Will be heading to Michigan from Colorado in late June. Would rather not super slab it most of the way. Any route suggestions would be appreciated. (Round Trip BTW)

John

Will be heading to Michigan from Colorado in late June. Would rather not super slab it most of the way. Any route suggestions would be appreciated. (Round Trip BTW)

With all due respect to those that live in between Colorado and Michigan. Have you considered flying.  

I could be wrong, and for your sake I hope I am. Hopefully someone local to those states will come along and
show us some interesting routing. Faced with your task (are you sure you can't get out of it?) I would just let Google maps come up with the
fastest slab routing and then zoom in and find the most parallel non-interstates and drag the route over to them.
If you get lucky and have more than one alternate choice just drag the little google man to each and compare the street views.
Northern Wisconsin is nice (not as nice as Colorado), but I'm sure that if you were headed for the Michigan U. P. you would have mentioned it. Right?
Good Luck!

Will be heading to Michigan from Colorado in late June. Would rather not super slab it most of the way. Any route suggestions would be appreciated. (Round Trip BTW) John

John,
  where-abouts here in the Wolverine are you headed?  there is some great riding to be experienced for those uninitiated souls who haven't been here yet..

  Riding from Colorado, I'd opt for the northern route up through S.D./MN/WI & into the U.P. vs. cutting across Nebr/ Iowa/ Ill & In., although The Great River Rd. along the Mississippi from inception to end is a ride to be savored all by itself...

Thanks for the replies!

I'll be headed to the Grand Rapids area. Muskegon to be specific. Your suggestions of a more northern route have certainly peaked my interest. I've always wanted to see the Black hills in SD. Any other must see items taking the northern route?

John

Amazing off road riding in Michigan, on road not so much.

I'll be headed to the Grand Rapids area. Muskegon to be specific. Your suggestions of a more northern route have certainly peaked my interest. I've always wanted to see the Black hills in SD. Any other must see items taking the northern route?

John

OK now you're talkin'. Black Hills, S.D. Badlands, U.P., then take the long way down to Muskegon after crossing over the bridge (be sure to sneak a quick peak straight down through the bridge grating to see the lake below for an eerie floating above the water experience)  from the U.P. into the lower mitten head west on 31 through Petrosky and Traverse City and then take route 22 up into the northwest corner and then back down along the shore until it rejoins 31 to Muskegon. On the return trip you can retrace the arrival route or take the ferry across the lake (I advise a reservation) and get some good German food at Mader's in Milwaukee before you hit the road home.
U.P. and Mackinac bridge
Petrosky MI
Lake Michigan shore
Michigan Vista
Muskegon ferry
Milwaukee skyline

Fartymarty,

Thanks for the pictures and routing! You have wet my appetite for this ride. I thought I was doomed having to ride the Great Plains to Michigan.

John

I thought I was doomed having to ride the Great Plains to Michigan.

   

Yeah, I was thinking that too, and thus my first response. I just wasn't aware of how far you would be willing to stray from the straight line route. DeansZG did very good by you. Rare is the trip that is exciting end to end and free from slab type highway droning somewhere along the route, but now I think you have a nice trip planned.

 Enjoy, ride safe, take pictures and share them here.