Day 8 Overview

Day 8 covered roughly 206 miles, leaving plenty of time for railfanning (watching & recording trains).   

I departed camp new Keystone, South Dakota (Grizzly Bear primitive campground) and proceeded west to Wyoming via SD Highway 244, U.S. Highway 385, and U.S. Highway 16.

In Wyoming, I rolled through the Thunder Basin Grassland, Powder River Basin and ended the day at Douglas KOA campground in Douglas, Wyoming.

Often Delayed, but Now Achieved.

This is not the first, second, or even third time I had planned to motorcycle tour in Eastern Wyoming.  The Fourth attempt was a charm in this case.

The first planned attempt would have taken place in September 2017 as part of a California to Minnesota trip on Jolene, a 2004 Honda VTX 1300C cruiser.  In August 2017, I crashed that bike, completely wrecked Jolene, and suffered injuries to my right leg, foot, and hip—reminders I still feel daily.   So, obviously this MC Trip was cancelled.

The second planned attempt would have taken place in 2019 as part of a MC Touring Trip originally named “Wyoming Loop 2019” riding from California through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, into Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, and then back to California.  However, due to two significant breakdowns with Dexter, a 2005 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic, and loosing about 4 days of travel time due to towing and repairs, this trip was altered to “Utah Loop 2019”.  You can read more about this here.

The third panned attempt would have taken place in 2022 as part of then planned “USA Midwest 2022” trip that was rescheduled to 2023, which obviously did occur and finally successful 😊.  I considered adding this area of Wyoming to the USA West 2020 MC Touring Trip, but chose to focus on the southern states and avoid cold Memorial Day weather.

So, with USA Midwest 2023 and for the most part Dexter behaved himself, I was finally able to see some PRB Coal Trains in person.  I wish I’d had more time to explore the area and see more trains.   However, with most of the roads being gravel in this area, I was not very comfortable taking Dexter over more gravel roads than I already had done.  With Dexter having a belt drive, there is a considerable risk of the belt being damaged by small rocks getting kicked up into the belt drive by the rear tire.  This can shred the belt drive and then you aren’t going nowhere.  This part of Wyoming is basically empty and very remote, getting a tow from here to a repair shop would be crazy expensive and difficult.  So, I didn’t want to push it more than I already had.

There is a good chance that I may return to this area on a future trip, but this time with a more off pavement friendly motorcycle.  However, there are several other planned MC Touring Trips planned to be completed first, so another Wyoming trip will be several years from now.  But I certainly do want to ride in Wyoming again to include Bear Tooth Pass, Yellowstone, and down through the Grand Tetons.    

Eastern Wyoming – Thunder Basin & Powder River Basin

Shortly after entering Wyoming from South Dakota on U.S. Highway 16 – West, the scenery begins to transition quickly from the rugged and untamed Black Hills to high prairie grasslands, void of trees except for towns and long abandoned homesteads. 

The Thunder Basin & Powder River Basin is dominated by grasslands and shallow rolling hills that meet the sky, with virtually nothing else to be seen.  The feeling of intense remoteness is fantastic.

  I would love to ride the numerous unpaved roads in this area to achieve even more remoteness and isolation while riding, to feel and explore the truly less beaten paths.  As stated earlier, I was limiting my unpaved riding on Dexter due to concern of the belt drive.  On this USA Midwest 2023 trip, I grew more comfortable riding on unplanned unpaved roads.   However, concern about belt failure limited how much I was willing to do.   With a more unpaved road / off road motorcycle (such as my new current motorcycle Bruce, a Harley-Davison Pan America 1250 Special, I would be much more comfortable with riding these roads.  True off-road riding would be a real challenge for me, since I haven’t done much beyond dirt bikes—and that was over 30 years ago.   Although Bruce outperforms Dexter, it’s still too big for serious off-road riding like two-track trails.   While others have accomplished it, doing so remains a demanding task.

Heading west on Wyoming Highway 450 from New Castle, Wyoming, there are no towns and no real signs of civilization other than industrial installations every so often in support of the coal or oil industry here.  This region is primarily characterized by extensive prairie grasslands, alongside ranches, native wildlife—including antelope—coal mines, oil wells, and railroads that facilitate the coal industry.   There are no homesteads (visible from highway), towns, not one gas station, just remote prairieland.  It was enjoyable with minimal traffic (there are quite a few trucks and other commercial vehicles on the highways here for how remote it is), I was able to bomb down the highways at 80 or 90 mph in many areas.

Coal Trains

For me, the main draw to this part of Wyoming though was the intensive coal trains here supporting the coal industry.  As I have stated numerous times, I am also a model railroader and train enthusiast.  I got started in model trains back in 1978 when I received the Tyco Royal Blue train set from the Sear Christmas catalog.  I also remember sitting trackside in Anoka and Coon Rapids Minnesota watching the Burlington Northern trains pound the rails of the former Northern Pacific and Great Northern double tracked mainline, now the BNSF Staples line.

Planning for the Orin line commenced in 1972, with full completion achieved by Burlington Northern in 1979.    In the early 1980s, the Chicago and North Western (C&NW) sought access but lacked funding. They eventually partnered with Union Pacific (UP) to buy a 50% interest in the line.  Today, the “Joint Line” is operated by BNSF Railway (BN’s successor) and Union Pacific.

I was able to video three Union Pacific coal trains on the Orin Line in Converse County, Wyoming, a little north of Douglas, Wyoming.

Photos from Today