West Coast Motorcycle Trip!

My husband and I along with some good friends of ours went on a 5,674 mile, 20 day trip on our cycles to the West Coast, up to Vancouver and back home to Oklahoma!


What a way to see the natural beauty of the United States.  Up close and personal!

The weather was kind to us most of the time.  Once we had 104 degree weather for an hour or so in Laughlin, Nevada.  We were ready for the hotel that afternoon for sure.  It sprinkled on us a few times, but not anything bad.  And it did get down to about 46 degrees one morning for a while but it warmed up in a couple of hours.  When you're on a cycle, you learn to layer your clothing and we were prepared for anything.

The California coast is beautiful, even with the twisty curves.  We saw hundreds of elephant seals basking in the sun along the coast too.  We had to stop at the Hearst Castle and see how the rich and famous lived.  It is beautiful.  Lovely flowers and the view they had of the coastline-- phenomenal!

One of our most favorites spots was the Redwood National Forest.  The Redwoods are AWESOME!  You have read  about them but when you see them it is unbelievable.  They are really that big! lol We even drove through one of them!




The Oregon Coast is wonderful.  The roads are much "straighter" and they have numerous cities along the coast which I loved.  We stopped at two QUILT STORES there too.  Had to get some souvenirs, right?


We rode into Vancouver and  saw the Capilano Suspension Bridge over the rain forest.  British Columbia is very pretty.  We rode East to Osoyoos, a small town, but very nice and we stayed at a fantastic resort, Sandy Beach.  Wonderful place.   Orchards and vineyards were everywhere.

We saw so many interesting bridges.  Robert and I like to see the different ways they are built. The Golden Gate was not what we expected.  It's smaller than what I thought.  We whizzed by on it--wish we would have had time to actually stop and enjoy.  Then in Northern Oregon we went over the Astoria Bridge--a long one.  


The Rocky Mountain National Forest near Estes Park, Colorado was just great.  There were many dead trees that we found out had been killed by beetles.  It will take 50 years for them to be replaced.  I guess that's part of the cycle of the life of a forest.  It was pretty scary driving at the top.  Well, I shouldn't say that, I wasn't driving.  It was scary for me because there are no guard rails and it was a long ways down.  Rob told me to take some pics and I said I took two and that was enough.  I was not going to look that way any more than I had to.


I am leaving out so much, but suffice to say it was a wonderful trip.  When you are riding in a car, there are many distractions that sometimes keep you from enjoying the scenery.  When you are on the back of a cycle, you are more or less forced to see and notice the landscape.  And it is amazing.