Bucket List Ride.....completed

[DonnyRudeDude]

My sister and I headed out on my 1999 Honda Valkyrie Interstate crossing the boarder at Port Huron, destination- northern California. We allowed ourselves 6 weeks for this adventure but ended up completing it in 32 days. We drove up the east side of Michigan to Mackinaw City and across the Upper Peninsula and across the northern states. I learned that the Mississippi River headwaters are in the upper part of Minnesota-never knew that before. The landscape started to get interesting once we were in South Dakota as we toured the Badlands, Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. We bought a national park pass at the insistence of the park ranger which is good for one year and it more than paid for itself as we explored multiple parks over the trip.

We headed to Billings Montana and the next day drove the Bear Tooth Pass-that was spectacular. Full concentration and eyes on the road when going up the pass and the views were amazing. Stopped several times to take it all in. Spent 3 days in Gardiner and used the Travel lodge as home base as we explored Yellowstone. Kept my eyes open to get a picture of Kevin Kostner for my wife-but didn't see him. 😁 My wife told me later that he was killed off in season 2 anyways. I think it was the perfect time of year to be there as the crowds were not too large yet and it was plenty warm. We saw some majestic landscape as well as pronghorns, black bear and cub from a distance, bison and elk. We said goodbye to Yellowstone after seeing Old Faithfull and drove to Idaho Falls and had a down day as we found a nice Best Western right across the road from the river and some green space. They even had peddle bikes we could sign out, so we explored the market and the restaurants along the river. This was a cool hotel as the GM was the one making omelets in the morning at their continental breakfast-a nice touch. The hotel had been in her family for over 50 years. We met a group of young people while sharing a beer at one of the local outdoor patio's. The one gentleman was an Evie Knievel fanatic and insisted that we go to Shoshone Falls and see where Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River. We never considered this attraction but glad we checked it out as the falls were spectacular.

From here we made our way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This wasn't on our list of things to see but we were driving right by, it looked interesting so decided to stop. It was amazing to see all the small flowers blooming amongst the old lava flows indicating the resiliency of nature finding a way to flourish in this desolate environment. I didn't realize how desolate parts of Idaho and eastern Oregon are and also very desert like. I made sure to fill up at every gas station in these parts and also carried a small jerry can which fit nicely in my saddle bag as it had a tapered fit to take up less room.  We literally drove hundreds of miles without seeing a home and the one's we saw looked like they had been abandoned, a testament to the harsh conditions of trying to make a go of it as farmers in this area. It appeared that the successful farmers need to use spray irrigation-otherwise there would be not much of a crop.

Headed to Oregon and Crater Lake National Park (got to use my park pass for the 6th time) to check it out. Well worth the ride in. Still snow on the sides of the road as we got higher in elevation. Beautiful water, almost purple in colour. No water gets in from external sources and it's not spring fed, so there's no silt at all in the lake and has this amazing colour. Also, the deepest lake in the USA (thank-you Google) as a result of a volcanic explosion. 

From here, on to northern California to see the redwoods. Toured Redwood National Park and then up the coast of Oregon. The Oregon coast was beautifully rugged and was cool and overcast for several days so we decided to have a down day in Bandon. (It's helpful the iPhone records the location of most pictures when recalling names of places). This was my sister's favorite part of the trip on the Oregon coast.  This was probably my least favorite part because as the driver, this was the most challenging for me, following Hwy 101, fully loaded pulling a small single wheel trailer through the twisties and up and down was tough. Also, made the mistake of not checking tire air pressure enough and my tires could have been pumped about 4 lbs higher so there was some wear starting to show.  Made it through Washington and crossed into beautiful British Columbia. I'm convinced that there is no part of BC that isn't beautiful...at least the parts we saw. Stopped to see my nephew in Kamloops for lunch. The best part of ride for me was from BC to Banff Alberta on the trans Canada hwy. The bike was easier to drive on this hwy and the scenery was just amazing with snow covered peaks around every corner. From here it was the trans Canada all the way to Winnipeg, then south and crossed over once again into Minesota and back to where we started. When we crossed back over into Canada the boarder guard asked, "so where are you coming from"...I smiled and said, where do I start? Made it safely back having travelled 11 K kms.  All in all a great trip...and my sister and I are still on speaking terms😀 Bucket list ride completed.

 

Mark

[Freebird]

Fantastic ride.  Those memories woo last forever.   I’ve been to all those places but not in a single trip like you did.    Sounds like you had a wonderful time.