MC Trip 2016 - CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO, & AZ

This Trip is happening now! Check the later pages for daily(ish) pics and updates.


This summer my brother, father, and I are taking our motorcycle on a tour of the PNW (about 4k miles). Starting and ending in the Fairfield, CA area (my brother's house). I am going to use this thread for two purposes: 1) suggestions for must see places, food, places to stay, gear suggestions, etc, etc, and general BS 2) for posting from the road with updates.

As you can image, we have been planning this for quiet a while, I think we have almost all of our gear covered. We be eating in restaurants and staying in hotels 90% of the trip. Suggestions welcome. We have already added an extra day in ID/MT.

Here are the current trip cards for our route:

 

I drove the same route from seaside, oregon all the way down to san francisco last year with a couple of my friends.

 

Subd to provide suggestions later

 

We are staying with friends in Flagstaff and Mammoth Lakes, so those places are covered.

My dad and I will be trailering the bikes from Phoenix to Fairfield and back. I hate trailering them for anything, but this is the longest trip for any of us, so I don't want to start wearing myself out just getting to the starting point. Plus that would add 2-3 more days and that might be tough to get off in addition to what I already need.

 

are you two firm on those routes?

 

My dad and brother "finalized" those routes a few months ago. However, if you have some suggestions, we are definitely open to hear them. We are trying to stay off major highways as much as possible.

 

Second day:

Avenue of the giants is on 101 between Garberville and Stafford. Since you will be coming in from the south, keep an eye out for highway 254. HWY 254 winds around and under 101 continuously for miles. The best view of the giants is thru HWY 254, NOT on 101. If you look up google maps, you will see the northern and souther entrances marked. You don't want to miss this.

Another thing to notice, You will go thru redwoods national park. The nearest hotel before redwoods is in Eureka I believe, just in case it gets too dark and dont want to drive past the redwoods at night. I do want to mention, driving thru the redwoods in a foggy night is without words..

You will also find nice views at the Oregon dunes in Dunes city. This can be seen from the side of the road, my friends and I didnt access these.

 

Third day: I have been thru the area, you will see plenty of nice views. Can't remember anything along that wrote besides salmon hatcherys and what not lol

*EDIT*

Beacon rock - great little hike

Bridge of the gods when you cross the columbia river - park your bike and walk the bridge. Its worth it.

 

I dont have any comments on the rest of the trip. Looks like you will hit yellowstone and yosemite.

I was going to say if you had an extra day to go thru glacier national park in northern montana

 

Thanks man, that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I started this thread.

 

I am looking for pictures for you to upload, give me a sec.

 

no problem. Friends and I did a midwest and western tour of the country last year. took us about a month. Great trip.

 

We are camping for 2 days in yellowstone and yosemite. I think those are 2 of our 3 camping spots.

 

you guys going thru hoover dam?

 

I think we will ride across it. We are all AZ natives, lived in Kingman for a few years too. So we have visited it a lot over the years. I toured it when I was like 8. That day we will be visiting my Grandpa outside of Kingman, so I think we will be pushing to do the 450 miles to Death Valley.

 

Avenue of the giants:









Oregon beaches:





Bridge of the Gods over Columbia river:









Beacon rock hike:

 

Those are some awesome pictures, thank you for posting them and making the suggestions.

I can't wait to get this trip going.

 

That is what I like about living in New Mexico, nobody knows where we are and skips us on their cross country trips.

 

Sounds like a sweet trip! I am in South Central Colorado, if you are open to route changes there are some cool things you can see along your route without much detours!



Colorado National Monument(not my pic)


Black Canyon of the Gunnison


Ophir pass is one valley south of Telluride


Mesa Verde

You need to have reservations to go to the cooler places, so definitely make those before you leave....

If you go to Shiprock there is a highway just south of the "rock" that I found to have decent views.


Petrified Forest



Sounds like your route is pretty finalized, but I would consider going through monument valley in UT/AZ over going to the 4 corners. It is expensive, crowded, and depressing. Also, it is not actually on the 4 corners .

There are more pictures in my build thread if you can't decide on stops. If plans change there are some really sweet camping areas near Grand Junction.


Good luck!