Table of contents
- Motorcycle tour USA Idaho / Wyoming Rocky Mountains Offroad
- Alternation between highway, country road and trail
- Somewhere in Idaho’s nowhere
- Noticeably greater dangers than in the Westerwald, for example
- Breathtakingly beautiful natural scenery
- Country Roads, don’t take us home
- Information about the trip and the organizer
- Info
Thorsten Dentges
20th pictures
Dentges
1/20
The forest floor is soft before
An abyss opens up on the front wheel, and an uphill gradient of almost 20 percent at the rear. Even the term path would be an exaggeration. The backcountry, too good German: cross-country, in the middle of the forest, the Targhee Forest, in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.
Dentges
2/20
At a gallop across the prairie.
Dentges
3/20
Wild bison are now a tourist attraction in Yellowstone National Park.
Dentges
4/20
Light luggage and weatherproof clothing are a must for adventure riding.
Dentges
5/20
And despite everything, the bike looks packed.
Dentges
6/20
Western idyll in the small town.
Dentges
7/20
Edward, John and Dave (from left to right) are among the travel enduro experts from Offroad-Bekleidungen Klim in Rigby / Idaho.
Dentges
8/20
The small US company Klim (pronounced: “Kleim” as a modification of “climb”) started in 1994 under the leadership of Justin Summers. Initially with functional clothing for ski instructors and mountain rescuers from various ski resorts in Utah, before a central company headquarters were set up in Rigby / Idaho.
Dentges
9/20
An incredible spectacle that takes place in the sky.
Dentges
10/20
In some deserted areas, the meadow is the way.
Dentges
11/20
Few tourists get lost in the Chesterfield settlement, which has been abandoned for decades.
Dentges
12/20
Wave ride: The path leads into the Rockies on epic long dust roads.
Dentges
13/20
The Union Pacific Railroad ran through the Wild West as early as the 19th century.
Dentges
14/20
The landscape exudes western charm.
Dentges
15/20
Alone in Idaho – that’s what it sometimes feels like on the back roads of the sparsely populated state.
Dentges
16/20
The Snake River, Idaho’s largest river: a top fly fishing spot. And enduro riders.
Dentges
17/20
After hours of off-road driving, it’s time to relax in the hot springs of Lava Springs.
Dentges
18/20
Fresh air, unbelievable space – Indian Summer in Idaho.
Dentges
19/20
Hardly a soul – bitter cowboy country.
Dentges
20/20
Attention, high mountains! In the Rockies, snow quickly falls in late summer at an altitude of over 2000 meters.
to travel
Motorcycle tour USA Idaho Wyoming
Motorcycle tour USA Idaho / Wyoming
Rocky Mountains Offroad
Cowboy romance, wild west feeling, following in the footsteps of the pioneers – the sparsely populated eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains promise great adventures even today. For stud riders with more than 100 horses under their bums, even more.
Thorsten Dentges
06/18/2014
The horse is on strike. Don’t want to go forward or back either. Cursed! The horse is called the KTM 990 Adventure R, and it is actually the forces of 115 horses that are pumped out of two cylinders. The engine runs perfectly. Nice thing, but does not help at the moment, because the load has got stupidly tilted in a more than sharp downhill hairpin. No spur helps, and the wild machine doesn’t even listen to good words.
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Rocky Mountains Offroad
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The forest floor is soft, an abyss opens up in front of the front wheel, and at the back there is an uphill gradient of almost 20 percent. Even the term path would be an exaggeration. We are backcountry, too good German: cross-country, in the middle of the forest, the Targhee Forest, in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. The steep ascent soaked in rocks up into the unknown still felt good, the two-cylinder engine paced neatly through the ground covered with roots, needles and leaves, the motor horse and rider climbed in zigzag uphill until, yes, until a huge fallen tree the onward journey irrevocably prevented. So turn around, find a way out.
Alternation between highway, country road and trail
Shortly before that, I almost rushed into an elk over two meters tall, but with one leap it disappeared into the thicket of pine trees. John, one of my travel buddies, then regretted not having his shotgun with him. The passionate hobby hunter believes that he rarely gets to see such a magnificent specimen of elk. John is from Idaho and likes the forests and mountains. There he fishes, drives off-road vehicles, in winter he stands on skis or plows off-piste through the snow with a snowmobile.
