making early plans

[mitch h]

I guess it is never too early. We are going to yellowstone and other places in mid august and sept. Has anyone drove hy.212 from spearfish to crow agency? Would like to get off of interstate for awhile. Have a lot of ground to cover. Want to drive beartooth pass. After yellowstone and teton area,headed south to utah for zion,moab,canyonland. This might be better than route 66. It will be, the hawk instead of a campershell. Some koa for convience,'sp' ?. Stopping at the badlands on the way out for a few days. Hope gas does get too high. I'll have to sell everything and walk home. Any pointers will help,we have never been out there. Thanks mitch

 

[brp]

I can't say enough about the Red Lodge/ Beartooth Pass area. It is one of my favorite places and if you would like to spend a few days in one area, this is the place.

Red Lodge is the last substantial town until you reach Cook City and the entrance to Yellowstone. There is a campground named Limberpine about 10 miles south of Red Lodge, along the Beartooth Hwy., and at the base of the Beartooth switch backs. Limberpine has some more developed areas that are pay sites, less secluded, dumpsters, vault toilets, etc. As you drive to the Glacier Lake Trail head, which exits out of the back of the Limberpine CG, the sites become more private, primitive and free!

Find a site you like I like the ones along the stream, and set-up shop. You can hike to Glacier Lake, which is awesome. You can drive up the Hell Roaring Plateau Rd and see some amazing alpine scenery. You could also camp along it. Then there is the Beartooth hwy. So many great places to stop, you can also bike it if you are ambitious and fit. There are some lakes and 4x4 trails on the top of the pass that are really fun too.

Once you summit the pass the landscape turns to what I think looks like an alpine golf course. It looks like a landscape out of a Tim Burton movie, just cool and unique. Take your time through it.

Red Lodge itself is a quaint, All-American town, fun restaurants and gas/groceries/etc. I used to camp at Limberpine and head into Red Lodge most nights for dinner and just to see the town.

Let me know if you have any questions and have fun.

---About Zion, the developed camping areas are kind of "domesticated" for my liking, check out the intersection of the Grafton Road and 250 S, across the stream from Rockville. There is a BLM road that has great views, free camping, and more privacy, as BLM land usually does.

 

[ski3pin]

I second the Red Lodge Beartooth Highway suggestion. Also think about Cody, WY. The draw for me were the four museums in the center of town - one admission for all, they're open late, and you can come and go throughout the day you pay for. There is a KOA in the center of town so you can walk to everything. The museums are incredible.

 

[billharr]

I second the Red Lodge Beartooth Highway suggestion. Also think about Cody, WY. The draw for me were the four museums in the center of town - one admission for all, they're open late, and you can come and go throughout the day you pay for. There is a KOA in the center of town so you can walk to everything. The museums are incredible.


Second Cody great town. Hit the Proud Cut Saloon it was in a book my son in law gave us for our big trip last year. Special of the day was pot roast and when it arrived we each had about 1 1/2 Lbs of meat in front of use. Also cooked perfect. Enjoy the trip.

Review of the Proud cut saloon.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/proud-cut-saloon-cody

 

[Barko1]

The later you can do it the better. Hit the Black Hills. Mt Rushmore is crowded but still worthwhile, Needles Hwy is great. Devils tower is also very cool, take up climbing! West from there is Fossil Butte National Monument, a worthy stop, and just South is Dinosaur National Monument, also very nice. Plenty of FS camping on 191. Sego Petroglyphs just North of Moab. Be sure to take 128 into Moab, or 141 from Grand Junction, some of the best roads around. FS camping W and above Monicello UT, Canyonlands itself may be too warm. Finish with the 95/12/24 loop through Utah. You'll be blown away

 

[brp]

I drove through Hwy. 12 (Devil's Backbone?) in Utah one time, much more quickly than I would have liked. It was really beautiful. I am wondering, and the OP might want to know, is there a lot do along the route? I remember seeing some CG's, but any specific suggestions?

I remember in a few places the wind was blowing hard and the road is just stuck up in the jetstream, or so it felt. I thought I was going to end up in Oz.

 

[Barko1]

I drove through Hwy. 12 (Devil's Backbone?) in Utah one time, much more quickly than I would have liked. It was really beautiful. I am wondering, and the OP might want to know, is there a lot do along the route? I remember seeing some CG's, but any specific suggestions?

I remember in a few places the wind was blowing hard and the road is just stuck up in the jetstream, or so it felt. I thought I was going to end up in Oz.

Calf Creek is a nice BLM cg, just off the road, nice little hike to a waterfall. Devils BB is a dirt route that goes off of Hwy 12 which is on my todo list. From Boulder head East to the switchbacks

There is just an overwhelming number of places to see.

 

[mitch h]

Guys, with all this great information ,it's going to make it a longer wait. Thanks alot. Cody was in the plans.

 

[zanshin]

Guys, one thing I've noted about Red Lodge in the summer over the past few years is that it's frequently jammed with motorcyclists - I'm talking sometimes miniature Sturgis jammed if there's a rally, wall-to-wall with no parking nowhere jammed. And the roads to and from Yellerstone from there have been often packed with lo-o-o-ong strings of bikers (40-100+) going at whatever speed they feel like at the moment, sometimes a bunch slower than I wanted.

We used to long-cut from Casper to Cody via Thermopolis and then either over Beartooth (which can get icy-dicey at the top, even in summer) and eventually hook up with I-90 to head westbound to Butte. We got tired of dealing with slow strings of bikes and started cutting across and into Tetons and Yellowstone from the south, out the west entrance and up to I-90 and Butte by that route.

 

[Foy]

I guess it is never too early. We are going to yellowstone and other places in mid august and sept. Has anyone drove hy.212 from spearfish to crow agency? Would like to get off of interstate for awhile.


Hi Mitch,

In late July 2010, I drove from Crow Agency to Belle Fourche, SD and back down to I-90 on US 212. Since it's shorter than staying on I-90, it gets some cut-through recreational traffic. But, be prepared: It's difficult to put into words the level and distribution of poverty seen along US 212 from west of Broadus back to Crow Agency. Lame Deer and Crow Agency were particularly shocking to an Easterner like me. It had been since the mid- 1970s that I'd so much as driven across a reservation, and I just wasn't mentally prepared to see what I saw that afternoon. The countryside is quite nice, what with the Custer NF lands along both sides of the highway, and some of the reservation lands are scenic, too, but it's tough to enjoy the scenery when you're troubled by how folks out there live. To be perfectly blunt about it, I don't think I'd want to camp anywhere from Broadus to and including Crow Agency.

Broadus, MT is a cool little cow town. I happened upon warm-ups for a local rodeo on the Friday evening I passed through, so I stayed for a while, ate some BBQ beef ribs, had a couplathree beers, slept in the truck, and headed off for I-90 at 00:dark:30 Saturday morning.

I second and third Red Lodge and the Beartooth Highway. Plus, entering Yellowstone at the Northeast Entrance by Cooke City brings you in through the Lamar Valley, off of the main loop and known for long views and much wildlife.

Have a look-see at the 2012 schedule for the Sturgis bike rally. It'll be breaking up around "mid-August" and campsites + motels will be jammed for many miles around, plus the aforementioned hordes of riders on each and every highway. Fun if you're riding, I suppose, but if you're not, not so much.

Foy