California - Big Sur

We left Monterey and headed south down Highway 1 a short distance of only a few miles to the resort town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. This is a lovely little town set on hills next to the beach with many specialty shops, restaurants, art gallerys and cafe's that are very chic and up-market. Tracee was drooling at the shops while I was having heart palpitations at the prices. Our relationship is very balanced like that. She is the accelerator - I am the brake, so between us there is moderation when it comes to spending!

Carmel has a famous resident. Clint Eastwood was mayor here for a couple of years and has a home in Carmel Valley. He also owns a local restaurant - and according to a local I chatted to, plays the piano there most Tuesday nights (he is a jazz enthusiast). Unfortunately we were passing through on a Monday - otherwise it would have been cool to check the place out.

We walked up and down the shops, bought a coffee and purchased some decorations from a specialty Christmas shop, then hopped back on the bike and started out on the coastal part of Highway 1 that is known as 'Big Sur' (abbreviated from the name given by Spanish colonists - 'El Pais Grande del Sur' which means 'Big Country to the South').

This stretch of coastline is 160km's of great riding on winding roads with views of mountains, cliffs and rocky coves. It is very comparable to the coastal highway between Westport and Greymouth. On a fine sunny day, in terms of scenery, I would rate the Westport/Greymouth route close to 10 out of 10. The Big Sur would be around 8 to 9. What it has over the New Zealand West Coast equivalent is that it is longer and the roads are higher above the coastline, with some impressive bridges. The day was perfect to ride this route - sunny, without a cloud in the sky and a nice sea breeze to keep you cool. We also met a neat Scottish couple at one of the lookouts and chatted to them for about half an hour.

We stopped for lunch at the town of Big Sur and then continued down the coastline for about 2 hours to our stop for the day - the community of Morro Bay.

We walked down the hill from the motel to a nice seafood restaurant on the waterfront. Had a table overlooking the water where we could watch seals swimming past and pelicans dive bombing for fish.

California - San Francisco Bay Area

We awoke to a cold wet morning in Eureka. So after breakfast we donned our wet weather gear and headed south on Highway 101. we passed through the Humboldt Redwoods National Park with more stunning redwood trees lining the highway and then began winding down mile after mile of sweeping corners as we descended down from the forest and started to see more rural land and vineyards.

After a stop for lunch and fuel at Ukiah the traffic was noticeably getting denser the closer we got to San Francisco. The weather had cleared up except for some very strong cross-winds from the sea that were blowing the bike around a bit on the freeway.

We branched off the 101 and started navigating a series of freeway merges and exits until we found ourselves riding across the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge. This was quite 'freaky' to say the least. The bridge is 7.2 km long and is crossed by 250,000 vehicles per day (even more than the Golden Gate Bridge!).

I would have thought that for a Saturday the traffic would not have been as heinous as it was around San Francisco. We were in a couple of traffic jams with cars bumper to bumper and crawling at a snails pace in places. It was a relief to get through to the south side of the bay area.

We had booked into a motel for the night in Sunnyvale. This location was chosen because of it's close proximity to the Shoreline Ampthitheatre at Mountain View where we had tickets to a rock concert in the evening. One of our favourite bands - the 'Dave Matthews Band' was playing. You may not have heard of them, but they are huge in the USA. Even if you do not like an alternative rock genre, you would have to be impressed with the musicianship of these guys. I have posted a video clip (below) to give you an idea of their sound. The show was first class.

The Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor venue under a marquee. There is a section for reserved seating, but the cool thing is the lawn section on the embankment where you can bring your own seats (or hire them like we did) and look down on to the stage. There are also big screens at the venue if your position did not give a clear view. I have attached a photo of the venue (below) to give you an idea of what it looks like.

We took the Harley to the concert and were told by the parking attendant that motorcyclists have their own designated area - right outside the entrance! We got there early - so the bonus of a handy park allowed us to grab a bite to eat in plenty of time before the show and also choose a good place to sit on the lawn section. By the time we got back to the motel after the show it was 1:00am in the morning. We were both quite cold from being outside in the night air at the venue.

The next morning we were in no hurry to check out of the motel, so we walked to a nearby Denny's restaurant for a cooked breakfast. We then packed up the bike and took a leisurely ride down Highway 101 and then branched off and linked up with Highway 1 to the town of Monterey to stop for the night.

Monterey is a fishing port and market that has become quite a trendy resort town. It is famous as the setting for a couple of John Steinbeck's novels (Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday) and author Robert Louis Stevenson lived here for a while. More recently, the town is known for it's annual jazz festival.

