As someone who grew up in the endless plains of Texas, it’s hard for me to imagine crossing it on a bicycle. But that’s exactly what the Great Plains Gravel Route intends for those cyclists brave enough to attempt it.
This novel bikepacking route finally opens in April after years of development by some of the biggest names in gravel biking. The route begins at the Texas-Mexico border near Big Bend National Park and meanders north through five other states. The route proceeds across Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and South and North Dakota — before a terminus at the Canadian border.
This 3,800-mile route aims to show the very best of the Midwest, a part of the country long ignored by many outdoor enthusiasts. Lovers of gravel biking have begun embracing this “Great American Desert.” This is exemplified by increasingly popular races, such as Kansas’s Unbound and Oklahoma’s Mid-South Gravel.
In fact, the organizers of those races — Bobby Wintle of Unbound and LeLan Dains of Mid-South Gravel — first began exploring the idea of the Great Plains Gravel Route over 10 years ago. They’ve since connected with four other collaborators, each one designing the route through their state. That includes Jerod Foster, a Texas professor and cyclist who explained his vision for the route in a 2019 essay.
It’s meant to celebrate America’s Great Plains “via those veins of rural byways that thread the farms, ranches, grasslands and plains towns and cities together,” Foster wrote.
Great Plains Gravel Route Q&A
To learn more about this epic new adventure, GearJunkie interviewed Noelle Battle, the executive director of the nonprofit Bikepacking Roots. The organization joined the project in fall 2023 and will give the new gravel route a permanent home on its website. The route should be online by early April, when Bikepacking Roots will update its website with the latest maps and stopovers.
GJ: What do you think are some of the highlights of the route?
Battle: Big picture, each segment has been carefully curated to showcase the hidden beauty of the Great Plains, from the rugged Big Bend region of Texas to the rolling Flint Hills of Kansas, and from Nebraska’s prairies to the iconic Black Hills and Badlands of the Dakotas.
But there are so many hidden treasures. One example of a specific highlight is Caprock Canyon State Park outside of Lubbock, Texas. It has beautiful red canyons and grasslands and is also home to the Texas State Bison Herd.
GJ: What were the challenges of creating this route?
Battle: It is definitely a different border-to-border route creation experience than something like our Western Wildlands Route, which runs from Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona, with ample opportunities for dispersed camping on many parts. This route requires a mix of camping and other accommodation options in small towns along the way to make it feasible.
There are plenty of opportunities for camping, including dispersed camping options in places like the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota and a number of Wilderness Management Areas in Nebraska. Some stretches will require riders to mix it up with local accommodation. This route offers a different opportunity to connect with small communities and larger towns across the Great Plains and to immerse riders in the culture in the unique way that traveling by bike allows.
GJ: How difficult was it to find resupply/rest areas, especially in West Texas? Or what’s the longest distance without a rest area or resupply?
Battle: In the Texas segment, riders will definitely experience solitude. Surprisingly, the longest distance without resupply is about 140 miles, and there is a place to camp (or stay in cabins) along that stretch.
There are a few other stretches across the full route where resupply options may be 100-150 miles apart, especially as riders near the Canadian border in the Dakotas.
GJ: About what percentage of the entire route is actually gravel?
Battle: I don’t have the final numbers 100% complete yet, but I believe overall, the route is near 80% unpaved. There are more necessary sections of pavement in Texas, which brings the overall average down (one stretch uses a portion road also utilized by Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Tier Route). But many of the state segments are 85-90% unpaved.
Also, all of the unpaved sections are gravel roads, although there are some 4×4 roads, sandy roads and other obstacles thrown in the mix to keep things interesting.
GJ: What should aspiring bikepackers expect from the route?
Battle: As someone not from the Great Plains region myself, I think riders will be surprised by the beauty and diversity in this region. It has become famous among cyclists for its gravel riding through events put on by great folks, like many of the creators of this route. But there is so much to see across the full length of this route.
GJ: Do you know of anyone already planning on doing the whole route when it becomes official in April?
Battle: I don’t know of any definitive plans, but several riders have followed up with us in recent months to confirm when the route will be released because they wanted to ride it this year. Our goal is to have everything published ASAP so that riders still have the opportunity to start the route before it is too hot in the South.
GJ: Why should cyclists try this? Give us the pitch!
Battle: The Great Plains Gravel Route celebrates the Great Plains, its places and people, its history and current status, its wild ecology and its agricultural prominence. An area of the country that may be disregarded as flyover country by some, this route will immerse riders in the richness and diversity of landscapes that this region has to offer.
Also, while the full route is over 3,000 miles, that doesn’t mean it has to be tackled all in one go. The route resources are accessible to anyone who may be interested in taking on a shorter bikepacking trip. At Bikepacking Roots, we are all about making bikepacking more accessible to everyone, no matter where you live.
So I am really excited to have a new line all the way across the country creating bikepacking opportunities across six states that aren’t typically known for bikepacking.
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