Ultimate Yellowstone Motorcycle Tour

A whole week inside the Yellowstone country, with the Beartooth Highway as its centrepiece. Eight days out of Jackson Hole, seven nights and only around 560 miles, which makes this the shortest daily mileage of any eight-day tour in the range and entirely deliberate.

The daily distances are tiny by American standards, only 40 to 160 miles, because this is a route built around stopping rather than covering ground. Grand Teton comes first, then the Rockefeller Parkway into Yellowstone and the geyser basins, then the Lamar Valley on the way to Cooke City, which is the quietest and most remote corner of the park.

Then comes the Beartooth. It climbs from Cooke City to nearly 11,000 feet in a sequence of switchbacks above the treeline, crosses a high plateau of alpine lakes and snowfields, and drops into Red Lodge on the other side. Charles Kuralt called it the most beautiful road in America and few riders argue. The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway follows on the way to Cody, then the route returns through Yellowstone’s east entrance, past Yellowstone Lake and back through Grand Teton.

EAGLERIDER supplies the motorcycle and books all seven nights, with Harley-Davidson touring models alongside Triumph and BMW sport machines. Fuel, meals and insurance are separate. The Beartooth is seasonal and usually opens late spring, so the dates matter. For riders who would rather ride 70 brilliant miles than 300 ordinary ones, this is comfortably the pick of the range, and the week leaves plenty of time off the bike as well.