Biking Wildlife Loop Road

When we biked the Barnes Canyon Trail we had two vehicles - one at the Barnes Canyon Trailhead at Badger Clark Road and one across from Grace Coolidge Campground near the pond. We started at Barnes Canyon Trailhead which is mostly downhill 4.7 miles, then hit Airport Road to Wildlife Loop Road for just under 2 miles, then hopped onto the Creekside Trail for another 3 miles. We stopped at the State Game Lodge for a beer on the deck and watched motorcycles go by since it was during the Sturgis Rally, then continued on our way to our vehicle. This was a fun ride for around 10 miles. Biking on the Wildlife Loop was definitely an experience though. We were on the side of the road with other RVs, cars, motorcycles, and of course buffalo. The buffalo were everywhere and according to a driver in the buffalo Safari jeep, they like to chase motorcycles and those on bikes. Since we have seen little buffalo in the last month or so, we did not really give this a thought until right where we were biking there we herds. The road itself is fun, but going from Airport Road to Highway 16A is mostly uphill and was a little hard especially navigating between all the vehicles and the buffalo. The rest of Wildlife Loop Road is much harder with a lot of hills, and I don’t think I have every seen anyone biking it before on my many trips through the loop.