Wyoming and the Beartooth....WOW
 

Jackson WY is a quaint touristy town at the gate to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. We had a great camp spot near the river at Gros Ventre. We met Marshall this amazing motorcycle traveler (he should write a book for sure). The smoke from Idaho fires was still there a bit, but we were lucky to get great views of the Tetons at sunset and the next day. The visitor center here is incredible. There are very picturesque views along the Jenny Lake scenic drive.

Then it was on to the famous Yellowstone Park to see the geysers, boiling pools, and mud pots. The upper falls were very impressive. We had several “wildlife jams” from wondering bison, but the best was the Bison pace car that luckily for us was in the oncoming lane as there were at least 50 cars and motor homes behind him.

This led us up thru the north east part of the park to Cooke City, MT and the AWSOME Beartooth Scenic Byway. We met Robert “the Scot” at the summit. The route ended at Cody with a stay in a Teepee and an oil change in the Walmart parking lot. The Buffalo Bill Center is well worth the admission and plan to spend half a day here.

Next for a close encounter with the Devil’s Tower. We played the music and brought mashed potatoes, but still no aliens. We came upon a huge mine with shovels so big you can drive onto them and the biggest dump trucks in the world.

The Beartooth pass
 

This is a DO NOT MISS RIDE!!

Cody Wyoming
 

After your ride on the Beartooth (worth doing it twice) you arrive in Cody for a dose of the wild west.

Devil's Tower
 

If you are already in Cody on your way to the Blackhills you'll have a close encounter with the Devil's tower.

South Dakota
 

You could spends weeks riding in the Blackhills of SD. There are lots of off road routes too (though we almost were killed by some moron going 100 km in his Subaru on the Nemo road). The town of Deadwood is a bit too Vegas for us and there were over 20,000 people there for Hot Deadwood nights. Mount Rushmore is worth the visit for sure. The film and museum should not be missed. The ride from the monument south thru Custer State Park is AWESOME! Wind Cave National Park lives up to it’s name with the big gusting winds especially in the afternoon.

Colorado...not just a winter wonderland.
 

We were in Nebraska Sylvia, but only for 3 hours and nowhere near Omaha. Welcome to Colorful Colorado! We had so much scenic driving here. Each road seemed better than the last. We headed out down a dreaded interstate 25 in super windy conditions, but luckily we headed west on 34 thru Rocky Mountain National Park. The Bighorn pass is incredibly stunning high mountain route. The town of Granby is super cute and the food at the local bar is very good.

It was then west on the 40 to go south on the 9 thru Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Fairplay. Then we rode on down the 285 south to Beuna Vista and east on the 50 to Montrose. This is where they have one of the original Mc Donalds with only 1 golden arch. We stayed at the KOA and had a great evening with the RV’ers Ula and Karl (Thanks for the beer and snacks). It was all good until the automatic sprinklers turned on FULL force for 45 min at 3 am. Our tent is waterproof, but not if the sprinkler head is shooting up under the fly.

The Black Rock National Park here is beautiful and there is a VERY steep VERY windy 5 -mile paved road from the rim to the bottom of the canyon. We had heard about the scenic drive to telluride so we jumped at the chance to change up the route to Moab. At the end of Telluride town there is a steep and windy gravel route up to the falls and the old lodge. Utah here we come!

A few more pics
 

South to Telluride

Nice! all the best!

Utah…Arches, Bridges, and Canyons
 

We set up camp at the Moab KOA and met up with Deb Hewson again. She showed up and cooked us up an amazing gourmet meal including smoked Cornish game hen, Morel mushroom risotto, and rose hip panacotta. The camper in the next site Calvin is a very cool dude so we asked him to join our BMW commune.

It is pretty hot here after 11 am so we hit Arches National Park at 7 am for an 11.6 km hike to the double O arch. Then we had some time to tour the other sites including the delicate arch, balanced rock, and double arch. Dan and Calvin did a little off roading on the slick rock.
Tamara at the visitor’s center told us how great the sunrise was thru the Mesa arch at Canyonlands, so I managed to convince everyone to get up at 5 am to see it. There was a full moon setting just before the sun -rise too. It was worth it for sure.

Dan did a bit of diagnostics on the bikes and the boys did some bodge jobs to fix up some issues on Deb’s bike. One of the most scenic Byways in the USA is the Colorado Canyon from Moab north to the Interstate.

Deb joined us on the tour of the Utah parks…..Natural bridges (not worth the effort), Capital Reef ( very cool rocks and pioneer relics), Bryce Canyon ( wow the hoodoos are so cool), and Zion (most amazing park ever including a 1.1 mile tunnel thru the mountain). Now for the GRAND CANYON!

Now onto the Tour of the parks.

Arizona ....not just a desert
 

What’s surprising about Arizona is how green it is. When you are driving down to the North rim of THE Canyon there are forests and meadows right up to the rim. If you have only a short time choose the south rim for sure. We spent a very sketchy night camped at the Quality Inn “campground” in Tuba city. Then we parted ways with Deb so she could run for the border before her visa expired. We toured the South rim on the bikes and via the shuttles to hermit’s rest. Luckily we arrived after the labor -day weekend so it was not mobbed and we camped at Mather point.

Flagstaff is a nice town and Dan found the perfect hotel. First the price was an amazing deal and then across the street was Walmart, a huge Laundromat, a self car wash with air-dry wand, a jiffy lube for the oil drop, and a tripadvisor 5 star Indian restaurant. We hung out here to rest up and regroup. We rode to the Montezuma Castle thru Sedona and the Red rock Scenic byway.

We had a long drive today, but still managed a loop thru the Petrified Forrest National Park. The tail end of the hurricane made this day long windy and rainy at times.

Now we are off to New Mexico for some bike service and new tires at Sandia BMW in Albuquerque.

Check out our episode 1 video : Vancouver to Inuvik
 

New Mexico....TEX/MEX
 

The Welcome to New Mexico sign says it all. On the way to Albuquerque we took a detour thru the Zuni Nation to take in the Petrified Forrest National Park. There were some cool petroglyphs there too.

Lucky for us we booked some service at Sandia BMW on the day they had a big event on. The local university students let us try out their formula 1 car. The dealership also had Chris “Teach” Mc Neil there putting on stunt riding shows and he even signed my bike “when in doubt throttle out”.
Taking the scenic route from Albuquerque to Santa Fe over the Jemez Mountains we stopped at the Bandelier National Monument. They had had a huge flash flood last year and there were a lot of sand bags still there. In Santa Fe there were celebrating the 300th Fiesta with music, dancing, a parade, and tons of food vendors.

Now we are off to chase the Dragon.

New Mexico....TEX/MEX
 

A few more pics.

Riding in search of the Dragon
 

We headed east from Santa Fe to get to The Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. This involved fighting horrific gusting winds for 3 days across the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We then had much more scenic riding in Mississippi and Alabama.

We lived it up in Amarillo at the Big Texan Steak Ranch with Bill and Graham from NYC. In Oklahoma the wind was so strong we were too tired to take any pictures other than of the welcome sign. Wow it is flat here and the only “sights” are the wind farms. We stopped in the childhood home of Bill Clinton at Hot Springs Arkansas. This town was the center of healing Spas in the 40’s and 50’s and was especially popular with baseball players.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi River. In Corinth Alabama we visited the Civil War Interpretive center and learned about the strategic importance of the region in the war. We also learned what a “dry county” means. Resting up in Scottsboro Alabama we had our sights finally on the Dragon’s tail at Deals Gap.