John loves outdoor action and accordingly he loves enduros, mostly two-cylinder adventure bikes, because they are the best way to play the alternating cycle of highway, country road and trail. John is the man who brought me this trip to the Rockies. Although: Given or brought in? Right now, there’s a more important question: How the hell do I get out of here? Well, I didn’t want it any other way. When I reported on Romania and Morocco last year, John replied with American impartiality: “You wanna have a perfect ride? Come over to my home in Idaho, I show you the best trails. It’s just backyard. ” Aha, so the adventure begins in the backyard? I wanted to see that for myself.
Long-distance travel with the MOTORRAD action team
Somewhere in Idaho’s nowhere
And indeed. We started in Rigby, a small town somewhere in Idaho’s nowhere, surrounded by potato fields. The picture that emerges when driving out of Rigby looks like this: unbelievable vastness. Kilometers of flat land, the Snake River Plain, gently rolling hills on the horizon, mountain ranges behind, and dramatic clouds above. Brightly leafy forests – it is Indian summer – break through the monotony of the huge pastures on which cattle graze. Every now and then you can see a farm in the distance, rarely a pick-up with a cattle trailer comes across on the wide, lonely gravel roads. The drivers greet you with a casual tap of their finger on their large cowboy hats.
We are at rest, three times KTM, one BMW, minimum luggage, 100 km / h. Dave from California with a typical American motorcycle vita: as a kid on a mini-crosser, as a teenager MX races, after college, sporty enduro hiking, well, at 40 plus rather moderate off-road touring on travel enduros. Lower risk, but increased campfire romance. Together we head for the eastern mountain range, the slopes develop into forest trails through dense Douglas fir forests. Every now and then a junction opens up behind a bush, over arm-thick, cross-lying branches and football-sized boulders then continue. If you want to follow the boys, there is no time to hesitate. So: open the tap!
Noticeably greater dangers than in the Westerwald, for example
Edward, the fourth in the league, traveled as a New York off-road freak for a year mainly off the asphalt through the USA and Canada, crossed the Rocky Mountains several times, knows almost every track in the area and does the scout. A winch is installed on his luggage rack like a jeep. That would have helped him out of trouble a couple of times, solo after falling in the woods. Sometimes he had to camp next to the machine and hope that someone in the wilderness would come to his aid the next day. Oh, maybe another time, but please not now!
Dentges
Wild bison are now a tourist attraction in Yellowstone National Park.
John warned about the grizzlies beforehand. Because it is not good to eat cherries with Master Petz. Black bears, which are found in abundance in Wyoming, are not a problem, they are more sociable. But the brown bear, which weighs up to half a ton and has the technical term “Ursus arctos horribilis”, can quickly put an end to a person’s life with just one swipe of the hand. After all, around 500 specimens live in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Exactly where I am right now. For the first time in my pacifist career, I want a gun, I can even understand the crazy Americans with their gunshot. A lot of the Wild West still lives here in the Rockies, and even if no “redskins” seek scalp, there are noticeably greater dangers lurking in this wilderness than in the Westerwald or Saarland, for example.
Idaho and Wyoming, both as big as the old Federal Republic, are among the sparsely populated states of the USA with only seven and two inhabitants per square kilometer, respectively. Around 1880, just 30,000 people lived here. Most of the pioneers moved on to the promising Pacific coast in California. On the way there it was not exactly squeamish: Wild West legends and gunslingers like Buffalo Bill or “Wild Bill” Hickock hunted bison buffalo professionally, thereby depriving the Indians of their livelihood. Bitter fighting broke out between the Cheyenne Indians and the US Army – the indigenous population is known to have lost out. The bison that are discovered nowadays, however, are only shot down by the tourists’ cameras.
