June Trip

It's cold here, can't ride so I'm planning our June trip. My buddy and I typically take 2 long rides a year, one each around the equinoxes. This one's 13 days and about 5000 miles. I'm going to post the route day by day. Typically, we ride about 375-400 miles a day. I'll ride one of my SF's, he travels on his 1198S. The best way to visualize this is by going into google maps finding the route and then changing to the topographical view. If you look at the western state's topography, you'll see what I'm doing. Across Nevada, running across southern Utah, then zig zagging across Colorado, a then heading back west into the edge of Utah, into Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and back into Nevada. We're picking up the Rockies in Colorado/New Mexico and chasing them north. All 2 lanes (to the best of my ability) and the twistiest one's I can find. Due to this posts length I'm going to post 4 or 5 days at a time then add the rest thru replies. Some of the routes end up in with lots of highway changes.

Day 1 321 miles. We usually get a late start so short day. We're coming out of Carson NV and ending up in Ely NV. All highway 50. I'm ridden various ways across NV but 50 is my favorite.
Day 2 Ely NV to Torrey UT. 387 miles. East of Ely 50 gets more interesting. 50 to 21 UT, 21 to 130 UT. At Cedar City we pick up 14 east. 14 to 89 N. 89 to 12 at Bryce national park. 12 is the Escalante staircase. 12 is a truly fine road, lots of elevation changes, you're up and down between red rock and granite. 12 T's into 24 and we'll stay in Torrey near the junction.
Day 3 Torrey UT to Delta Colorado. 402 miles. Taking 24 east initially you're in Capitol Reef national park. BTW we're now in southern Utah red rock for a couple of hundred miles. At Hanksville we take 95 that runs in the southern Utah desert above Lake Powell all the way to Blanding UT. On 95 as you pass Natural Bridges you see a road 261 running south. 261 runs to the bluff above the Valley of the Gods in Monument Valley. 261 turns into dirt as it enters the res and winds it way down the face of the bluff. Absolute stunning views of Monument Valley. 95 to 191N, 191 to 491 east and to 141 near Dove Creek. 141 is one of my favorites roads in the west. 141 all the way to 50, 50S to Delta.
Day 4 Delta CO to Taos NM. 372 miles. 50 to 550 then over the million dollar highway into Durango. At Durango 160E for a few miles then 172 south. 172 CO turns into 511 NM. 511 to 64E. 64 into Taos. On the last portion of 64 into Taos as you're coming towards the Rio Grande is where the Taos ECO houses are dug into the plain. The original town center square is still in Taos. Kit Carson's house with his 5th(?) wife is there. Good cantinas.
Day 5 Taos to Gunnison. 406 miles. Out of Taos 64E to 38W at Eagle's Nest. 38 to 522S at Questa. 522 to 64W to 287N. 287 to 17W (I've not been on 17 before looks good). 17 to 64 west again. 64 to 84N into Pagosa Springs CO. Just east of Pagosa is Wolf Creek Pass. 160 to 149 at South Fork. 149 to 50W spending the night in Gunnison CO.
Again best to view in the topography view in google maps. Give you a sense of the changes in elevation etc. You'll also realize we're skirting civilization as best we can. I'll come back and post the rest.

any pics grandpa ?