We walked around the restaurants and gift shops along Fishermans Wharf and had some lunch. After walking around the downtown plaza browsing in shops we fueled up the bike and checked into our motel for the evening.

Dave Matthews Band

California - Redwood National Park

We had a big day ahead of us, so we were on the road at 7:00am. It was freezing as we rode out of Klamath Falls on Highway 140 West. We rode around the western edge of Lake Klamath and stopped briefly to take photos of some pelicans. We were then riding through a lot of shady forest and were at a reasonable altitude of around 5,000ft. I had to stop and put gloves on as my bare hands were burning in the cold.

We descended down a (5%) gradient about 10 miles long to the town of Medford and then connected breifly with Interstate 5 North before branching off at Grants Pass on to Highway 199. Just after Cave Junction we crossed the state line into California. We stopped for lunch at Crescent City and resumed our journey on Highway 101 South. Our reason for taking this route was to see the giant redwood trees of the north California coastline.

Redwood National Park has some of the largest original redwood forests in the world stretching along the coastline. the 58,000 acre (23,500 ha) park includes many smaller state parks. I have to say this route was the ride of the tour so far. The tress were stunning. As you rode down the narrow Redwood Highway you were flanked by a corridor of huge towering tress that dwarfed you - it made you feel small and I couldn't help but be in awe of these giants of the forest.

We stopped at small groves along the way and walked along some trails accessible from the roadside for photos. As we headed further south we came out of a clearing on a hill and saw the Pacifc Ocean again for the first time since we left Long Beach on 13th July. It reminded me that we were now on the 'homeward' leg of the tour, having toured east through the mid-west, north up to the Great Lakes and Canadian border and west to the Pacific coast again. In a matter of days we will complete the loop and be back in Long Beach!

Our stop for the day after about 500kms of riding is the town of Eureka (population 28,000). The town was founded by gold miners in 1850, hence the name 'Eureka' (I found it)!

Oregon - Crater Lake National Park

We left Bend around 8:00am and headed south on Highway 97. The route was predominantly pine forest interspersed with patches of volcanic rock (lavaland forest is located in the vicinity). We passed through two national forests (La Pine and Winema) before we reached the junction where we turned on to Highway 138 and headed west towards the north entrance to Crater Lake. There was a lot of haze in the air and a roadside sign alerted motorists that a 'naturally caused' fire was burning in the forest.

We turned into the entrance of Crater Lake National Park and rode in to the junction where the road bisected into the east rim and west rim routes.

Crater Lake is 5 miles wide and ringed by cliffs almost 2000 feet high. The lake rests in the remnants of a volcano called Mount Mazama, which erupted and collapsed into itself forming Wizard Island and other volcanic features. The water is an intense blue. At 1,943 feet deep it is the deepest lake in the USA and one of the deepest in the world.

We stopped at the lookouts along the way to take photos and admire the view. The haze from the forest fire affected the view somewhat, but it was still very spectacular. We stopped for a coffee at the Rim Village and then exited the park at the southern entrance. We rode down Highway 62 and connected again with Highway 97 for the ride to our stop for the day, Klamath Falls.

Oregon - The Dalles & Bend

We left Spokane and headed west on Interstate 90. We turned off at Ritzville on to Highway 395 South and had a fuel stop at the town of Kennewick before branching on to Interstate 82 East and crossing over the Columbia River into the state of Oregon.

We rode west on Interstate 84 on a great road that overlooked the Columbia River. This route was the same taken by early explorers Lewis and Clark who left St Louis in the early 1800's and opened up what would become to be known as the 'Oregon Trail' for all the early settlers who would follow with their wagon trains.

After stopping for lunch at Boardman around noon we continued along the Columbia River Highway for another hour and a half. After rounding a bend just before our destination of the day (after a ride of 440kms) at the town of The Dalles we saw on the horizon the large mountain peak of Mount Hood, dwarfing the other peaks of the Cascade Mountains - very impressive.

The town of The Dalles (population 12,000) got it's name from french fur traders. 'Dalles' is french for 'sluice' and describes the effect the river had on carving out a path through the valley.

The next morning we decided to get on the road early due to an extreme weather warning for Oregon with temperatures predicted to be over 100f in places (about 38c). We set out on Highway 197 south and climbed through the foothills until we linked up with Highway 97 south. We had a view of the Cascade Mountains on our right and surrounding us were arid rolling hills of juniper and sagebrush, typical of the high desert country in eastern Oregon. In one place we saw a lot of squirrels foraging for food on the side of the road.

