Watch for Falling Rock - Trip Report (Pic Heavy)

[Trip]

Day 5 and 6 continued:

Da Strip:



View outside of my Suite in the Luxor:



Me and the Wife at the Bellagio:



Pawn Stars rip off store (10% of store is pawn store, 90% is Pawn Stars gift shop LAME):



In N Out Burger NOM NOM:

[Trip]

Day 7:

This day was a 500 mile day from Las Vegas, NV to Oakhurst, CA. This day can best be described as remote. Google maps didn't even want to map the route my Garmin took me on. I went through Pahrump, NV and up into Death Valley and took Wildrose/Trona/Trona Wildrose Road through Searles Valley and then 178 to 14 through Red Rock Canyon State Park to Mojave. From there I took 58 to Bakersfield and the normal route from there to Oakhurst. It was an interest ride through the desert and then a boring ride from Bakersfield.

This was not the initial choice for the route. I REALLY REALLY wanted to do Tioga Pass into Yosemite this day, but it was not open so I had to chose between this route and taking 395 up to Tahoe and SR88 or Highway 50 through the Sierras, these routes were 600+ miles to Yosemite and the weather across was looking iffy, which led to me taking the southern route. I am still pissed I didn't get to do Tioga....

The ride from Vegas to Pahrump was uneventful. I felt like I was starting to get a sinus infection and was feeling really bad and stopped in Pahrump and got some Dayquil and Nyquil. These saved me. The Dayquil pepped me up for the day and I used the Nyquil at night and got myself back to 100% near the Redwood Forest later in the trip.

Pahrump through Death Valley was great. The desert was awesome. It was only 80 degrees for my trip through. Perfect temperatures and awesome scenery. All the people that told me not to go through can kiss my ass, I loved every minute in Death Valley. The dips in the road were fun.

This was also my first taste of annoying gas fill ups. California's stupid heavy vapor things on the gas pumps annoy the shit out of me.

After the Valley, I felt like I was in a horror movie and was waiting for some strange desert locals to come out and get me. LOL! Trona/Wildrose route was interesting to say the least. After I got into Bakersfield and from there, I did not have a good time. I was in the part of California I did not like, it was boring and I wish freakin Tioga Pass was open or I had taken the northern route.... I pulled into Oakhurst for the night and I have to say the little town, although touristy, was nice. I ate at a decent BBQ place and that made things better. Took some Nyquil and dreamed of hitting Yosemite in the morning.

Ride into Death Valley:













Death Valley:

[Trip]

Day 7 continued:

More of Death Valley:

















Ride towards Oakhurst:

[Trip]

Day 8:

The cluster that was the 390 mile ride from Oakhurst, CA to San Rafael, CA. The day started off freakin beautiful turned into shit and then became nice again.

I started off in Oakhurst and had a short trip into Yosemite. I didn't really see anything all that grand at first. It was kinda cold this morning. Storms were moving in, but was still sunny. I took some advice from an ADVrider in my thread and hit up Glacier Point Road first. It was a nice ride, but when I hit the end it became a HOLY SHIT moment. Overlooking Yosemite Valley became my first view of El Capitan and the waterfalls. THIS PLACE WAS JUST DAMN!!! I did not expect anything to beat the Grand Canyon, but Yosemite just about did it. I will have to give them a tie. Yosemite is one of my new favorite places on earth.

After Glacier Point, I went into the valley and the views just got better. This place is amazing, this should be on everyone's bucket list. Yosemite Valley, just wow....

After Yosemite, I took a wrong turn out and went 140 instead of 120 into Merced, then 99 up into a bunch of interstates down into Cupertino and made a stop at geek heaven at 1 Infinity Loop and got the obligatory Apple store t-shirt. From there I took a interstate to a very fun motard friendly Black Road up onto Skyline Blvd. There I went to Alice's Restaurant and had one of the best burgers I have ever had. It was quite tasty. Talked with a few friendly restaurant workers (maybe the owner, not quite sure.) They were really nice, highly recommend a stop here. I was quite disappointed there was not another moto rider in the parking lot the entire time I was there.

After Alice's, I follow Skyline right onto 101 and made a stop at the Golden Gate before going to San Rafael for the night. I got a little rain on this last bit and found out there was a big storm brewing off the coast. I weighed my options after looking at the report, the storm ended up getting really bad and I decided to not do 1 (very sad I didn't, but I stayed a day ahead of the bad weather everywhere else thanks to this decision) and sit in beach traffic in the storm and take 101 to the Redwoods the next day.

Coming into Yosemite:





Glacier Point Road:























Going into Yosemite Valley:

[Trip]

Day 8 continued:

Yosemite Valley:





























Leaving the Valley:

[Trip]

Day 8 continued:

Apple:



Skyline Blvd:









Alice's:



San Fran:





Golden Gate:







The Rock in the distance, wish I could got a tour...:

[Trip]

Day 9:

This was a 450 mile jaunt from San Rafael, CA to Central Point, OR. This trip was pretty good. The day started out pretty rainy, but it quickly turned nice when I got into wine country. This was my only day of hard rain.

I took 101 up to the coast and had some fun in the Redwood Parks and then 199 to I-5 into Central Point for the night...

Wine country was alright. Central Cali is not really my bag though. When I started going into Redwood country, it got a lot better. Those trees are pretty amazing. I finally made it to the coast and the Pacific Ocean around Humboldt State Park. I finally felt like I accomplished my mission when I stuck my hand into that icy water. The beach I ended up stopping at had a very Oregon coast/Goonies feel to it. It was nice. Ironically, Goonies just came on Family Channel as I am writing this, awesome... It's good enough for me... OH I I I I I Ayeeeeeee wo wo wo ahhhhhhhh.

The Redwood parks were very confusing and most of my photos turned out like shit. I am so mad about that. They all look blurry. I stopped at one of the drive through trees in Klamath and did the tourist tree photo.

I totally missed doing Avenue of the Giants and was pissed about that.... I didn't see the signs when I entered the national park....

199 to I-5 turned out to be an awesome little ride at first. The Jedidah Smith Redwood State Park was really nice.

When I got to Oregon, I got a lesson in how to fill up my bike, every gas stop... Oregon and their safety nazi fill up the gas tank for you program was highly annoying. More so than the California heavy vapor thing...

Overall, it was a good ride and a good day.

Riding on 101:







Can't see the damn Pacific:



Finally:



Made it to the beach:









Riding through the Redwood Parks:

















Headed to Oregon:





Cool Mountain in Oregon:

[Trip]

Day 10:

This was a 540 mile sprint from Central Point, OR to Boise, ID. I took 62 up to Crater Lake west entrance. I got lucky they just opened because they had a ton of snow like everywhere else on my original route. The north entrance was still not open so I had to come back out the west entrance and take 230 to 138 and finally 97 up to Bend, OR. Then finished it off with 20 to Ontario and I-84 into Boise.

The forest ride up to Crater Lake was really pretty. Crater Lake still had a ton of snow, more than Glacier Point in Yosemite. Most of the building entrances were blocked with snow. To get to view the Crater itself you had to climb a snow bank to the see the lake. It was really awesome with all the snow around it.

After coming down of the the crater and into Bend, I went across the High Desert in Oregon. It was ok, but really boring in a lot of spots. I know one thing in about Burns, OR when I stopped for gas, I made a jackass out of myself. I got this bite, which I thought was a bee bite on my back and started stripping off all my gear to get the damn thing out of my shirt. All the locals were looking at me like I was crazy. Finally one dude came up to me and said, yeah that's just a mosquito. The mosquitoes are freakin vicious in the hi desert...

The rest of the journey was uneventful and pretty boring. I did get to see the Oreida factory in Ontario...

Bored headed out of Central Point:



Run up to Crater Lake:











Crater Lake:

















Headed back out of the Lake Area:









High Desert:

[Trip]

Day 10 continued:

High Desert continued:



















Ore Ida!:



Potato?:

[Trip]

Day 11:

This was the suppose to be easy ride into West Yellowstone, MT; that turned into the 510 mile trek (590 miles actually) from Boise, ID to Cody, WY. With a lot of cursing and awe of the scenery in the process. I would go through 40 miles on I-84 to Mountain Home, back up I-84 to Boise, back to Mountain Home on I-84 before I finally started to enjoy US 20 all the way to Cody.

Let's start off with Boise. I left the first time and got to Mountain Home when I realized I never put my camera around my neck. I laid it on the tank, but never secured it to anything. I called the hotel and some person found it in the parking lot and turned it in. All my pics of the previous days were on that memory card, whoever turned it in is a SAINT, A F'IN SAINT!!! I love that person. I rode the 40 miles back cussing up a storm at myself and then back to Mountain Home still cussing at my stupidity.

Finally I got on US 20 which turned out to be a nice ride. I got to see a lot of nice scenery and eventually got to see the very well named Craters of the Moon National Monument.

I rode 20 all the way into West Yellowstone. I made it with surprisingly good time and it was only about 2:00pm local time. It was a nice sunny day in the 70s. I looked at the weather for the next day and it said snow/showers/thunderstorms with a high of 44... So I said screw staying in West Yellowstone and decided to hit Yellowstone National Park in the nice 70 degree sunny weather.

I was planning on doing the Beartooth Highway to exit Yellowstone, from everything I read prior to my trip, the expected opening date was June 3rd this year and I was there almost a week after that. Unfortunately, when I got to the Yellowstone gate, they had signs up saying it was closed. I was pissed, first no Tioga Pass, now no Beartooth.... ARGH!!!!

It was a nice afternoon though and got to see the southern part of the grand loop. Yellowstone without the Beartooth was nice, but it was no Grand Canyon or Yosemite to me. I liked it, but I would of been just as happy in fly fishing in my Great Smoky Mountains. I really wished I had brought my fly fishing gear thoroughly on this day though. I saw a lot of bad casting and poor approaches to get some fish, probably a lot of tourists with rented gear... Having never fished these waters, I am told the fish out west are a lot less spooky than the fish in the GSM. You have to be a ninja to catch wild trout in the GSM.

I did make a stop at Old Faithful and watched an eruption. Even that didn't live up to the expectations. The geysers and thermal stuff just wasn't a huge thing for me for some reason...

The ride around Yellowstone Lake was pretty neat though. I stopped for a couple photos and some guy yelled at me to get away from a hill because had been spotted there a few hours before. There was a large group of people stopped at another point looking at a bear that was a long ways away. You could barely see anything more than a blob, see below.

After Yellowstone, I kept on 20 and went through cool little canyons and into Bill Cody State Park/Reservoir. It was pretty neat through hear and had a bunch of awesome rock formations.

I ended up in Cody for the night and ate at the Wyoming Rib and Chop House. The owner was from my home state of Louisiana and had a nice little restaurant. It was quite tasty. Cody was a pretty cool little town and I watched a cowboy show just down the street from my hotel before retiring for the night.

All in all another great day to be on the GS.

US 20 in Idaho:











Craters of the Moon:

















Arco, ID Seniors marking their graduation:



More of US 20:







The guy in the red truck was a douche, he pulled in front of me and then got out of his truck and proceeded to stand in front of me when I was trying to take a pic of the sign. So I started the bike up and went right for him, he jumped out of the way. I took my pic, gave him some choice words and a fun hand signal and took off:



Jellystone:



I guess the park didn't want the big welcome sign: