Fergy & DiamondLyl's Trip To Sturgis & Beyone

Written by: Fergy

As you know Diamondlyl and I got together with some other friends of our's for our annual trip. This year was the Sturgis area, and a round about way home via the Grand Canyon.

We had 5 couples with 5 bikes total. We all met up at the Valero in Cleveland, Texas, for a starting spot, at 5 AM.

The weather was still a bit cloudy, but no rain yet. By the time everyone showed up, and we all said our hellos, it was nearly 6 AM when we pulled out. Our destination on our first day was Childress, Texas, up in the panhandle. The first day was pretty uneventful, we got rained on a few times but nothing really bad.

The second day, we got up about 6 AM and had breakfast and prepared to head out to our next destination, North Platte, Nebraska. The second day was not a good day weather wise. It rained on us most of the day except for the last few hours of the ride. We finally arrived at North Platte around 7 PM.

We got up on the third day, just like the last two, around 6 AM, had the continental breakfast, and headed out to our next stop, Hill City, South Dakota. Hill City is a great spot to stay. It's near all the riding areas and still pretty close to Sturgis also. We had rented a cabin just outside Hill City and had plenty of room for all 5 couples there. The scenery up to this point was good, but we had road the highways up to make time and figured we would see all the good stuff on the trip back.

One of our first rides, as we arrived in the South Dakota area, was Iron Mountain. This was a fantastic ride through this area. We got to see lots of mountain vistas, lots of buffalo and pronghorn, and one ole buffalo that you will see a picture of, that decided to come down and was standing right on the edge of the road. We could have reached out and touched him as we slowly drove by. The roads in the area are pretty twisty, and there are a few cut backs and hair pins. The scenery was fantastic. We drove on through some other areas getting to our cabin and decided to have some dinner and call it a day. We decided to have a campfire in the area behind our cabin, and all sat around and had some cold beers and talked about the day. I think sitting around the campfire with friends and talking about all the cool stuff we had seen during the day was one of the highlights of the trip.

On the fourth day of the trip, we decided to get up and ride on in to Sturgis. We got there through Deadwood, another really cool little town with lots of bikes. This year we didn't spend a lot of time in Sturgis, about half a day or so letting the girls do some shopping and taking a few pictures of some of the scantily clad girls. Sturgis is really neat if you have never been, but with all the other stuff in the area to see, we didn't want to spend a whole lot of time there. Later that day we headed out to Mt. Rushmore via the back road. This is one of the best roads I have ever been on. It twists and turns, goes through several small tunnels that have been bored right through the rock, and has lots of loops and cut backs. It even splits up and has single roads through the woods, and were just made for motorcycles, as you will see by some of the pictures. On this day, as we headed back to the Hill City area, we decided to cut through the wild life area. Wow, wild life is right. We had an entire heard of buffalo cross the road in front of us and file into the fields on our right. Little did we know that not all the heard had made it, and there were some stragglers. As we rounded a bend and slowed down a bit, we heard one of the girls let out a scream, and coming up right behind us were 3 buffalo. You will see a couple of pictures with one of our buddies and the buffalo is right there beside him. We eased forward on the bikes, and believe it or not, the buffalo actually ran along beside us for almost 3/4 of a mile, finally cutting across and rejoining the heard. It was pretty damn cool getting to ride with the buffalo.

On the fifth day, our last in the Sturgis area, we decided to head out to the Crazy Horse Monument. The Crazy Horse Monument is truly something to see. When it is finished it will be the largest carving in the world. To give you some perspective of how big this guy is, all four faces on Rushmore will fit in the face of Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse is not being built by any government agency either. It is was started by one man, and is now being carried on by his wife and sons and daughters. They estimate that it will take another 50 years to complete. If you do ever get up in this area, be sure to stop in and see this. The family operates solely on the money from visitors and donations. And to see the steps that the mountain has gone through to become what it is now, is truly amazing. I hope I'm around in 50 years to see it when it's done.

The sixth day, we got up and said good bye to South Dakota and headed on to our next destination, North West Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park. On the way, we stopped in at the Devil's Tower and took a few pictures, but didn't go into the park. We were wanting to make time on today's trip. We drove up into Montana and crossed the mountain pass via Chief Joseph Pass. This pass was truly majestic. It took us to a height just over 10,000 feet and had some of the most majestic views you have ever seen. We dropped out of Montana and settled in, in Cody, Wyoming, set to ride The Yellowstone National Park the next day.

The seventh day, we spent all day riding Yellowstone. We saw lots more buffalo, pronghorns, coyote, and other wildlife. We stopped in to see old Faithful, but it had just went off a few minutes before we arrived, and we didn't want to spend the time to wait for it again. Yellowstone was very beautiful but cost 25 dollars a car to get in, and the roads are pretty crowded with other visitors. We left Yellowstone and headed south to Jackson Hole, where we had lodging already booked along with a white water rafting trip on the Snake River.

The eighth day of our trip, we woke up in beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming with the Grand Tetons as a back drop. This was probably my favorite spot of the whole trip. The mountains we had left in South Dakota and Montana just seemed to pale in comparison to the Tetons, and Jackson Hole has to be one of the coolest towns I have ever been in. We had to get up and get ready for our 10:00 AM white water rafting trip. The trip on the Snake River was really fun. We didn't get to see any wildlife but had a ball on the rapids. Most of the rapids we were on were class 1 and 2, and we had two big 3 class rapids. (Just check out the pictures.) We got done on the river and had a chance to sit back and relax a little that evening. We had another great time sitting around by the pool, having refreshments and talking about the day. We had spent two days in Jackson Hole and the next leg of our adventure awaited.

We got up, on the ninth day of our trip, in Jackson Hole to a brisk 39 degrees. After bundling up and loading up, we headed out to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. We road through the rest of Wyoming, into Idaho and Utah. By the time we got there, it was over a hundred degrees. What a change, huh. We rode hard this day to get to our destination, the North rim of the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is just breath-taking. We rode the North and South rims, it's hard to describe how beautiful this place is. If you ever do get to the Grand Canyon just be careful, there are lots of deer in the area and other wildlife. We spent the night on the South rim of the Grand Canyon and prepared for the push home.

After leaving Arizona, we headed into New Mexico and spent the night in Roswell. Then from Roswell to Kerrville, and from Kerrville, home. The trip through Roswell and Kerrville was mostly highway, so we didn't do a lot of sightseeing.

I left out a lot of details because I want you guys to really check out the pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and words just can not describe the beauty and truly amazing things that we got to see. They really do not do justice. This was truly a vacation of a life time.

The final tally was 4,700 miles, 12 different states, 13 days, and a great time had by all. And best of all, we all made it home safe and sound.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Click on picture to enlarge.