Western US Trip

[atxrider]

A little background:

I have been thinking seriously about this trip for about 6 years, and my resolve was further bolstered when I spent some time in Iraq in 03-04. Although motorcycles were around me most of my life, I never actually purchased one. When I got back, I bought my dad's suzuki intruder 1400...rode that for a year and moved to the FJR. As my civilian job (I was a reservist) became more and more demanding...it seemed I would never get the chance to take the trip. Enter my lovely longtime girlfriend...she had been living in Chicago the last 2 years and she finally moved back down to Austin so we could get married. We decided to have a small wedding, take the money and travel through Western Europe and North Africa.

Prior to leaving for Europe, my dad and I took five weeks and saw as much of the Western US as possible. Our goals were to do it on the cheap, see as many National /State parks as time would allow, and,of course, spend some quality time together.

Why has it taken me so long to post? Well...my wife and I just got back from Europe not too long ago...and yes, I have been very lazy.

Originally, we were supposed to take the trip at the end of August 08, but was delayed because of a Hurricane moving through Louisiana (where my folks live). I went back home, helped to board up the house, and rode out the storm with them. No damage thankfully...the hurricane decided to make a sharp turn right before our town and hit one 45 miles to the east of us.

So, on the 5th of September, we set off from Louisiana and headed north through Arkansas. We thought we would take 7 all the way up...uh...big mistake. Seems Arkansas took a huge beating from the Hurricane. The water still had not subsided...so we hit detours at every turn. It was a long, long day and we ended up at Lake Dardanelle:

Needless to say, no fishing happened:

Wish I could tell you more about Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa...but we were pretty much super slabbing it. Not too many pictures were taken. Finally, we make it to South Dakota. Our first campsite was in Union Grove SP...a very beautiful and remote place:

Turkeys were abound there:

Snake Creek recreation area is right on the Missouri River near Platte, and we bed down there the next night:

I have to say...traveling in the off season certainly has its merits. Very few people have been at any of the places we have stayed thus far. Anyway, on to the southern plains of SD. What can I say about them? Windy. Extremely windy. We spent a better part of a day leaned over. My dad, on a Goldwing pulling a big camping trailer, said something about a sailboat...

Finally the badlands are in sight. Impressive place. One of my favorites of the trip.

Can you spot the goldwing in this pic?

How about the FJR in this one?

more later...

 

[cota95]

nice shots and story-thanks

 

[dcarver]

Woot Woot! More!

 

[Danno]

Nice pictures. Good for you for finally making your trip.

 

[happyPuppy]

What a great thing to do. I hope to do it with my boys one day.

 

[weekend rider]

Very nice and the memories you will have with dad on a trip long over due

 

[rickysnickers]

That's great that you were able to do that. It's coming up on the 20th anniversary, if you will, that my Dad passed away. I wish he was here so that we could go riding together. He used to do a lot of it when he was young. He had several different Truimphs, Royal Enfields, and BSAs. I was only 21 when he died.

Rick

 

[atxrider]

We are now moving towards Custer State Park...and the bugs are bad. Some kind of seasonal fly...and it seems like we had to drive through swarms of them to get to our camping spot, but it was worth it. Our site was right next to a little stream...nice:

If you have never been to the black hills...it is called as such because the trees are so dense...the hillsides appear black. Unfortunately, the trees seem to be dying and thinning out pretty badly. Not sure if it is blight or one of those beetles...but there were tons of burn piles, kinda sad:

We did all the loops...some great roads in the park. Here are some tunnel shots on Iron Mtn Road:

One of the tunnels supposedly frames Rushmore. I must not have been paying attention .

Rushmore, I love this pic:

Closeup of GW. That guy had a serious roman nose.

The wildlife loop was a little anti-climatic. No buffaloes...only a few antelope here and there. Pretty country though.

I had a run in with one of the Buffalo. Supposedly one of the bigger bulls likes to hang around the campsites and lodge parking lots. I was going to the lodge to find internet...and had to go out of the fenced compound to do so. It was kinda dark and I could not find the lodge, so I doubled back and came a little too close to a bull in the parking lot. He was only 40 feet away and busy doing something nosy (maybe rummaging trash). I backed away very slowly...and walked calmly to the gate. Sheesh...what an awful story that could have been.

We headed out in the direction of Little Big Horn and saw a few sites along the way.

Yep. We went to Sturgis, took this pic, and turned around:

Crazy Horse. Wow. They seriously have a long, long way to go.

Devil's Tower.

Little Big Horn was really something my father wanted to see. It was kinda out of the way and I was not sure if I would really find it interesting. Boy, was I wrong:

The gravestones were placed where the soldiers fell in battle. Custer's headstone is the one with the flags. I found it cool that both soldiers and the native americans were represented equally:

Beartooth, Yellowstone coming next...

 

[Texan]

It was really great riding with you today. This story is all the more interesting after meeting you. You are a lucky man to have done this and I know many here envy that you got to do something so memorable with your father.

