BHNF July 4th Week

[Dagwood_55]

MY wife and I are coming to the BHs on the 27th for a week of camping, riding 2up on a VStrom and hopefully a little flyfishing.  Unless someone has a gread favorite NF campground, I think we'll be camping at Dalton Lake.  There maybe a better campground for fishing, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

But I was also wondering if anyone would share some tracks.  Gravel, NF roads for 2up.  We usually ride all day and like to make loops if possible.  I thought one day we would ride over to Devils Tower so a backroad track to there and back would be great.
I use Garmin BaseCamp and a Montana GPS, so multi point tracks are fine.

I know everyone is out riding this weekend, but thanks for any info.

[Bogus Jim]

I'll try and post some tracks next week. I did a gravel / trail route from Sturgis to Devils Tower in May this year, unfortunately ran into snow in the Wyoming Black Hills and had to turn around. But it should be open now.

Are you familiar with the highways here? There's enough twisty pavement to ride for a day, maybe. More traffic than forest roads though.

[Dagwood_55]

Thank for the reply BJ.  No, not familiar with the roads.  We came thru and spent the nite in a cabin at Custer in '95, got up and
drove straight out towards Yellowstone.  I just remember saying: "we gotta come back and spend more time"

Any tracks would be appreciated.

Thanks

[The Yeti]

I haven't stayed at Dalton Lake in about 15 years and they have since upgraded the facilities quite a bit. It's a very pretty spot with some nice gravel roads to explore nearby. Are you camping in a tent or RV? I believe that Dalton has water hookups only, but I could be wrong. That area (Nemo area) is one of the best for trails in the hills, but a lot of it can be a little hairy on a VStrom.

It's a nice "lake" (really more of a pond) for fly fishing. I believe it's catch & release only there. I don't FF myself but I know a lot of folks like to FF below Pactola dam, I know it's only catch & release there.

Some of the paved roads you shouldn't miss are:
Nemo Road
Vanocker Canyon (the road you will turn off of to get to Dalton Lake Rd.)
Iron Mountain Road (will have the most tourist traffic)
Spearfish Canyon

Some good 2-up gravel/fire roads:
Victoria Lake Road - https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Victoria+Lake+Road
Slate Creek Dam - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Slate+Creek+Dam/@44.0334454,-103.6152867,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8762adf0a1fbf671:0xd86d34367e4d68ae
China Gulch (249) - https://www.google.com/maps/place/China+Gulch+Rd/@44.00204,-103.5828958,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8762b322a86b082d:0x7de4a017dc0da562

Sorry, but I have no GPS tracks. I may be available as a guide on Sat or Sun though!

[Dagwood_55]

Thanks for the info.

We will be camping in our RTT (Roof Top Tent) on top of a trailer, so basically camping in a tent.

Will the weather be cool enough at nite for a campfire??  Should we bring firewood from home??

Or is it readily available locally??

[The Yeti]

It should be cool enough for a fire, probably in the 50s if not 40s up there.

I'm not sure if they have wood at Dalton (prolly not), but I'm sure they have it at the Nemo general store. Again, not sure if you would be allowed to bring it from home (but if you can buy it at Nemo and bring it in, I don't know why not).

[Bogus Jim]

Here's a mostly gravel / dirt loop from Rapid City to Devils Tower and back to Nemo. 250 miles.

[Bogus Jim]

Here's a 213 mile loop that hits most of the fun pavement in the Hills, plus some forest roads. Starts at Dalton Lake, Vanocker Canyon to Sturgis, past Ft. Mead Cemetary, Whitewood frontage road over to Spearfish, Spearfish Canyon past Bridal Veil and Roughlock falls, forest roads to Flag Mountain lookout tower, more forest roads to Ditch Creek campground and into Hill City, Iron Mountain, Playhouse Road, Neck Yoke Road, Teepee Gulch, then Victoria Lake into Rapid City. Skyline Drive past the dinosaurs (a must see  ) then Norris Peak and Nemo road back to Dalton.

[Bogus Jim]

Here's an easy 100 mile mostly dirt loop out of Keystone. I don't have a map to post but it goes past Hippy Hole waterfall, the osprey nest at Pactola, fun pavement to Silver City, forest roads to Deerfield and then back to Keystone. Road it with a couple guys who were staying in Keystone which is why the loop starts there...

[Dagwood_55]

Thanks for the tracks.  The Devils Tower looks good, but will prolly be a 2 dayer if riding 2up and sight seeing, don't you think??

We can grab a cheep motel and ride the next day back, it will just cut down on my fishing time

[Bogus Jim]

Thanks for the tracks.  The Devils Tower looks good, but will prolly be a 2 dayer if riding 2up and sight seeing, don't you think??

Probably so... you could cut about 40 miles by starting in Sturgis instead of Rapid City. Still a long day if you stop for photos though.

I might ride out to visit some evening if that's OK. I was thinking about doing a short trip to the Ozarks later this fall and could use some inside info.

[Dagwood_55]

That would be great to come by our camp.  Right now I'm thinking of camping at either Box Elder Campground or Lake Dalton.  We'll be in a dark gray LWB Ford 350 SRW, with a trailer with a RTT (Roof Top Tent) on top, should be easy to spot.  My 2up bike is a Vee Strom.

And yea, if any of you guys want to get a trip to the Ozarks, I would be glad to show you around.  It needs to be after Labor Day or in Oct or its just too hot to ride any earlier.  Plenty of good riding around here and I work for myself, so I can get off a day or so easily.

Thanks,
vic