The ride from Riverton to Thermopolis through Wind River Canyon is beautiful, and if you've never ridden that stretch of pavement I would highly recommend it.

I decided to splurge in Thermopolis and got a room at the Super 8. I asked the locals for the best place to get a steak in town and surprisingly they said Days Inn. I had the prime rib and it was excellent.

[Bogus Jim]

Day 4 - Thermopolis to Rapid City, 360(?) miles
Highlights: Old Ten Sleep Highway, Otter Creek, Slip Road
Definitely NOT a highlight: the long boring grind home from Kaycee to Newcastle




When I left Thermopolis the next morning it was COLD. I did not realize how cold until I stopped at the next town to fuel and could barely get the gas cap off with my frozen fingers. I warmed up inside with some coffee and headed towards Ten Sleep.

I kind of enjoy riding the old abandoned highways. It gets you away from the traffic on the main roads. I headed down Old Ten Sleep highway and ran into this sign. The wash upstream was dry and I was able to ride down the ditch and around this road closure.




The old highway winds through the rolling hills. There's still a little oil and gas traffic on the road. You can see oil pumps on the horizon.




Next I headed towards the Big Horns on the Otter Creek road. The west side of this road appears to be privately maintained, and was in pretty good shape.




There were a couple stream crossings. I hit some slippery mud and instinctively dabbed my left foot down. Now I was both cold and had a soaking wet left foot. At least the right foot was dry for the rear brake.

The east side of Otter Creek has some deep ruts, washouts, and rocks in the road, but there's generally a good line available for a dual-sport so it's not that difficult. The trail pops out on Hazleton, which is a better gravel road.




Hazelton runs into the Slip Road, a road that crosses the southern range of the Big Horns. Can you think of anything you'd rather do on a fall morning than ride a road like this?




The east side of Slip Road has about 500 switchbacks. Some of the corners also have a pretty long drop to the bottom so I took it pretty slow coming down. Eventually you come out of the mountains and see this view:




When I crossed over to the east side of the Big Horns, suddenly the temperatures were much warmer. I actually had to stop and remove all the cold weather gear for the ride home. It must've been close to 80 and I couldn't believe I'd been freezing just a few hours earlier.

The ride from Kaycee to Newcastle was the most boring stretch of the entire trip. But I guess that is the price you pay; to get to the good stuff in Wyoming, you have to cross eastern Wyoming.

It's amazing what you can see, and the roads you can travel, on a dual-sport motorcycle in just 4 days. I pulled into Newcastle and fueled at the same station and same pump I'd used just 104 hours earlier, when I began the loop. And with that, my southern loop of Wyoming was complete.

[JoniJo]

You are soooo cool!   
The pictures are awesome!
I'd love to take a trip like this someday.
Did I mention that you were my Hero!        JoniJo

[Hank]

Wow great ride and great report.   Thanks for sharing!

That is something I would really like to do!

[jacin theis]

thanks for sharing. this is a great report. I am leaving for work in Bismarck in the morning and decided to ride (since the company car is in the shop).... I am looking at maps to see if i can make it an interesting trip. Wont be this nice i am afraid...I love the old roads and abandon owns. History class would have been a lot better with a mototcycle!

[Wacked]

Bogus -

Thanks for the report and superb pictures.....   I think I may have to do that loop one of these next of years!

Wacked

[Bogus Jim]

Thanks for the report and superb pictures.....   I think I may have to do that loop one of these next of years!

Thanks Brad. Let me know when you want to go. I really enjoyed the ride and the only thing that would make it better is to ride it with some DDSR folks instead of solo.

[Lonesome Dave]

Bogus Jim  -  That was frickin' awesome, thanks for sharing, I loved it.  I would like to do that sometime but not alone.
After a trip like that, maybe we should trade names, I'll be Bogus Dave and you can be Lonesome Jim.

Lonesome Dave   

[Sportfaller]

Group trip!

[Hank]

Group trip!

That's what I'm thinking.  That could be my June rally.

[Dr Psyko]

Spring group trip?

[loingrader]

awesome ride.  thanks so much for sharing Bogus!

[torgo]

A WY ride is on my bucket list.  I have seen nothing but awesome RR from this area.