We stopped at a rest area where we met some other bikers who informed us that the HOG (Harley Owners Group) Rally of Oregon was on at the moment. Apparantly there is a group ride from Bend to Medford tomorrow via Crater Lake, so we may see a few bikes on the road!

Apart from this one stop we had a leisurely ride of only 220kms for the day. We stopped for lunch at our destination in the town of Bend (about 80,000 people) around noon just as the temperature was starting to soar. We checked in to a motel where the motel manager said that he had checked out two New Zealand motorcyclists that morning! I said; "Their names wouldn't happen to be Evan Fahey and Maurie Barrington by any chance?" The manager pulled out the check-in slip and confirmed it had been completed by Evan!

Washington - Spokane

It was sunny when we left Kalispell this morning, but still cold (around 45f or 7c). We took Highway 2 West. The ride was excellent as we passed through the Kootenai State Forest over rolling hills covered in pine and past a few lakes.

After a few hours of riding we had crossed the state line of Idaho and stopped at Bonners Ferry for fuel and lunch. Well, we actually had a second breakfast as we changed from Mountain Time to Pacific Time when we crossed the state line and gained an hour. What was 11:45am Mountain Time was still the middle of the breakfast menu at the diner in Bonners Ferry Idaho at 10:45am!

We branched on to Highway 2 South and rode to Coeur d'Alene and then linked up with Interstate 90 West. Within half an hour we had crossed the state line into Washington and reached the city of Spokane, our destination for the day. Spokane is Washington's largest inland city with over 200,000 people. The city was rebuilt with brick after a disastrous fire in 1889 and is the smallest city to have hosted a world fair (Expo 74).

After checking in to a motel, I decided it would be a good idea to find a car wash with a high pressure water blaster to wash the crud off the bike picked up from our wet excursion through Glacier National Park yesterday. We were given directions to a self-service car wash with bays that had high pressure hoses. There were vending machines where you could change notes for $1 coins to activate the wash. I placed a note into what I thought was a vending machine, but it turned out to be payment for the automatic car wash! Kiss goodbye to $5! Teach me for not reading signs! I then found what was the coin vending machine and placed a dollar note in the slot and received a coin. I then placed a second note in the slot and the 'out of service' light started flashing. Kiss goodbye to $1. I used the coin I received and that gave me 2 minutes of high pressure water to give the bike a quick rinse and then focus on washing the dirt and muck from under the chassis and fenders. An expensive wash - $7 all up. Tracee demonstrated extreme self control by not laughing at me.

Montana - Glacier National Park

Yesterday we had a relatively short ride of 285 kms from Helena on Interstate 15 North. We stopped for lunch at Great Falls and visited the local Harley Davidson dealership on the way through. Our stop for the day was the town of Conrad. This was to be our base for our assault on Glacier National Park the next day.

This morning we had an early start, leaving at 7:00am. We continued north on Interstate 15 and turned left on to Highway 2 West at the town of Shelby. The road wound up the foothills of the Rockies with some stunning views of the Rocky Mountain peaks. It was overcast and freezing cold however and the road was still wet from rain earlier that morning. The clouds still looked threatening over the peaks - so I was feeling a little pessimistic about our chances of staying warm and dry!

The gateway to Glacier National Park is the town of St Mary - only a few miles from the US/Canadian border. We stopped for fuel and then headed into the park.

Glacier National Park covers nearly a million acres (405.000 ha) over the northern Rocky Mountains and adjoins Waterton Lakes National Park across the Canadian border. The park contains a wide variety of landscapes including 4 glaciers, limestone cliffs, lakes and waterfalls. There are also moose, wolves and bears roaming the park (not that we could see any on our way through).

The access from the west to the east entrance is via the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain Road. This is 80 km of winding road that takes you past St Mary Lake, over the narrow mountain road of Logans Pass with breathtaking views down forested valleys and across to mountain peaks and past Lake McDonald. It would have been more breathtaking if the day was not cold and overcast.......and then it rained.

We have been very fortunate on this tour with the weather. Apart from a couple of light showers and a couple of close calls with lightening storms, we have generally had warm, hot conditions (heat waves at times). Today made up for it. We stopped and put on our wet weather gear about 30kms from the east exit and then rode all the way to the town of Kalispell our stop for the day. Although not wet through - we were both chilled after riding at high altitude over the Rockies.

Because we had not stopped more often to do some short walks and take photos after we hit the rain, we arrived too early to check in. We left our luggage at the motel and went off to find a warm diner for some hot food. The receptionist said that it was a pity we had not gone through the park yesterday - it was a perfect day. All part of the adventure I guess!

Montana - Nevada City ghost town & Helena

After leaving Bozeman we took Interstate 90 West for about half an hour then turned off on to Highway 84 South. We then branched on to Highway 287 at Ennis and rode to our destination for the morning - Virginia City and it's neighbouring 'ghost town' - Nevada City.

One of my goals for this trip is to visit a 'ghost town'. There are many around - but most are only accessible on dirt or gravel roads. Some even need a horse or 4WD. This one we are visiting is alongside a state highway.

Located high in the Rocky Mountains in a basin along Alder Gulch, Virginia City is not a ghost town - but has over 100 historic buildings that have been preserved since the gold rush that caused this boom town in 1863. It has a chequered history and is infamous for the outlaws that robbed gold and the secret society of 'vigilantes' that hunted down the outlaws and publicly lynched them in the streets of Virginia City.

We spent some time walking up and down the boardwalk looking at the shops with memorabilia and souviners. We then hopped on the bike and drove a couple of miles down the road to Nevada City. The entire town of Nevada City is an official 'ghost town' and has been made a state museum. It is fenced off and you need to pay an entry fee - but the town is in it's original state from when after all the gold was mined and the residents moved away. The only modern enhancements are that the grass is mowed to make it easy for tourists to walk around and a few fire hydrants scattered around to protect the buildings (which would be tinder dry).

After lunch at the local Cafe' we rode through to Twin Bridges where we turned on to Highway 41 and rode north until we connected with Interstate 90 West again. We turned off at Butte on to Interstate 15 North and rode through Deer Lodge State Forest to our stop for the day after 424kms of riding - Helena.

Although it only has a population of around 28,000, Helena is the state capital of Montana. It was originally known as 'Last Chance Gulch' when it was founded as a gold mining camp in the 1860's. There are a number of historic mansions in the area built by mining millionaires, some of which have been converted in to B&B inns.

Montana - Bozeman

We left Jackson around 7:30am and headed west on Highway 22. We passed through the small community of Wilson and then started winding our way up Teton Pass. At that hour of the morning the air was chilly to say the least.

We crossed over the state line into Idaho (the potato capital of the USA), branched off at Victor on to Highway 33 and then on to Highway 20 for a scenic ride back over the state line into Montana and the town of West Yellowstone at the western entrance to Yellowstone Park. It was a great ride with rolling hills through Idaho and then a climb up to pine forested hills on the way to West Yellowstone. We saw a large stag with a good set of antlers on the side of the road. He ran back into the forest at the sound of the Harley rumbling past him.

Our reason for visiting West Yellowstone was to see the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Centre. This is a wildlife sanctuary for rescued grizzlys and grey wolves as well as an educational facility. As we had yet to see them in the wild, we thought we would make sure we at least saw them rather than not at all! The day was warming up by the time we got there, so the wolves (like all canines on a hot day) were just lying in the sun. Not very exciting at all! The grizzlys however, were very impressive. We happened to time our visit at feeding time - which meant they were very active in overturning rocks and dead branches to discover the meat hidden by the rangers.

After our visit to the wildlife centre, we continued north up Highway 191 to Bozeman. We had been told by a shop owner in West Yellowstone that there had been a number of grizzly sightings in the last week or so along this road as it cuts through the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park. We were (nervously) hopeful we might see one - but it was not to be.

Bozeman is an agricultural town with a population of 27000. It is situated in the Gallatin Valley in the heart of what was once a sacred Sioux Indian hunting ground.

Wyoming - Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks

It was a nice sunny morning with a freshness in the air as we headed out of Cody down 160km of Highway 14 to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is the USA's oldest national park and spans across the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. It is a volcanic plateau at an average elevation of 8000 ft and has over 10,000 hot springs and geysers (more than half the worlds total). We had been told that the east entrance to the park was the most scenic -and we were not disappointed - tall peaks, pine forest, rivers, the Cody Dam, a couple of tunnels through the hill, it had a real variety of scenery.

One key focus of this trip for us has been to visit as many national parks as possible, We have both had a particular interest in the wildlife, especially what you do not see back home. So far, we have seen bison/buffalo, white tail deer, bald eagles, vultures, prairie dogs, squirrels, chipmunks,and a porcupine. I won't count the skunk and two racoons as they were road kill! What is left for us to tick off are to see bears, wolves and moose in the wild. We were hoping that Yellowstone may help us tick off some of these yet unseen wildlife sights.

We were about 5km away from the east entrance when we saw a number of cars parked across the road from a trading post store. We pulled over to see what everyone was looking at. As we looked over the roadside barrier and down into a shallow gully we saw a female moose (a moosette?) grazing only about 150 metres away from us. She wasn't fazed in the least by all the human activity a short distance away. A big tick for that one - another one off the wildlife list!

