Sturgis Rally & The Old West

Welcome to the Denver Colorado, the ‘mile high’ city and the starting point of your guided Sturgis Rally & Old West motorcycle tour.

On arrival at Denver international airport, collect your luggage and head downtown on the train from the airport. Check in to your hotel, drop your bags in your room and come on down to our welcome desk to meet your tour guides who will help with any final preparations for your tour. You’ll meet your fellow riders at the Welcome Dinner this evening and have a chance to learn more about the adventure to come.

After breakfast we go to collect our Harleys, and then head into the Rocky Mountains for some great riding to set the tone. Lovely sweeping roads rise to over 2000 m for the next 75 or so miles.

We then change direction and head north-east. The mountain vistas make way to open grassland this afternoon – the land west of Cheyenne was the setting for the original ‘Virginian’ stories. With a fair wind there should be time to see the golden domed State Capitol, and the Frontier Days Old West Museum, a must for those of you interested in the days of the Old West with its collection of horse-drawn vehicles, Native American costumes, rodeo mementoes and even a rustic saloon.

Today’s ride takes us on backroads to Black Hills National Park. We stop at Fort Laramie, founded in 1854 and the oldest and most important garrisoned outpost in Wyoming. Now a national historic site, 22 original structures remain. Nearby is Register Cliff, a day’s hike down the trail, where pioneers ‘signed in’ on the sandstone walls of the cliff; and the Oregon Trail Ruts, where the pioneer wagons carved deep ruts for several hundred yards in the soft sandstone above the North Platte River. We continue north towards Thunder Basin National Grassland, following the old stagecoach route, and then head into South Dakota and our ride into Rapid City.

For the next 4 days we have time to get into the sights, sounds and feel of the world’s biggest Harley event in all its glory. You can come on organised ride-outs with our knowledgeable crew to Deadwood, Spearfish Canyon, Mount Rushmore and through the Black Hills. And we’ll also take you to some of the events happening like Thunder Road or the drag racing. Or you can do exactly as you please and find your own way around. The choice is yours!

We leave Sturgis behind and head for the Devil’s Tower, important in the legends of Native Americans and a landmark for European pioneers. Rising nearly 400 m above the valley floor, this was the first national monument in the USA. And if it looks familiar, it was used as the site where the spaceship landed in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. We then ride the pioneer trails of General Custer and his men in 1874, heading southwest past the largest coal mining region in the USA and across the plains to Casper. If we’re lucky we may find a little gold here! Casper, our stop for the night, was a major settlement in the 19^th century. This is the crossroads of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail and the Pony Express. Casper’s wealth is founded on uranium, bentonite (used as drilling mud in oil and gas wells, but also as a health drink!) and oil. The city has a mineralogical museum with some fascinating fossils, and the famous Nicolaysen Art Museum.

As we head south to Rawlins the Rocky Mountains Massif looms ever larger. Rawlins is a once-infamous cattle town. 140 years ago the locals lynched and skinned the region’s most notorious outlaw, ‘Big Nose’ George Parrott. So don’t get caught speeding! Views and scenery don’t seem to end today, and our final hour or so along the Snowy Range Scenic Byway with curve after curve gets us to our destination, the ski resort of Steamboat Springs in the heart of the mountains.

Our final leg of this tour presents us with fantastic motorcycle roads through the mountains. The Colorado River Headwaters Scenic Byway takes us to the unspoilt town of Kremmling, where the Moose Café will give you a real slice of hometown Colorado.  We continue up the Colorado River valley to Hot Sulphur Springs, with its 22 thermal pools and quaint local museum, and then head north past Grand Lake and over the Great Divide and Trail Ridge Pass. At over 12,000 ft (nearly 3700 m) this is the highest paved pass in America, with great riding and spectacular views.

After returning our motorcycles, tonight we’ll have our Farewell Party and the rest of the evening is yours to enjoy.

In the morning there’s time for some last-minute shopping and relaxing. Denver’s 16^th St Mall, just a short walk from the hotel, is a must. Then it is off to the airport for your flight home. We hope you enjoy great memories of  your Old West guided motorcycle tour including Sturgis Motorcycle Rally!