Trip Synopsis

Journey to the Sun 2017 Motorcycle Trip

Trip Synopsis

This is a 21 day trip from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario westward to Montana and Glacier National Park – the highlight being travelling on the Going to the Sun Road – that is why the name for this excursion “Journey to the Sun”.  The trip will visit 10 states and 5 provinces.

The planning for this trip started in February of 2017and the final design took well over 40 days to complete and book the required accommodations and calculations to avoid gravel roads in Saskatchewan, which is not that easy.

Web Site 

This trip has its own web site with the trip which is this blog and the live GPS [Location] information.  GPS is updated every 10 minutes while we are moving.

Key Location Highlights, include:

• Bad Lands National Park  
• An ICBM - Minuteman Missile Launch Site (now a National Park) in South Dakota
• The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD
• Some interesting western railroading on the main line of the Union Pacific RR along US Highway #30
• Union Pacific Yard at North Platte, NE
• Nebraska Northwestern RR at Chadron, NE
• Lewis and Clark area of Montana and the Great Plains
• Big Spring Creek Railroad Trestle (one of the longest wood trestles in the US at Lewistown, MT, used by the Great Northern RR and the Milwaukee Road RR. (The spring provides Lewistown's water supply, which requires no treatment for use by consumers.)  T
• Great Falls, MT and the “Y” Great Northern Station and the Milwaukee Road Station, both preserved stations in the grand style.
• Three day stop over at the famous Izaak Walton Inn (a former Great Northern RR bunk house) in the middle of Glacier National Park.  This will be the base of operations for the Going to the Sun Road and a full day of intense railfanning on the mainline of the BNSF.
• Bitterroot Wilderness National Forest and the crossing of the Snake River (this will be the returning point of the trip).
• North back into Canada at Creston, BC
• Southern BC Coal Country and the heavy haul line of CP Rail, through Fort Steele, Frank Slide and over to Crowsnest Pass.
• Waterton Lake National Park
• Proceeding East into Alberta and onto Saskatchewan and the challenge of gravel roads disguised as provincial highways.
• Eastend, SK, Home of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the home to the world's most massive T. rex skeleton.  (This section of the Centre looks at the animals and environment that would have been found in southern Saskatchewan about 60 million years ago. The exhibit features full-size models of prehistoric animals found soon after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Discover reptiles such as a Borealosuchus, the “northern crocodile”, a fish eating reptile called a Champsosaurusas well as some of the mammals that adds to the long, storied history of our prehistoric past.)
• Ghost and Abandoned Towns of Southern Saskatchewan
• Red Coat Highway (historical movement of the Northwest Mounted Police westward)
• Remote Border Crossing on the on the US/Canada Border in Southern Manitoba
• Duluth, MN and Lake Superior
• Upper Peninsula of Michigan
• Straits of Mackinac and crossing on the Mackinac Bridge
• Tunnel of Trees Scenic Heritage Route in Michigan
• Returning to Canada via Sarnia, ON and onward to home