From coast to coast

The main focus of my trip other than crossing the US continent was visiting a number of National Parks. So far, I have visited six of them (Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Zion and Bryce Canyon) and one National Monument (Craters of the Moon). Sometimes people ask me which one I liked most. That's a difficult question because each park is so different. They each have their own highlights. But if I had to choose one, it would probably be Bryce Canyon, the last one we visited. Perhaps nowhere are the forces of natural erosion more tangible than at Bryce Canyon. It's amazing how water has carved Bryce's rugged landscape for millions of years.

Another great aspect to this park is its abundance of wildlife. Maybe it's a matter of luck but on an evening ride through the park we spotted a fox, turkeys, elk, deer and all sorts of birds.

That evening we also discovered that there are few better places on planet Earth for astronomy! The night sky at Bryce is so dark you can see 7,500 stars on a moonless night! That night it was half moon so the amount diminished but it was still impressive. Jupiter is actually that big that you can see it without a telescope. The park rangers picked up on the success of their sky (they now call it part of Bryce Canyon park) and they decided to have a multimedia show twice a week followed by sky viewing with telescopes. And that's what we did that night, looking to the craters of the moon, gazing at Jupiter with 4 stars in its proximity. Very impressive. This is a picture taken after the show, of our typical tipi tent. You can see the moon and Jupiter on it.

On Saturday I dropped off Lut at the airport of Vegas, after being stopped by a police officer. He asked me why I was going straight where I had to turn right and why I ignored a red light on the Strip. Good questions and I guess I wanted to get out of the scorching heat (again 107 degr F) but I obviously didn't tell him that. Just being polite and apologetic did the job again. His last question was: "Is that a Tiger?". I acknowlegded and he replied: "great bike" and he jumped on his Harley Davidson. I like these kind of cops ;-)

So the best way to get out of this unbearable heat was to go to the west coast, my next destination. Over there temperatures were much milder. On Sunday I staid at a wonderful campground near the beach, about 150 miles from San Jose.

On Monday I did the Big Sur, a road winding through the mountains all along the coastline. Unfortunately half of the trip was covered by low clouds and fog but I still got some great vistas of the Pacific and saw some elephant seals!

Yesterday, my Tiger got a well-deserved service in the Triumph dealership in San Jose after about 6,700 miles (10,700km). The bike as well as the rider were treated as kings by Maya, the hospitable shop manager. She owns about 10 bikes herself (including some vintage Nortons and Triumphs) and some really great cars from the sixties and seventies.

So now I have another week to get to my end destination of this trip: Seattle. That's where I am going to have my bike stored at a local Triumph dealership (http://www.i-90motorsports.com/aboutus.asp). They will showcase it as the ultimate bike that crossed the US twice (the first time my buddy Willem took it all the way from South Florida to North Alaska). The reason why I have it stored in Seattle is because it's closer to Alaska. Yes indeed, I am already thinking of my next trip ;-)

Freaking hot!

After Idaho came Nevada, the state of deserts but also slot machines. Every restaurant, bar, hotel or even gas station you enter, you're prompted to pass through the area of slot machines, eating coins of all sorts. I haven't seen anybody jumping through the air because (s)he became a millionnaire as they like to advertise.

Typical for Nevada is that temperatures tend to be higher than other states at this time of the year. On Saturday when I picked up my (travel) buddy, Lut, in Las Vegas, the temperature outside rised to 106 degrees F or 41 degrees C. She came from 60 degrees F or 15 degrees C in Belgium. What a warm welcome ;-)

So now I have a passenger on the back of my bike for one week which led to storing some of my stuff in a Greyhound station in Las Vegas. Not a problem actually because most of that stuff I had not been using anyway the last 4 weeks. It's amazing how little you really need when you travel.

On Sunday we visited Zion National Park (Utah) and luckily some clouds were giving us a little break from the high temperatures. Here are some pictures. Today we're visiting Bryce Canyon National Park.

