Days 15 and 16 (Saturday wk 2, Sunday wk 3)

Day 15 We took Hwy 299 out of Redding to McKinleyville, got on Hwy 101 (Pacific Coast Highway), and rode to the Redwood Forest, which is one of our favorites. It is so peaceful and everything grows so huge that it is like being in another world. The trees, of course, are huge but the ferns and all the shrubs around them are huge, too! There were several trails you could walk that takes you into the forest away from the road. That is where it is really peaceful!


Our next stop was Crescent City, where we spent the night. We ate at the Good Harvest Café. We both had fish and chips, which is their featured food. It was a little better than Long John Silvers.

Day 16. We left Crescent City for more riding on the Pacific Coast Highway. We made it to Bandon, Oregon, before we stopped to eat lunch. We remembered eating fish and chips at the Bandon Fish Market on the boardwalk from our previous trip. We found it again! We ate fish and chips again! This was fresh cod with chips and a slice of garlic toast that was really good. The portions are so big, we should have shared a box because we had to throw some of it away.


We left Bandon headed toward Crater Lake, but saw a sign that the Sea Lion Caves were only 60 miles away, so we took off for there. We stopped at the tourist trap where we had to pay $20 to walk down to where we could see the sea lions sunning and barking on the rocks below. There must have been hundreds of them (well, maybe not that many!). We went down in an elevator 200 feet to the inside of one of the caves where they go when there is bad weather or to just get inside. It was pretty interesting to see how they congregate. There was an archeological site of a skeleton of a sea lion inside the cave. There was also a window we could look out to see the Heceta Lighthouse, a really pretty one on a high rock jutting out into the ocean.


When we left the caves, we rode a few yards to where we had stopped on our last trip when there were hundreds (well, again, maybe not that many) sunning and barking below the pulloff that we found just by chance. We were a little disappointed this time because there were not that many to see below the pulloff. They must have all been up at the tourist trap waiting to get their pictures taken! LOL Anyway, we really enjoyed seeing and hearing them.


We had to backtrack a few miles to get on the highway that would take us to Crater Lake. We have stopped for the night in Roseburg, Oregon, just 90 miles from Crater Lake. We enjoyed our supper on the patio outside our room and what a view we enjoyed! There is a river running by just outside and the weather was very pleasant. Very relaxing!

Days 13 and 14 (Thursday and Friday Wk 2)

Day 13 finds us on the interstate all day making our way toward Tahoe. We have had wind gusts every day, and today was no exception. We barely missed a bad dust storm last night and apparently we also missed a bad thunderstorm that knocked out power. Whewww! We did see something interesting along the interstate that was similar to the "hat tree" that we saw a day or so before. This was a "shoe tree". Every branch was hanging heavy with all kinds of pairs of shoes. This reminds us of the tree beside I-40 that is decorated for Christmas and July 4th. The only difference is that these trees are "decorated" every day of the year! LOL

The Lake Tahoe area is a very beautiful area in the month of June. I would think it is even more beautiful in the snowy winter time. There are cabins all the way around Lake Tahoe. The water is a very beautiful color of blue, and there was one area with 3 shades of blue. The temperature was very mild and Pam even had on all 3 layers of her jacket. Imagine that! :-)


We ate dinner at Jax by the Trax, a restaurant that had been reviewed on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It is a historical site in Truckee, Ca. We had burgers and their signature Parmesan chips. All of it was good! There was absolutely no room left for any dessert. Didn't even wanna think about dessert!


We left there and headed toward Susanville, CA., where we spent the night.

Day 14. We started out today with a cool morning at 54 degrees. The drive to Redding was through the mountains, so it stayed cold for most of the ride there. One of the national parks there is Lassen NP and Mount Lassen was covered in snow while the rest of the peaks had no visible snow. We saw a mountain peak that had even more snow on it than Mount Lassen, called Mount Shasta as we dropped into Redding.


We visited the Russell Seat factory and that was very interesting. The seat on our bike was made by this company in 2001, and we had it completely rebuilt early this year. It has been through four bikes now and keeps on being the most comfortable seat ever. What was so interesting in the way the seats are built is that they build the seat from the foam form all the way through the leather covering right there in their building. The same form is used for all the seats, whether large or small or anywhere between, and they just modify it to fit. All seats are custom fit, and are set on a bed of springs that give as needed to keep the ride comfortable. They modify any kind of motorcycle seat imaginable (one was a seat from France that is not even available here) and there is a long waiting list of seats to modify. There were approximately 40 seats in the rack to be worked on, so they stay busy. We had to wait about 3 months before we could send ours to them the first of this year. Every seat they send out is a modification of a seat already made.

We left there and found a motel early in the day so we could rest, do laundry, and catch up on the blog. A lot of the motels we have been on do not have high speed Internet and that makes it hard to get pictures uploaded and added.

We are headed for the coast tomorrow to ride the Pacific Coast Highway! We hope to make it to Crescent City tomorrow night.

Days 11 and 12 (Tuesday and Wednesday wk 2) Update: Pictures Added

(Side note: you can click on the pictures and some computers will let you see a larger one.)

Day 11 finds us in Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP. They are around 100 miles apart so we were able to see both on the same day.

As we drove into Bryce, there was evidence of a fire. Several acres of trees were scorched. We pulled over to make some pictures in Bryce and saw a man with a young boy and girl, probably 10 and 8 years of age, sitting on a ledge with 2 huge backpacks loaded with lots of stuff and a smaller backpack. We thought maybe they were waiting on some other people as the Dad sprayed the little girl down with sunscreen. But before we knew what was happening, they were loading up to take off on the trail! The backpack the young boy was carrying was as big as he was! The dad struggled to get his backpack on by sitting it on the ledge and lifting it from there. By the look on his face, his was verrrry heavy! We got a picture of them as they took off, and there was another group of people who were also watching the process and happened to mention to us that they also took a picture. They felt a little weird taking a picture but saw us taking one, and then didn't feel so bad about it! We discussed the fact that they must have been planning an overnight hike. The next thing we knew the little boy had either fallen or sat down halfway up the hill, and the dad had to help him up because the backpack was way too heavy. Hope they made it ok. Seems the Dad was expecting a little much of his children, though.

The rock formations here remind us of statues of families of people. There is also one place where you can see several trails in the valley and people walking on them look like ants from the overlook we were standing on. The last time we were in Bryce, it was in the month of May about 5 years ago and there was snow in the parking lot. This time there was none.


We got a picture of a pronghorn mama with three little ones in the park. They were beside the road and just stood at attention as we drove by.


We saw several pronghorns in fields on the drive between Bryce and Zion. Inside Zion, the road led us through a long tunnel that seemed to go on forever. When we finally saw daylight, we thought it was "light at the end of the tunnel"; however, it was only a window in the side of the rock that let us look out at the other rocks! There was more of the tunnel and more windows, then finally we drove out of the tunnel into daylight! It was just about the darkest tunnel we have ever driven through. That seemed to make it longer, I guess. The elevation was high and as we started going out of the Park, the road zigzagged down into the valley where it immediately started warming up.


After we left Zion NP, we headed toward the Bonneville Salt Flats. A large coyote crossed the road in front of us and kept running. The GPS took us into Nevada up a northern route to the Salt Flats. We just THOUGHT we had been on a pig trail! We had traveled several long miles on a beautiful drive when the GPS directed us to take an immediate left off the road and head back the other direction on a different highway. We saw road graders parked at the beginning of the "road" and realized why in just a few feet....the "road" was a dirt/gravel road. We do not like dirt roads with or without gravel, but it was ONLY 7 miles to the next turn onto another highway, so we kept going. They had been scraping the road so it looked pretty good for a mile or so, but that soon changed! It became a washboard and it just about shook our brains out! After a long time of brain shaking, we finally got to the other highway. We were covered in dust!


That slowed us down enough that we were not able to make it to a large town for the night, but we made it to a small settlement called Pioche. A lady at a small state park had told us there were two small motels in Pioche or we could head back toward Las Vegas. It was a longer drive and hotter drive back toward Las Vegas, so we decided on Pioche. The town hall was just closing down, but we were able to stop a lady named Arla to ask her about rooms in town. The first thing out of her mouth, before we could even ask about the motel, was "Are you folks lost?", and she kinda laughed. Come to find out, there was a motel over a saloon and a small flea bag looking 6-room motel called the Motherlode Motel. It was too late to head on out to the next big town called Ely because of all the wildlife we would encounter at dusk, so we chose flea bag Motherlode. It turned out to be a clean little room, although it was really outdated.


Day 12 found us heading on out toward the Salt Flats after an actually restful night at the Motherlode. As we approached the Flats, there was a tree on the side of the road that was covered with hats, tennis shoes, CDs, and probably other things that we did not see. We got a picture of it but do not know the story about the tree. Maybe someone can enlighten us.


When we got within sight of the Salt Flats, it again was a long narrow looking white plain that was similar to the way the White Sands looked as we approached it. We drove out to where the pavement ended, but didn't drive on the salt. We had been told it should be packed enough, but we didn't try it. We just got some pictures with the Salt Flats in the background. There was another couple who rode up on their bike, but they did not go out onto the salt either.


We have had a lot of really bad wind gusting today. The sky looked like we were going to be rained on, but we escaped it all the way around. We have stopped for the night in Winnemucca, Nevada. We will ride toward Tahoe tomorrow to find a trail around Lake Tahoe that has been suggested as a beautiful ride.

Day 10 (Monday 2nd wk)

(Side note: you can click on the pictures and some computers will let you see a larger one.)

Arches and Capitol Reef National Parks today! The day started out already warm at 87 degrees and reached a high of 102! We got out our hot gear: neck coolers, wrist coolers, and my cooling vest. They kept us cool enough, along with all the water and Powerade we drank to keep hydrated. One of the Visitors Centers had a sign in the bathroom reminding people to drink a gallon of water a day and showed pictures of the what the color of your urine should be. If it was a dark yellow, you are seriously dehydrated. A little lighter yellow is still serious, but if you drink some water, you would feel better. A light yellow means you still need some water, and a clear color means you are doing a good job of hydrating. Each Visitor Center has water spigots to fill your refillable bottles for free with good cold water. We always take advantage of that.

We have visited Arches before, but we always enjoy that national park because of the rock formations that, like the name says, form arches. Pam took a lot of pictures and it will be hard to decide which ones to use. She is able to take pictures as we ride along" so we can get some really good pictures that you would not ordinarily get sitting in a vehicle.


We had never visited Capitol Reef NP and we were glad we did this time. It was a beautiful park! The road took us right down into the rocks and across washes where the rain runs off when it is heavy. Apparently when it rains there, it really rains a gully washer because one side road had a warning sign that told us not to go down there if there was a threat of rain. The temperature was cooler in Capitol Reef, so that made it even more enjoyable! We always stop in the visitor centers and get our park passports stamped, and as we left this one, some Japanese people were in the parking lot and took great interest in our bike. They ended up parking their car right beside us and were sitting there waiting on us to get on the bike. They rolled down their windows and stuck their cameras out, smiling and talking, saying "hi" and nodding at us. They waved and as we waved back, they took our picture! When Pam put on her helmet liner, they really started talking, saying, "oh, ah, hehehehe, oh, hehehe". I don't know if they were delighted to see her with it on or if they were having a good laugh at her expense! LOL. Anyway, then they really got excited when we climbed on, and they wanted to take more pictures of us with our helmets on sitting on the bike. They waved each time they took a picture, and the elderly lady sitting in the back aimed her camera at our hiking boots. I can imagine she said, "American have bigggggg feeeettt!" LOL.


We left Capitol Reef NP and headed toward Bryce Canyon NP, another of our favorites. We followed Hwy 24 to Mackinaw, then Hwy 62 to Hwy 22 in Antimony, which then turned into a pig path that was 35 miles long. Pam had just about decided it was the road to nowhere, but then we did get to see some pronghorn antelope. We met a total of 3 vehicles that whole 35 miles! 35 miles out here on these windy curvy roads seem like 900 miles sometimes! The wind really blows through the valleys.

We are stopped for the night right outside Bryce NP at the Best Western Ruby's Inn. This is a huge complex of lodges. There is the main lodge, the Aspen Lodge, Ponderosa Lodge, Columbine Lodge, Elk Lodge, Antelope Lodge, and the Lakeview Lodge where we are staying in room 7634. They shuttle from here to Bryce Canyon and there are four wheeler rentals and mountain bike rentals across the road from us. There are rodeo grounds down the road. Ruby's also has a large RV Park and campground. This place was established in 1916, so it is a landmark here. The post office is also here!

Tomorrow we are headed for Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. After we visit there, we will be headed North.