Breathtakingly beautiful natural scenery
Finally I hear the sound of an engine, it must be John, because Dave and Edward turned in a different direction before looking for the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The two of us heave the 230 kilo KTM a few meters uphill so that it can turn better. It succeeds. Yeah, high five and quickly on to the meeting point with the other two. A farmer reported that because of the Government Shutdown, a kind of government strike, the regular park entrance was closed, so we had to find another way. Because turning back is not an option, the last gas station is over 150 kilometers back, and it is already getting dark.
We meet Dave and Edward at a reservoir, and luckily they now have an overview. It goes out of the forest and back in again, we ride over high bumps, the fat machines make moody hops of two or three meters each time, plow through deep puddles so that it just splashes – wonderful, wow, madness! -, a seemingly endless roller coaster in front of a stunning natural backdrop. John was not exaggerating with the term “a perfect ride”. We continue on an extremely flat road made of tamped earth, which is thinly coated with fine gravel. Edward warns: “It’s slippery!” And dashes forward.
Dentges
Attention, high mountains! In the Rockies, snow quickly falls in late summer at an altitude of over 2000 meters.
He knows the route and drifts through the curve while standing in wide slides. Oncoming traffic? There is not any. Apparently nobody gets lost here – I feel like Alice in motorcycle wonderland. Passing through Yellowstone National Park, further south, on the right the 4200 meter high summit of Grand Tetons rears up in the evening sun. At the foot of the mountain there is a cozy wooden hut as a night camp. We tie up the bikes in front of the hut, order giant, hand-made burgers and an overflowing bowl of fried onion rings in the saloon, and watch a baseball game on TV with canned beer and chips. Shortly afterwards: deep sleep.
In the morning, unexpected snow obstructs the actual route to abandoned silver mines in western Idaho. Passes over 2000 meters with motorcycles? No way! So change of plan. Head south to the Utah border, where the sun should shine. Droges tearing for miles on the highway, but after two hours Edward turns on the indicator and points to a range of hills. Behind it, he says, is the old Oregon Trail, a country road on which the settlers and their treks headed west in the century before last. Nowadays it is almost uninhabited no man’s land, and he would like to show us a remote ghost town.
We cruise off-road across meadows and fields through cowboy pastures in Caribou County to Chesterfield. Dilapidated brick houses, some of which are still furnished with artistically carved tables and rocking chairs, antique farm equipment, rusty wind turbines and rotten pasture fences characterize the abandoned settlement. There is a morbid mood over this place, at the same time an icy wind is blowing over the grassy areas and dark clouds are gathering. So you better saddle up immediately and, yeehaw, off through the middle towards the horizon.
Country Roads, don’t take us home
Past a camp with cowboys who form a wagon warehouse with modern caravans. John says that today’s cowherd men are often hired in the highlands of Peru or Bolivia. Because the weather-beaten men are used to cold and wind – and because the South Americans can do this backbreaking job for a few dollars an hour without grumbling. Because it’s really tough work, especially because in the hinterland you are completely on your own with the herd and often have to cope with simple, improvised foil crate night camps. Campfire, beans, whiskey, harmonica? Naive, romantic ideas, nevertheless: The men with the cowboy hats on their racy horses have a radiance from a bygone era, the America of western films from childhood.
Graveled tracks lead back to an asphalt country road along a railway line. A kilometer-long freight train rumbles on the tracks with loud bags – we’re back to civilization. The stage ends in Lava Springs, which is a popular excursion destination in Idaho, which is otherwise rather unskilled because of its natural swimming pool, which is over 40 degrees Celsius. Frozen and with a little sore muscles from off-road driving, we swing off the machines. The hot, gently bubbling spring water is magical, ever get out of here again? Preferably never.
Edward, Dave and John make tour plans for the following days. If the weather should improve, then maybe along the Snake River to the northwest and hopefully no longer snow-covered mountain ranges of the Rockies? Or back to Jackson Hole in Wyoming, there are still some hidden enduro-friendly paths in the dense forests, where not only foxes and rabbits but also bears and cougars say good night. The small group of travel enduro riders agrees on one thing: Country Roads, don’t take us home! At least not now, please.
Information about the trip and the organizer
Dentges
Edward, John and Dave (from left to right) are among the travel enduro experts from Offroad-Bekleidungen Klim in Rigby / Idaho.
