Possible Western U.S.A. trip.

Am going to try for for Los Angeles! Made it as far as Crescent City, in 1997, on my Suzuki TL1000S.
This time I am gonna try for L.A.. Any places to go while I am there? Any places not to go? No camping in East L.A.? I am a Cdn. prairie boy, and do not want any trouble! All I'vee really seen is some stuff in the Magazines over the years. Am going to have about 2 weeks and 3 days to go there and back. About 8 days to go there and back. Would anyone suggest going through Las Vegas? Anything cool out that way? Or is it better to stick to the coast? Wanted to go through Glacier Park but I see that the Going to the Sun Road is not open yet! I'll check before I leave, but hopefull I'll hit some other good roads in Montana. Still open to ideas. Maybe I'd go through Salt Lake City and pass the Salt Flats. Would like to see that. Any ideas, or not to be missed roads would be appreciated!

 

Goooooo GT750!!!

When are you heading out?

 

Wow - You are heading for Scubalong, Reggie, Jason and the R3 crowd territory.

Long and I did all the above and a whole lot more (Baja mexico) on a rather circuitous 15 day route to this years R3. Temperatures in places like Death Valley and Route 66 were very warm when I was there in May and by now may be very challenging. There are so many great places to visit you will never do them all, so get out the biggest map you can find and start putting peel off dots on all the things you might like to visit - join the dots and then check out riding times using a GPS route planning app to figure out how much you can really do in the available time.

If you have never seen it the Grand Canyon was truly amazing but it has become a money machine with charges stacking on top of each other. What you see from skywalk is only marginally better than the view from outside where the shuttle buses drop you off. Personally you are better off spending the skywalk entrance money on the 40 minute helicopter trip down into the valley itself.




SkiMad

 

Stay oot of East and South LA. Some folks there think Canadian Prairie Boys make great tacos and their bike parts can be used on lowriders.

For a taste of what the magazines and the LA Chamber of Commerce doesn't tell you, Google "wilmas". How do I know this? I grew up there.

Maybe San Fran as your endpoint?

 

There is reasoning behind the controls at The Grand Canyon and for that matter the other State and Federal Parks in California. Fucking tourists doing all kinds of destructive shit and getting away with it. Plagues of locusts ring a bell? If ya can't fuck it or eat it, shit on it; seems more to the point.

BTW, it's Baja California. Baja Mexico would describe the areas near and including Chiapas and Veracruz.

 

[video=youtube;0OwPPOu1yk4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OwPPOu1yk4[/video]

 

Zion National Park is spectacular (North end of Grand Canyon), IMO the canyon is not worth the ride all the way down there, unless you trek down in there.

 

What time frame are you planning on taking your trip? Depending on what your goal is, touristy stuff vs. great roads, there are plenty of options here. The Central Coast has a lot of scenic beauty and some really good roads. LA proper is really not a place for riding, fun site seeing stuff but the surrounding mountain ranges offer a lot fun riding spots and a few points of interest, some Moto related. I.e. 'The Snake', 'The Rock Store', 'Newcombs Ranch', 'Neptune's Net', etc.

The Sierra mountains are another great place for fun roads but during the busy season the roads are a bit crowded and can be a bit frustrating if you get stuck behind oblivious drivers who don't realize they are holding up traffic! You'll also have to be prepared for quick weather changes certain times of the year. We had a few snow storms show up and had to change our route due to road closures. Got rained on pretty good too.

There are some nice spots South of LA too, Palomar Mountain and Borrego Springs are two popular ones, there are others as well and maybe worth a visit. Although it's been several decades since I've been up in Northern Cal, so I can't speak for that area, but I know a lot of riders who go up there for rides pretty often. Hopefully some of our No Cal riders can chime in.

If you do make it to So Cal, if I am around I'd be glad to take you to some cool places. Scubalong is literally 5 miles from me so I'm sure he'd be up for tour guide duty as well. Hit us up when your trip gets near and we'll try and coordinatate with you.

 

No lie! Did you hear about the shit that has happened in Yellowstone? Fucking idiots! The latest is a guy fell into a geyser!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/09/mans-death-shows-the-enticing-beauty-and-deadly-power-of-yellowstones-colorful-hot-springs/

 

Seems like that would have melted his surfboard.

 

If you happen to be On I5 through Olympia stop and give me a ring, be more than glad to share some stories and some good food maybe a road or two thats "if" Could even possibly head south for a while, like head out the the Oregon coast. Just a thought yea Ca. roads are calling me too.

 

I think I remember him. He was hooked up with one of those old Chinese guys who come up with all kinds of sayings wasn't he?

 

Nevada is fucking hot. So be prepared for that. It is hot at end of may, can't imagine it in mid summer if that is when you are going. If you are going through Glacier you are kinda far from the Randy Hitching Post but keep that on mind if you find yourself in my area. You can pitch a tent in my neighbours back yard if they are not home.

 

Thanks Randy for the thought. Yes looking at the Map Olympia could be a good first day ending, so Yea I'll throw up our place to chill. I mean why not Right. But also know heading down through Idaho would be a hoot too. Just throwing out an option.

 

All you need is Propel and Beefsticks. LOL

 

No suggestions for Montana... but there's a super fun route to be found cutting through Oregon. This would get you to I-5 in NorCal and you could choose to do whatever (head to yosemite, Sequoia, Redwoods etc..)

This route would take you down Old Spiral Hwy in ID, through the Rattle Snake Grade into Oregon, through Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, over the twisties of 245 through Dooley Mountain, over to 19 (very sceneic following the John Day River). Over to Fossil on 218 to Shaniko (my favorite ride in the whole state). On to Crater Lake National Park

You can do this in 1 day. I would suggest grabbing a room for the night in Lewiston. Run Old Spiral Hwy in the morning like 8am to your heart's content (it's really short). Then do the rest of the route, grab a room somewhere on Route 97 before crater lake.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46....c5541136e!2m2!1d-122.8755949!2d42.3265152!3e0