 

[atxrider]

Onto the famous Beartooth pass. My father and I get to Red lodge....and it is late afternoon. He wants to stay there, I want to go. He relented and we made our way up. Seriously, one of the most beautiful roads I have ever seen.

Maybe I should post this story on the Goldwing forum. Can you tell who was taking all of the pictures?

It started getting a little cold...and we were a little worried we would have no where close by to stay. Then, out of nowhere:

Yep, a place to stay at 10000 feet. Cool. They had nice cabins for a reasonable price, but in the spirit of our budget we camped in the campground. Big mistake.

Guys, it got to nineteen degrees F that night...NINETEEN! Uh, we were equipped to maybe freezing. We shivered all night...and awoke to find our tents frozen. I got up and started a fire. Had to wait until the sun rose so our tents would melt. Yep, shoulda stayed in the cabins.

One last shot before we get into Yellowstone:

We get a pretty cool greeting not too far into the park. I drove through the buffalo to get this shot, not the best idea I have had in a while. You can see my dad's head in the background if you look closely.

Yellowstone is ever seething and erupting. It also stinks. It stinks real bad. I am sure someone could open a mud spa here and be a millionaire.

"Oh give me a home...

My x-files shot:

Old faithful doing his thing:

By the way...we did, of course, do Chief Joseph hwy. It was not pleasant, however. A cloud descended and we had scarce visibility. I could barely see my father, who was right in front of me doing 10 mph. I also had some ******** car breathing down my neck. We made it down thankfully...I will have to get there and try it again soon.

After yellowstone, we head south to check out the Grand Tetons. It was my father's childhood dream to see them, not sure why, but they were as advertised. Craggly, sharp and damn impressive. I think he even got a little misty eyed. Bravo Dad.

Fast forward. We get to Missoula, MT at noon one day and I decide I want to go to Glacier National and check it out. My dad is a little tired, so he heads on to Cour d'alene. The plan was to meet up with him later that night. I think I miscalculated a little. First, there is nothing but towns and curves all the way up. Second, the Going to the Sun Road is closed on the west side. Sucks. So I drive all the way to the east side, drive in the park as far as I can and snap a few pictures:

I drove all night to meet up with my father. The roads in Montana are damn dangerous at night. It is like a vacuum of light...and there are creatures all over the place. I really, really wish I had more lighting (coming soon). Some harley riders pass while I am pulled over looking at a map. I follow them, hoping to avoid deer with them in front of me. It works and I make it back at 2 am. Sooo...here is my math. 13 hours of driving after we split. 1 hour in the park. Was it worth it? Yep. The park was sublime.

Next up: Olympic peninsula, Oregon Coast, PCH, Redwoods, Yosemite.

 

[atxrider]

Thanks for the responses guys. You are right, I am truly lucky to have done this with my father. My brother is hopefully getting an FJR at some point...I forsee another trip in my future!

More to come.

Davy

 

[Bungie]

:fans:

 

[atxrider]

Next we are headed to the Olympic penninsula to meet up with an old Air Force buddy of my Father's. We head towards Grand Coolee dam and guess what? Yep, I get a ticket. I must have been in Lala land, because the cop was sitting in plain view and my radar detector almost blows up when he guns me. 85 in a 55. He knocks it down to 70. Nice Guy. Damn.

Here is the dam, gargantuan by the way.

We ran into these cool canyons south of the damn.

On the way, I get a tire changed at Desert Valley and inquire about the ignition failure I had been intermittently experiencing. Yes, i took a picture of the bathroom at DVPS. The legendary rocks:

Unfortunately, they can not fix the ignition until a few days later...so I go ahead and leave to catch up with my father (we split again). I met a nice BMW rider who was about to head down the PCH. We rode together for a while and said our goodbyes.

The guy my dad is meeting is named Steve. A real cool guy. Evidently, the last time they spoke was when Steve was leaving for Vietnam. A very nice reunion I thought. Here we are, a very motley crew:

The beginning of the PCH (Hwy 101) is in Olympia, so my father and I head there. The Washington coast is pretty:

But the Oregon coast...sheesh. Awesome. I think I saw this lighthouse in a book somewhere.

While in Oregon, we stopped by to see some relatives. I got to see my great uncle Carol, who I have not seen in maybe 25 years. A very dynamic man...we picked wild chantrelle mushrooms together on his 25 acres and he later made an omelette out of them. MMMMM.

Here he is with my father. His land is super dense with vegetation. It is mid morning here and looks like evening.

We move on down the coast and hit california and the redwoods. Cool.

Dad kinda has the lumbejack look, eh?

Elk were everywhere. We took this photo in the early morning...lots of people were stopping in the road to get a shot.

Riding through the redwoods.

San Francisco is coming up fast...and we decide to cut our PCH tour there and cutover to Yosemite. I have to say, I did not like it all that much, simply too much traffic in and out. It was like being in rushhour the entire time. Beautiful though.

El capitan.

Half Dome:

Cool shot. We were descending from Tioga Pass on the Eastern side of the park. You can see the road running the mountains about a third of the way up.

Tenaya lake.

