arizona in december
 

I have 4 weeks left in the US and i'd love to head to Arizona.

If anyone wants to meet up along the way here's what im hoping to do...

some of route 66
painted desert
delgados snow capped drive in
meteor craters
london bridge
flintstones amusement park
abandoned santa claus village
grand canyon caverns
casa grande ruins
the wigwam village
fake a moon landing at cinder lake crater field
horse shoe bend.
antelope canyon
the world's largest aircraft graveyard
eliphante
the bird cage theatre
the thing
Dinosaur Footprints
World's largest kaleidoscope shop found in Arizona

im from the uk and am riding a dual sports 650cc (suzuki dr )

Cheers

Marie

Hey take a look at highway 191 (used to be the Devils Highway 666) that parallels the eastern side, great twisties thru the White Mountains. There is a huge copper mine(Morenci) that you ride thru at the south end. Riding south on that road is my favorite. In the northeastern quadrant of the state is highway 163 which runs into Utah thru Monument Valley. Prime spiritual ride! If you ride 89a south of Flagstaff, try to do it thru the week, never weekends, cause it is heavy on tourists. If it is hot, go towards the White mountains or Flagstaff, if it is cold, head for the desert around Phoenix or Tucson. The Chiracahuas to the southeast are fine, Sonoita has a great restaurant (The Steak Out) This is the Az wine country, entirely different landscape when you pull above the desert and find huge live oaks, creeks and mountains…Highway 93 from near Kingman to Phoenix runs thru Burro Creek Canyon and is spectacular! North of the Grand Canyon may already be closed for the winter, but it is way nicer than Tusayan on the south rim. Enjoy!

You have a very detailed list of sites to take in! Wow! Hope you have time/energy to cover them all. I've seen a few of them only. Good stuff.

I just rode up through AZ from Mexico yesterday. Came up from Nogales, Tucson, Phoenix. Just a straight through highway haul this time, headed back home to SF Bay Area.

It was C O L D in the desert :freezing: Maybe things will warm up? but at 7am it was 27F (a degree or two below 0 c) Warmed up enough to ride by 9am or so. I was geared for Mexico so serious cold weather gear was left home ...but I did have my Gerbing jacket and heated grips .. still too cold in early AM for me. The DR with it's super lame charging output (just 200 watts total) will NOT put out enough to keep you warm ... turn off headlight in daytime to give 55 watts more for heated gear ... a must this time of year.

Perhaps things will warm up in December? ... but probably not. Very short days now, not much daylight. H U G E distances ... plan carefully! Stay Warm! Whole lot of NOTHING out there when out on the little back roads.

:thumbup1: :D

+1 on what Mollydog said above.

Last week, I rode across Texas (east to west), staying pretty close to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican border. Daytime temperatures were below freezing as soon as I left the Gulf Coast, and became progressively colder as I rode into the higher altitudes to the west.

Things warmed up a bit near Tucson, but not that much.

Arizona has a lot of high ground, especially to the north. It's not unusual for it to be shirtsleeves weather in the south, and at the same time, to have snow on the ground 2 hours riding time north.

Here's a link to a good site for looking at near term (next 5 days) regional weather forecasts - temperatures, precip, winds, etc. - in a graphical format:

United States Temperature, Rain and Snow Maps - AccuWeather.com

Just click on the future days in the bar at the top to see how things are forecast to develop.

Michael

I might be open. Nothing better to do than ride these days.

Reach out offline.

CW

thanks for all the info. really appreciate it. I will look at the weather/distances and see what's viable this time around :)

Well, I was going to say I would go.
But after looking at the weather last year for Dec, I an't too sure.

Flagstaff;
Weather History for Flagstaff, AZ | Weather Underground

Phoenix;
Weather History for Phoenix, AZ | Weather Underground

beats the uk right now. Im still going... will be amazing, if a bit nippy.

Lot's to do in December
 

I live in Kingman (the heart of rt 66) and there are plenty of rides and places to go. Drop me a line and I may be able to go with you for some of it. Some of your suggestions are a bit cool but there are many lower elevation spots to go where you can enjoy some great winter riding.
Mikey