Hey folks.
Im doing a US Coast to Coast bikepacking Tour in april/may/june. Now i found out about the Great American wheel route (https://bikepacking.com/gawr/) which is pretty similar to mine.
Do you have any thoughts on why it is missing out on yellowstone np?
by Previous-Sherbert-50
4 Comments
My guess is maybe from a traffic standpoint? If I remember correctly that route is mostly low traffic roads, gravel and old railroad beds right?
I live in Butte and have helped a couple folks that have been on that route, it seems fun!
Probably a combo of Yellowstone being off the route enough that it would have been hard to route onto it, and the fact that Yellowstone is not that bike friendly. It is very car dominated, there are not a ton of lowspeed roads unless you just want to do a small loop out of the main village, and bison are one of the deadliest mammals in North America because people in Yellowstone are idiots.
National Parks are broadly unfriendly to bikes with some notable exceptions, and I would absolutely not want to ride my bike through Yellowstone. The driving on display there is insane. I swear that people hand the rangers their brains when they check into the park.
It was designed to stay off of the high traffic roads. It’s supposed to be a safe alternative to the Trans Am route.
I think the final version has all of the private property and dead ends removed. Good luck if you ride it and please report back with your ride experience
I didn’t look to see where this route travels specifically in the PNW, but I’m in idaho and I wouldn’t want to try and get through much of the mountains north of me until mid June or later due to snow and tree fall. Even the cascades got dumped on this year so maybe a local can chime in on how that looks. Depending on which direction you’re choosing to travel.