Next. Death Valley, Grand Canyon, New Mexico.

 

[atxrider]

The Sierras were something else, they seemed to go on forever.

The most beautiful parking lot I have ever seen

We roll into Death Valley and I take the obligatory shot with the sign. Funny thing...my dad was usually leading...and he wanted to make sure he took a picture with every sign he could. I think he ended up missing 95% of them...I would be honking, flashing, yelling into my radio and he would still drive right on by. Funny stuff.

How hot is it? Damn hot. 119 degrees.

Devil's cornfield. I love the bullet holes in the sign. How appropriate.

We came close to not making it out of there. My dad's goldwing was getting HOT. The ambient temp, combined with what he was pulling and the 12% grade (I think) was no good. We stooped often (every half mile or so) and eventually made it out. Good times.

After Death Valley, we went our separate ways. I had a lot of ground to cover (Arizona, Utah canyonlands, Colorado, New Mexico) and dad was going to take the straight route home. I have to say...it tore me up a little. We were so busy having a good time...we forgot it had to end eventually.

I make my way through Vegas and onto Hoover Dam. Guess who I ran into

I push on to the Grand Canyon and stay in the park. I have not been here in 10 years or so. It is raining and I have to setup camp...arrrgh. I wake up early to a bugling elk near my tent. Wow. New experience there. I break camp and set out to take a few photos.

Wait, where the hell does my alarm clock think he is going?

A nice lady leading a convoy of donkeys.

I have to backtrack west a little ways so I can start at the beginning of the canyon lands in Utah. Seriously, not many options for roads in Utah. Their DOT needs to get busy or something. Eventually, I run into the Grand Staircase...pretty neat:

I make it to Kanab and then it happens. After filling up with gas, I turn the FJR on and.....nothing. Ah ****. Yep, it is the ignition failure. I try for half an hour and have no success. It is 4 pm on Saturday...and everything is starting to close. I call Desert Valley and figure out which wires I need to splice to hotwire the bike. I then called the local yamaha shop and they are about to close. The lone tech agrees to help me though ( I paid him for an hour of time). By the time he gets there...I have the tank off and am about to cut the wires. He suggests building little wiring harnesses instead so we do not have to cut wires. Smart. We build a couple with toggle switches...and I am good to go. I decide at this point to head straight to Albuqueque and stay with a friend for a few days. It is a nice visit.

I drive home from Albuquerque in a day and make it to Austin the same time as my father. Good timing. We rehash and laugh about our trip over some good barbeque. What did I learn from this trip and my trip to Europe? One thing. The biggest luxury is not money...the biggest luxury is time. And I am trying to make the most of it.

Love you Dad.

:yahoo:

 

[spyderbret]

Thanks for the great report. Outstanding pictures and a great story....

B)

 

[biknflyfisher]

Hey atxrider:

I really enjoyed your trip with Pop, as my main riding partner is my Dad who will turn 70 next month.

There is something about a father & son sharing the open road on bikes that is beyond words. Sometimes Dad and I will get to a spot and just not even talk - we'll just soak up the moment knowing that it is something that is to be treasured - and that someday we will not be able to share these great times as age takes it's toll on the ability to (safely) ride.

We are leaving Sunday (4/25) for our annual 3 day venture to the Death Valley area (staying in Beatty, NV this year though) so I really enjoyed your pics of DV and the comments about the heat - it can be extreme! But, there is a sense of open space that only riding in the desert can give you.

Yosemite, which is only a couple hours from our home is breathtaking, but dealing with National Park traffic there is mind-numbing at best.

Interestingly, my Dad also rides a GW and I ride an 07 FJR.

Take care and great pics!

biknflyfisher.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Awesome report... :clapping:

Good on you for travelling with your Dad. Thanks for sharing.

 

[atxrider]

Hey atxrider:I really enjoyed your trip with Pop, as my main riding partner is my Dad who will turn 70 next month.

There is something about a father & son sharing the open road on bikes that is beyond words. Sometimes Dad and I will get to a spot and just not even talk - we'll just soak up the moment knowing that it is something that is to be treasured - and that someday we will not be able to share these great times as age takes it's toll on the ability to (safely) ride.

We are leaving Sunday (4/25) for our annual 3 day venture to the Death Valley area (staying in Beatty, NV this year though) so I really enjoyed your pics of DV and the comments about the heat - it can be extreme! But, there is a sense of open space that only riding in the desert can give you.

Yosemite, which is only a couple hours from our home is breathtaking, but dealing with National Park traffic there is mind-numbing at best.

Interestingly, my Dad also rides a GW and I ride an 07 FJR.

Take care and great pics!

biknflyfisher.

Glad you enjoyed it biknflyfisher. My dad is 62, I am hoping this is the first of many long trips. Death Valley was pretty neat...I felt overwhelmed by the sense of desolation...especially the road leading into it. Cool that your father has a goldwing...I am sure when I get more advanced in age, I will have one in the garage as well.

Enjoy your trip. Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Davy

 

[mfletch69]

Thanks for the great trip report. How great to do that with your dad!