We cruised on in to the park and wound past the huge Yellowstone Lake and past a meadow where we saw a herd of bison grazing. We stopped at a trading post at West Thumb to fuel up the bike and grab some lunch. We met a couple of Aussies on a Harley who had also shipped their bike over to the states. They had seen a grizzly and her cub walking through the park yesterday!

At the junction we turned on to Highway 20 and rode the 17 miles up the road to see 'Old Faithful' - Yellostone's famous geyser. Old Faithful 'blows' about every 90 minutes and we timed our arrival to perfection. We dismounted from the bike and walked into the visitor centre to ask the ranger when the next eruption was due. She said at 2:07pm. We had arrived at 1: 57 pm - perfect. In fact Old Faithful decided to go a few minutes earlier. We had just walked over to the viewing area when a plume of steam shot up into the air - quite impressive. Each eruption lasts about 5 minutes.

We retraced our route back down Highway 20 and then took Highway 191 south towards Grand Teton National Park. We were not far from the south entrance of Yellowstone when a huge elk stepped out of the forest on to the side of the road and sniffed the air just as we rode past.

We stopped at a lookout further down the road when Dave, Trevor & Liz from Ashburton (who had shipped their bikes with ours) rode up. They had also been in Cody last night and were making their way west after Yellowstone as they were shipping their bikes back in another week and a half. We had a good catch up and then rode together for a while.

We rode into Grand Teton National Park and pulled over at a lookout when the majestic Grand Teton Mountains came into view - stunning. Further up the road there were cars pulled over at the side of the road and people with cameras were very interested in somethhing down in the stream that ran alondgside the road. We pulled over and got off the bike and saw our second moose of the day - this time a large bull moose.

We ended the day at the classy tourist town of Jackson. The town is very 'western' and many shops specialise in leather goods, native american craft and western clothing. It was only mid week, but most shops were staying open to 9:00pm every day during the holiday season.

Wyoming - Beartooth Pass

Because I had to drop the Harley off at 9:00am for it's 16,000km service at the Billings dealership we would have a shorter run today. It was around lunchtime before we were 'on the road again'.

Maurie & Evan had decided the night before to put a big day in, and they left at 7:00am to ride through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks to Jackson and then cross over into Idaho to spend the night at Idaho Falls. They will end up with a total of around 700kms for the day. Hopefully we will catch up with them again further down track on our way back to Long Beach.

After the bike was serviced, Tracee and I headed south-west down Highway 212 and stopped for some lunch at the picturesque town of Red Lodge. We then continued on and started the long climb up Beartooth Pass. This is one of the premier rides in the USA and the views were stunning. The road winds up some tight corners to an elevation of 11,000ft to the snowline. It was a hot day when we left Billings, so we both enjoyed the chill in the air as we ascended the Pass. We stopped at a lookout at about 9000ft to take some photos and were surrounded by Chipmunks wanting food - they were very tame and would come right up to you. At the summit of the Pass we crossed the state line back into Wyoming.

One sobering sight was a sign warning drivers (& riders) that this was 'Grizzly country'. At the Harley dealership yesterday we had learnt that recently some foolhardy campers had decided to camp in the Beartooth Pass area. Two were killed and another had an arm chewed off by a Grizzly. I decided that if I saw one in the distance, we would take a photo using the zoom function on the camera while staying on the bike with the engine running!

While traveling through the Pass we were stopped at a road works and met a great couple from Idaho Falls on a Harley who were heading home after Sturgis. As we were both staying in Cody that night we decided to meet up later for dinner.

We branched off 212 on to Highway 296 and then 120 and arrived in the town of Cody at around 5:00pm after about 300kms for the day. Because I knew we would be later getting off the road, I had booked accommodation in advance last night.

Cody was founded by lengendary Wild West icon 'Buffalo Bill Cody' in 1896. The town has maintained it's frontier look and has a museum with artifacts and historic buildings dating back to that era - including the log cabin that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used as a hideout.

We met up with our new friends Ron & Michelle at the local Pizza Hut for the 'all you can eat' buffet. They were both a great help in recommending what roads to take and sights to see on our journey. Ron has a degree in geology and was very interesting to listen to as he explained that Yellowstone Park is actually the largest volcano in the world. Most magma (lava beneath the surface) is around 75 miles below the earths surface. Yellowstone has magma only 2 miles below the surface and is very active (hence the geysers and hot pools). We exchanged email addresses and agreed to keep in touch after a very pleasant evening.