Day 6 Gunnison CO to Loveland CO. 409 miles. North out of Gunnison on 135 to 306 at Altmont. 306 is Cottonwood Pass. Really good. 306 to Buena Vista. From BV east on 285/24 to 67 at Woodland Park. BTW 24 here runs past the Florissant dinosaur beds. 67N to Twin Cedars. At Twin Cedars we'll reverse and do the section of 67 running back to Deckers as we've never been on 67 past Deckers. At Deckers, Deckers Rd to Buffalo Creek then Pine Creek Rd to 285E. 285 to 73 at Connifer, 73 to Evergreen, then 74 to 103. 103 to Idaho City then north 119 to 72 to 7. 7 to 34 at Estes Park. We're going east here towards Loveland but if you go west on 34 you're going onto Rocky Mountain NP. Be advised you need a day permit to get into RMNP and they go fast in the spring. We'll spend the night at the west edge of Loveland.
Day 7 Loveland CO to Vernal UT. 417 miles. Out of Loveland we'll go west on 34 for a little ways and then use the county rd's to get us to Ted's place on CO 14. 14 is Poudre Canyon. In the top five of my favorite roads in the west. 14 to Walden CO. Walden calls itself the moose capital of Colorado. There's a bunch of meandering creeks cut into the plain with trees etc on the creek banks. They like it. Staying on 14 as it heads south. 14 to 40S. 40 to 134W. 134 to 131N to 40W. 40 to spend the night in Vernal Utah. On the way into Vernal on 40 you past the town of Dinosaur and the Dinosaur national monument.
Day 8 Vernal UT to Buffalo WY. 191 North in the morning. Above Vernal is Flaming Gorge. 191 to Rock Springs. Then 191 to 28 to Lander. 289 to 20N at Shoshoni. 20N thru the edge of the Wind River res thru Thermopolis to Worland. At Worland 16E over the pass to Buffalo.
Day 9 Buffalo WY to Livingston MT. 372 miles. A short drone up interstate 90 to 14W at Ranchester. Over the pass (pretty technical particularly on the west end) and staying on 14 a high speed drone into Cody WY. At Cody 120N to 296 (Dead Indian Pass). If you continue up 120 you can go to Red lodge and take Beartooth Pass instead. 296 to 212 and Cooke City. West of Cooke City you're entering Yellowstone at the northeast entrance. This runs you thru Lamar Valley. Lots of buffalo, antelopes etc. Lamar Valley is where all the wolf watchers go. 212 to the parks east rd. North into Mammoth Hot Springs (lots of Elk all the time. At rut there's 100's near the Hot Springs. Out of the park to Gardiner on 89. 89 to Livingston MT.

panibadboy said:

any pics grandpa ?

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No I'll post pics when I go. Use the topography view to understand what you're missing.

would be nice to see pics. lots of text with interesting places, but feels dry

Day 10. Livingston MT to Kooskia ID. 409 miles. From Livingston we normally will run north on 89 into Browning to go thru Glacier National Park or more frequently southwest out of Bozeman working the Montana passes until we join US 93 near Wisdom MT. Since we've not been over Lolo Pass in a number of years we decided to figure out a way to get there from Livingston. So we've not been on much of this before except the pass itself and 89. So 89N to 12W. 12 to 287. 287 to 15N. At short drone on interstate 15 then off on Flesher Pass Rd. Over the pass to 200W. 200W to Missoula (all this to skirt interstate 90 but looks OK.) At Missoula pick up 12. At Lolo Montana 12 turns west to go over the pass. In my top 5 favorite western motorcycle roads. 130 miles of medium speed corners and short chutes. 12 Into Kooskia to stay at the Clearwater Motel. These guys always have rags in the room to use for cleaning your bike.
Day 11. Kooskia ID to Stanley ID. 377 miles. This is a fine ride. We reverse over Lolo Pass and then pick up US 93S over the pass that separate MT and ID which I love and down into the Salmon River Gorge. South on 93 to 75 at Challis then into Stanley. Stanley is in the beartooth range behind Boise. We'll stay at the lodge and suprisingly Stanley has some really good restaurants.
Day 12 Stanley ID to Elko NV. 377 miles. Out of Stanley on 21 into Boise. A drone on interstate 84 to 51 at Mountain Home. 51 turns into 225 as it goes into NV. 225 Into Elko. 51/225 in the center runs thru the res. The road before the res is fast and flowing but afterwards tight and technical with unmarked corners and free range cattle. Some years lots of Mormon crickets.
Day 13. Elko to Carson 349 miles. A short drone on Interstate 80 and then south to 50W and home.

I hope if you've bothered to read this you've drilled down on the topography maps. Lots of fine roads in the west.

panibadboy said:

would be nice to see pics. lots of text with interesting places, but feels dry

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Use the topography maps. I can describe the roads, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

baggerman said:

Use the topography maps. I can describe the roads, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

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I'm of tiktok generation, what is a topography maps?

panibadboy said:

I'm of tiktok generation, what is a topography maps?

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Go to google maps. First just put the US on the screen. Go to layers at the lower left and click. Now you have a topography view. You can see the Rockies running border to border. And the red rock of the southern Utah desert to the west of the Rockies etc. Got to drill down to see the roads, easier to find in normal map view and then go back to topography.