The real stuff

I have been 3 weeks on the road now, 4,300 miles away from New Jersey. "Time flies when you're having fun" is actually very accurate in this case. It's also hard to keep up with the blog because national parks obviously don't have internet access capabilities. So I will summarize two weeks of exciting visits in this posting.

Once I left Mackinac Island, I covered about 1,700 miles passing through the northern states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana to arrive in Glacier National Park . The last three states were actually not that exciting. Lots of straight roads (even though I tried to avoid the Interstates) through fields of corn, wheat and grass or just nothing but dust and stones. The picture below summarizes most of that 5 day trip.

But then finally, I reached the mountain range of Glacier National Park on Saturday August 4. Unfortunately most of the mountains were barely visible because heavy winds were blowing the smoke of wildfires up north. That evening I met two fellow Belgians, Weking and Liesbeth, on the campground, travelling with a 1993 BMW from Alaska to Argentina! This is their 6 month honeymoon travel. That's the way to do it! As true Belgians, we ended the day with lots of beer until our neighbors asked us to lower our voices so they could get some sleep ;-) For the Dutch speaking readers: if you want to follow their adventures, here's their blog: http://viaje-america.blogspot.com/


Luckily the next morning the winds had disappeared, the sun was rising and the sky was clear again. Excellent conditions to ride through the park, although the ride went very slowly. Every 5 to 10 minutes I had to stop so I could admire the breathtaking views on the glacier and the mountains.










The next destination was Yellowstone, the world's first national park established in 1872, about 5oo miles south of Glacier NP. I had read that more than half of the 3 million annual visitors come in July and August and that became painfully obvious when I entered the park. This was like a theme park... I decided to visit the less crowded sites during the day and then in the evening some hotspots (in the true sense of the word) like Mammoth Springs.













That seemed to be the right approach and as an extra, the sunset light gave some spectacular reflections on the dozens of colorful steaming terraces.

The second day I went to see the Old Faithful geyser. The visitor center publishes the predicted eruption times and those estimates seemed to be pretty accurate. Amazing how nature can be predicted.

In the afternoon I had enough of all the crowds. On my way out of the park, I was stopped by a grizzly bear and her two cubs, travelling to the other side of the forest.









Just south of Yellowstone, the next national park presented itself: Grand Teton. The amount of traffic significantly decreased and just a couple of miles into the park, the peaks of the Teton Range rised through steep forest. A string of jewel-like lakes were set tightly against the steep foot of the mountains. Wow, this looked very promising.

This park was so phenomenal and relaxing that I decided to stay an extra day.

On Friday I left the park and entered the state of Idaho. This was a tough part. Heavy winds were blowing from the northwest and I almost had to hang on the side of my motorcycle to balance it against the wind. The wind got even stronger when I crawled up one of the lava hills in the National Monument, Craters of the Moon. You could push yourself forward, leaning against the wind.









And then yesterday, I arrived at Boise, the capital of Idaho, where I was welcomed by my former colleague, Kristen, her husband Justin, their adorable baby Grace, and her sister Adrienne who was visiting. Their offer to stay over was greatly appreciated after 5 days of camping in the national parks.

Back in time

Once in Michigan, I had to go north or south first in order to then move more towards the west. A number of people had already advised me to go to Mackinac (read Mackinaw) Island (http://www.mackinac.com/) so that sunny Sunday afternoon, I hit the road north in the direction of Upper Peninsula.

Usually a motorcycle gets you everywhere, but not to this island. I had to leave it behind at Mackinaw City (yes, this time it is written like it sounds...) and catch a ferry for about 20 minutes. Already in 1898 cars were banned from the island to encourage tourism. Today all travel on the island is by horses or bicycles; even the police use bikes to patrol the town. That wasn't totally strange to me because in Ghent, part of the police are doing the same in the historic district.

It was so relaxing not to hear any vehicle noises (including my own two wheeler ;-) so I decided to make it a lazy Monday with lunch at Grand Hotel, some walking and strolling on the island and before taking the ferry back to the mainland, eating a delicious ice cream with pieces of the famous fudge.

As pictures say more than a 1,000 words, here you go: