One week, starting from San Diego; ideas?

[fhammond]

Hi all,


I’m a new-ish rider and looking for some suggestions in planning a trip. A mate of mine from Australia is coming to the U.S. in either late November or early December. He’s coming up from South America, I’m coming north from the Bay area and we’re going to meet in San Diego and spend a week going…somewhere. I’ll be riding my R1200R down to SD and we’ll rent him a bike there. He’s a big guy – 6’3” or so – so I was thinking we might get a 1200GS for him.


Neither of us have any off-road experience (though I’m looking to change that between now and then) so I’d be looking for something either on-road or on decent gravel roads.

I feel a bit silly posting here because I haven’t done much research on my own yet. Baja looks interesting but most of the threads on it talk about the off-road bits. What else is down there? Other than Baja, what else is interesting out from San Diego? I think we’d like to mostly camp but probably stay in a hotel at least one night. (I like the idea of not showing for several days – stream swim maybe – but not sure if I want to go a whole week!)


I’m going to call one of the bike rental companies down in San Diego to get their suggestions but any ideas from folks here would be much appreciated. I’m Australian too (though lived here for a while), so we’re both pretty excited about seeing pretty much anything that’s new to us.


Regards,
Fergus

[Zen Slug]

monument valley
canyonlands
zion
death valley
joshua tree

[fhammond]

Thanks Zen!

Monument Valley looks great! I sent my friend the classic road picture to get him inspired.

I’m going to do a lot more reading but do you have any thoughts on good routes there from San Diego or LA? I’m not sure if you live in the area.

regards,
Fergus

[Adios Pantalones]

I cant recite all the road numbers, but with a map, you'll get the idea, for the Utah route you can ride N/E out of SD any number of routes to Joshua Tree, N through the Mojave desert, through 29 Palms, Amboy, Kelso, Baker, take the I-15 up to St. George Ut. E to Zion, out the E side of Zion on Hwy 12 and others through Dixie Forest, Staircase Escalante, Capitol Reef and on to Cortez Co. Maybe see the cliff dwellings @ Mesa Verde then head S/W to Monument Valley, W to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon , W/N/W tothe Vermillion Cliffs, and back to St.George. Then you can either Express back on I-15 or dawdle back through the desert again.

HTH.

You could also do a paved loop of N Baja. S from TJ to Ensenada, Mex 3, E to San Felipe and then Mex 5 N to Mexicali. 8 or 94 home to SD.

[Zen Slug]

Originally Posted by Adios Pantalones

Baker, take the I-15 up to St. George Ut. E to Zion

nice route suggestion... passes right through las vegas, too, iirc

[Zagando]

Hi Fergus, if you do decide to check out Baja I suggest avoid TJ and cross at Tecate. Take 3 down to Ensenada and then get on Hwy 1. The scenery gets magnificent once you get past El Rosario and is worth the ride. Great food and decent places to stay in El Rosario, too. Nice beaches nearby as well.

I'm going down from the Bay Area to La Paz solo on my PD first week of November. I'll post a ride/road report from there if I get half a chance (lots of internet cafes there).

Wish you guys were going same time as me. Anyone else here that might want to tag along from San Diego let me know. It's been 32 years since I did the whole peninsula solo on my R75/5 and this might be a different kettle of fish nowadays...

Anyway, have a good ride wherever you go, mate! Monument Valley sounds good, too.

[OldPete]

For routes and pics you might want to peek into pashnit dot com
Be prepared for cold/wet weather...Enjoy!

[Adios Pantalones]

Originally Posted by Zen Slug

nice route suggestion... passes right through las vegas, too, iirc

Ummm, vegas, yeah. Big place, lots of lights right?













Bought gas there once... IIRC.

[fhammond]

Originally Posted by Adios Pantalones

I cant recite all the road numbers, but with a map, you'll get the idea, for the Utah route you can ride N/E out of SD any number of routes to Joshua Tree, N through the Mojave desert, through 29 Palms, Amboy, Kelso, Baker, take the I-15 up to St. George Ut. E to Zion, out the E side of Zion on Hwy 12 and others through Dixie Forest, Staircase Escalante, Capitol Reef and on to Cortez Co. Maybe see the cliff dwellings @ Mesa Verde then head S/W to Monument Valley, W to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon , W/N/W tothe Vermillion Cliffs, and back to St.George. Then you can either Express back on I-15 or dawdle back through the desert again.

Hey Adios,

Thanks very much for the trip advice. That sounds pretty good. I've spent some time in MapPoint and this is the route I've come up with:



The only problem is that it's a little over 2000 miles, so about 300 per day, so about 5 hours a day at 60 miles an hour. Hmm.... I don't think that's going to work. I suppose we could start from Phoenix and head north. That'd knock off about 500 miles from the trip. The downside is that I would probably have to rent a bike for myself as well as one for Gus (my mate from Australia) and I'd sort of hoped to ride my own R12R. On the other hand, I did test ride a R1200RT yesterday and getting two of those wouldn't be too bad; the thing is incredible comfortable at highway speed.

Back to the route, what are these areas like in winter, weather-wise? I know look at historical weather reports for these places but I'd rather get the opinion of folks who've ridden in this area (i.e., southern Utah).

Zagando, thanks for the suggestions on Mexico. Looks like that would be a good trip too. Think I'm now hooked on showing Gus some classic America landscapes in Utah.

Regards,
Fergus

[Adios Pantalones]

I can appreciate wanting to see Moab but it is a little higher and cooler. On a short schedule like yours, scenery wise you may get more bang for your buck staying south. I might even shave a few miles off my previous route by taking 95 south out of Hanksville, take 261 to 163 to 160 to98 to 89 to alt 89 to389 to 59. back to St.G. 89 south to Flag could be an escape south should the weather turn on you.

Weather will be cool for sure, precip is a total crapshoot that time of year. You could get anything. Keep one eye on the weather channel. If in doubt ask a local rancher. They know weather.

HTH YMMV

[sachiwilson]

What's wrong with 300 miles a day??? That doesn't take all that long, especially if you're not on the twisty backroads. I can ride from San Diego to Las Vegas easily, for example.

Keep in mind that those roads are EMPTY. You're going to be bored to tears if you do less than 300!

[jonz]

That is the perfect time of year to see Death Valley. For a fun twisty start to the route, head east on I 8 to SR79 north. Drop down S22 through Borrego Springs to SR 86S. Turn east on Ave. 66 (probably should gas up at the Arco), cut through Mecca (look at a map to get through town unless you speak Spanish to ask for directions) and Ave. 66 turns into Box Canyon. Continue up and across I-10 and into Joshua Tree National Park (if either of you climb rocks, you'll want to explore a bit in the park). On down to 29 Palms and gas up again. Get on Amboy Road, turn right on route 66, take a photo at Roy's, continue a few miles and turn left on Kelbaker to Baker on I15. Take Hwy 127 north and cut into Death Valley National park on Jubilee Road. Explore to your hearts content. Many easy dirt roads (and hard ones too so check first) to taste your first dirt. After all of the wide open stuff you can stand, head to Las Vegas for a little debauchery. For a nice ride in the area, head over to Lake Mead and ride north along the shore. Have lunch at Echo Bay. If time and weather allow, you can head north from here to check out Utah.

I've routed you where for much of the time, you'll be in the middle of nowhere. I'm a desert rat and you'll be seeing prime stuff on smaller backroads.

[earthroamer]

Originally Posted by Zen Slug

monument valley
canyonlands
zion
death valley
joshua tree

Well, Zen stole my thunder. I'm actually taking this trip 11/10 thru 11/17 from San Diego.

Lake Havasu (Cattails Park)
Grand Canyon
Monument Valley
Gooseneck
Canyonlands (White Rim Road)
Arches
Zion