Best route - Yellowstone to Minneapolis/St. Paul

[John Falconer]

*** (Duplicate posting of one on Boxerworks' "Open Road" forum, since that forum looks VERY quiet.) ***

I’m leaving this coming Monday (June 18th) for New Hampshire, from Northern California. I am mostly staying with friends along the way and I’ll be on my 1988 R100RT.

One of those friends, who lives in North Dakota, will now be out of town so I’m given the opportunity to be flexible in my route from Yellowstone to Minneapolis/St. Paul. My schedule allows me to take two or three days to make this leg of the trip. I prefer secondary highways over the slab.

Does anyone have suggestions of the most scenic or interesting route between these points?

Oh, on a related note, yesterday my new Garmin Zumo 220 (it has everything I need, just want basic GPS features) arrived and I’ve been exploring its capabilities. I am actually pretty pleased with its ability to respect the “keep off the main roads” (actually I think they call it “avoid highways”) feature – I’ve tested it on some source/destination pairs I’m familiar with and it does a pretty nice job picking a good route.

Thanks and see you on the road … the UPS truck just showed up with my new windshield … must go mount it.

[melville]

You could reverse our 1987 trip from NH to Seattle--take Beartooth Pass out of Yellowstone, then mostly follow 212 through SD. We did take a southern swing (hwy 385 and others) to see the Black Hills, Rushmore, and the Badlands. From there, slab it a bit and go through Pierre to get back to 212, which pretty much takes you right to the Twin Cities. East of the Badlands, it's all the same ol' prairie thing.

Our trip was in a heavily loaded (all our worldy possessions) VW Beetle and we were also avoiding slabbing it. South Dakota, in particular, was uphill and into the wind heading West. Top speed until we crossed the Continental Divide was 45-50ish. After the Divide was crossed, top speed was 85ish, right at redline!

[Ridercam]

John

glad you are doing that ride and turned a corner on your health. sounds like you are going solo. Are you cutting across Nevada or are you going through Oregon and Idaho to Yellowstone? Have a great trip. I look forward to seeing your pictures as they are always an inspiration..

Ted
R100CS

[Jeff in W.C.]

John,
It's been a long time since we talked. I hope you're doing well and you have a good trip.

BTW, did you get another Clearview windshield or something different?

[John Falconer]

Good suggestion. Thanks.

I'm going to stay the first night with a friend just west of Reno, then head east to Ely before turning north to stay with another friend in Ashton, ID.

@Jeff - yes, too long ... I hope you are well. The replacement Clearview arrived today and I installed it this afternoon. My vent was good so I reused it. Installing that to the shield was a VERY trying thing to do with just two hands!