Our next road trip is in the planning stages

We are in the process of planning a  road trip for the last week in August. We'll be in the "new" car and are being joined for a portion of the trip by friends on their "new" 2009 Kawasaki Vulcan 1700. They purchased it last fall with only 7800km (4850 miles) on it.

 

Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 1700

We will be meeting up with them in Great Falls MT. From there we'll head to Laurel MT via the Kings Hill Scenic Byway.

From Laurel we'll head to Cody WY over the Beartooth Highway and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. From Cody we'll head across Yellowstone to Ennis MT for one night.

We are still working on the tail end of the trip but do plan to stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Not sure yet if we are just going to head straight home from Ennis or take another couple of nights and perhaps revisit the Going to the Sun road.

Here's our proposed route...

Preliminary route for our next road trip

 

Watch this space for more details! 

If you have any suggestions regarding things to see or do along the way please share them in the comments section!

Just a little update... we've decided to head home directly from Ennis MT, with a stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns, saving the Going to the Sun Road for another day. We will be taking the less travelled routes by avoiding the main highways if we can.

Another trip to add to the bucket list

While looking over some more road trip articles I came across another stretch of highway to add to the bucket list that's not too far from home. The Beartooth Highway is a stretch of US Highway 212 that runs from Red Lodge MT through the Absaroka-Beartooth National Wilderness, reaching elevations nearing 3350m (11,000ft), to Cooke City MT and the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Charles Kuralt called this the most beautiful highway in America. It even has its own website which features a 20 minute video.

From the Visit Yellowstone County website

Red Lodge is about nine hours south of our home in Calgary. It would be quite the trip if we first headed directly for the Beartooth and then made our return trip up through the Going To The Sun Highway and southern Alberta's Cowboy Trail both of which I've written about in earlier posts. This makes for a 2300km (1400mile) round trip. 

I'll close this post off with another Charles Kuralt quote:

"Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

Here's to backroads and less traveled routes! If you've driven the Beartooth please leave a comment!