USA - Sturgis Rally and Rocky Mountains - 2012

Visit the Harley-Davidson Museum and Sturgis Bike Week on this guided motorcycle tour in the USA. A tour of history, fun and scenic motorcycle routes.

We will visit the newly-opened H-D Museum in Milwaukee and go on to the Sturgis Bike Week, which is one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the USA with more than half a million attendees!

Our motorcycle tour will take us to the Black Hills, the Badlands and the Rocky Mountains, among other places.

The motorcycle tour: Sturgis Rally and Rocky Mountains.

View Sturgis Rally (english) in a larger map

Day 1: Major European airport – Chicago.
We meet in a major European airport and fly to Chicago, where our bus will take us to the hotel. We finish the day with a good dinner in Chicago.

Day 2: Chicago – Milwaukee.
We start the day with a round trip in Chicago. The city, also called the Windy City, is located on the banks of Lake Michigan. Chicago is also known for its impressive skyline with, among others, the highest building of the USA, the Sears Tower.
We are also going to visit Navy Pier, an amusement park that stretches out into the lake. In the afternoon, we go on to Milwaukee, Wisconsin – the native town of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle – where we stay overnight.

Day 3: Milwaukee.
We start the day with a visit to the newly built Harley-Davidson Museum. For the sake of the enthusiasts, we have allotted plenty of time.

Afterwards, we drop by the original H-D factory, and we spend the rest of the day taking a look at the city of Milwaukee.

Day 4: Milwaukee – Chicago.
Today, we are going on a round trip at the H-D factories in Milwaukee. After that, we head back to Chicago. The rest of the day is at your own disposal, so you have the opportunity to explore the city on your own, or maybe you prefer just to relax by the pool at the hotel and “recharge the batteries” for the next days’ rides on the motorcycles.

Day 5: Chicago – La Crosse.
We pick up our motorcycles in the morning, and now our tour towards the west starts. From Chicago, we go to the city of Madison in Wisconsin. Subsequently, we are going to cross a small mountain area and go to the city of La Crosse that is located on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi River, where we stay overnight.

Day 6: La Crosse – Sioux Falls.
Today, we start by crossing the Mississippi River and going into the state of Minnesota.

We ride through agricultural areas, and we are now approaching the prairie. We finish the tour of the day in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where we stay overnight.

Day 7: Sioux Falls – Black Hills.
Today, we are going to cross South Dakota. During the day, the landscape will change from agricultural areas and prairie to the wilder Badlands and, eventually, mountains and forests in the Black Hills area.

We are going to spend the next couple of days here, at one of the world’s largest motorcycle rallies, the Sturgis Rally.

Days 8-9-10: Black Hills/Sturgis.
We are going to spend three days in an incredibly beautiful and exciting area.

Sturgis is a very small city, but one week a year, during the Bike Week, the population increases to about half a million.

During these days, the whole area around Sturgis seethes with motorcycles. In the Black Hills, you can experience the great scenery, exciting wildlife, Mount Rushmore featuring the faces of four American presidents and the Native Americans’ version of this – the Crazy Horse Monument.

Deadwood is an old gold mining town, and this is where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and buried with Calamity Jane.

In the area around the Black Hills, you can see the Devils Tower in Wyoming, a very distinctive rock formation, and the Badlands National Park, an impressive and very distinctive landscape, which is hallowed ground for the Sioux, and the Badlands is located in the Indian reservation.

Here, we have the opportunity to meet the local Native Americans. Lots of films have been shot in this area, Dances With Wolves among others.

South of the Badlands lies Wounded Knee, where the famous general Custer massacred the Native Americans.

Furthermore, in the Black Hills we have the opportunity to see many small and cosy towns and the stalactite caves of the area.

Day 11: Black Hills – Loveland.
We leave the Black Hills and go into Wyoming towards the Rocky Mountains.

We pass Ft. Laramie and go on to the city of Cheyenne. Afterwards, we go on into Colorado, to the city of Loveland at the base of the Rocky Mountains, where we stay overnight.

Day 12: Loveland – Ogalala.
Today, we are going upwards and into the Rocky Mountains National Park. We are going to ride along incredibly beautiful roads, through the mountains to the city of Denver.

We are now back on the prairie, and we stay overnight in the city of Ogalala.

Day 13: Ogalala – Des Moines.
Today, we have a long haul across the prairie ahead of us.

We ride along the Platte River to the city of Omaha, where we cross the Missouri River and go into the state of Iowa. During the emigration, many Danes settled in the state of Iowa, and we will visit a Danish town on the way and end the day in the city of Des Moines.

Day 14: Des Moines – Chicago.
From Des Moines, we go on to the city of Davenport, where we cross the Mississippi River again and go into the state of Illinois to Chicago. We hand over our motorcycles and go to our hotel.

In the evening, we will finish with a good dinner.

Day 15: Journey home.
Today, we start our journey home. If time allows, we can go shopping before we go to the airport and board the plane.

Day 16: Arrival.
Arrival at our departure destination. We say good-bye, hoping that you have had a fantastic tour, and, to the motorcycle touring enthusiasts, until later – we look forward to seeing you again for other fantastic motorcycle tours at destinations out in the world.