The small US company Klim (pronounced: “Kleim” as a modification of “climb”) started in 1994 under the leadership of Justin Summers. Initially with functional clothing for ski instructors and mountain rescuers from various ski resorts in Utah, before a central company headquarters were set up in Rigby / Idaho (top picture). As snowmobile enthusiasts, the founders shifted their focus to the development of driver equipment from 1999 onwards. Enduro clothing has been part of the range since 2004, with which Klim was able to establish itself as a specialist on the American market, and since 2010 it has also been increasingly in Europe.
Much of the 120 employees are themselves motorcycle and / or snowmobile drivers. The company location Rigby, surrounded by several mountain ranges, is an ideal starting point for adventure riding, i.e. enduro hiking – the gas station there even offers racing gasoline. Anyone planning a similar trip will receive insider tips by email from the off-road professionals at r e i s e i n f o @ k l i m. C o m.
Info
Unlike California or Florida, for example, Idaho and Wyoming are rather unusual US travel destinations. That’s a good thing, because as a motorcyclist you are often breaking new tourist territory.
getting there
By plane you can fly on from Frankfurt / Main via Chicago or Denver to Jackson Hole with a small transport plane. Or choose the small town of Idaho Falls, which is near Rigby, as a destination. These connections are sometimes expensive (over 2000 euros for the return ticket). Getting there is probably easier via Salt Lake City / Utah, about 3.5 hours away by car / motorcycle. Flights there cost around 1000 euros.
Rental machines
Jackson Hole Adventure Rental, phone 0 01/8 77/7 73 56 78, www. j h a d v e n t u r e. c o m, In Jackson Hole / Wyoming rent snowmobiles, ATVs and BMW travel enduros from 100 euros / day. Eagle Rider in Salt Lake City / Utah, phone 0 01/8 01/4 33 18 00, www. e a g l e r i d e r. c o m, Rarely offers off-road machines, but rather touring motorcycles from BMW, Harley and Triumph.
Travel time
The most recommendable is September. Then the Indian summer in Idaho and Wyoming unfolds a beautiful blaze of color and the climate is mild. From October onwards, bad weather fronts with rain, cold winds and sudden snowfalls can turn motorcycle tours into a real challenge. In the midsummer months of July and August – similar to Scandinavia – the swarms of mosquitoes that are typical of the season are very annoying during outdoor activities. May and June are considered a good time to travel. In the long cold season (November to March) snowmobile tours would be an alternative to motorcycling.
Motorcycling
All hell is going on on the highway? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. There are relatively few interstates running through both states. However, paved country roads of mostly good quality lead to almost all larger towns and settlements. Remote Opposite-
they can often only be reached via paths made of rammed earth and gravel and agricultural roads. In theory with normal touring motorcycles, but practically better with enduros. You urgently need good studded tires if you want to discover and drive on forest roads, paths and natural mountain roads away from civilization.
Stay
In Jackson Hole / Wyoming: “Rustic Inn” (www. r u s t i c i n n a t j h. c o m). At the Grand Teton: the “Signal Mountain Lodge” (www. s i g n a l m o u n t a i n l o d g e. c o m, From approx. 100 euros / night) with a view of the lake. Idaho is in close proximity to Yellowstone National Park and Targ-
hee Forest the Island Park with the “Pond’s Lodge” (Www. P o n d s l o d g e. C o m, From approx. 60 euros / night). Accommodation in Lava Hot Springs: www. la v a h o t s p r i n g s i n n. c o m. For the really big adventure with a tent in your luggage and without fear of bears: Wild camping is possible almost everywhere outside of nature reserves.
Worth seeing
In the Idaho / Wyoming border area, the spectacular Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks impress with their high mountain scenery, geysers and a large number of wild animals (bears, bison, moose, pumas, wolves, etc.). The hot springs of Lava Springs near Pocatello / Idaho can be easily combined with a journey along the Snake River to the “Craters of the Moon”, a gigantic lava field, and to the Shoshone waterfalls. In 1974 motorcycle stunt legend Evel Knievel wanted to skip the 400 meter wide and 500 meter deep gorge – unsuccessfully, so please do not imitate it!
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