Route 12 Idaho is one of my favourite rides in the USA, we rode it in 2016 and I just love the peaceful, relaxed environment this ride is all about. WTF is Route 12 Idaho I hear you ask?

OK, we wanted to ride from Missoula to Lewiston, yes you could take the interstate up to Coeur d’Alene then drop down the 95, but you would miss one of the best rides in Idaho.

We left Missoula in light rain sadly, which tended to tweak the sphincter muscle ever so slightly given two bikes, including mine, were sporting brand new tyres, brand new tyres and rain do not go hand in hand.

South of Missoula we turned west on the 12 and gently climbed over the LOLO Pass in the rain on our new tyres. Low and behold, just past Lochsa Lodge, our came the sun and away went the rain, so we were in our happy place.

Now LoLo to Lewiston is 209 miles, yes about 320 kms and all of this is in river valleys where the road hugs the river and for the first 160 kms to Kooskia, the valley sides are just covered in trees. The sweepers are as gentle as the curves of the river, this is just heaven on a motorcycle. Posted a couple pics but hard to describe what a neat ride this is.

160 kms of this means it was a a bite to eat in Kooskia before takling the last 100 kms to Lewiston, again in the river valley but with slightly different scenery. ( We actually did a wee diversion loop up through Wieppe and Pierce, dropping back to pick up the river again at Orofino).

All in all a spectacular days riding, we have spoken to locals who cruise around in motor homes, believe it or not some of them have never heard of the Idaho 12. Everyone must drive or ride this route, it is spectacular, relaxing and just gorgeous.

Go do it. This is my favourite ride in the USA. All 320 kms of it!!!!!

By and By we get to Lewiston, had actually booked the Quality Hotel across the river in Clarkstonin Washington state rather than Idaho. Now contrary to my immense dislike of the Sleep Inn At Missoula, in contrast, the Quality At Clarkson In WA would have to be without question, the best value and most up market Quality we have stayed in to date, it is almost like a resort. Anyone reading our blog and thinking of some touring in the Lewiston Area, try the Quality in Clarkston Outstanding.

This will be short and sweet, day sixty six is just one of those a to b rides, where we need to get across to Missoula to do the next cool rides across Idaho, so it was all day on the I95, well, I use the term all day loosely, it was 324 kms on the interstate.

I have to say, the I95 would be the quietest Interstate we have ridden in terms of traffic and the most scenic. If you have to ride an interstate, the I95 east to west across Montana is actually a nice ride and not as boring as some of the others we have ridden, i.e. the Texas panhandle.

We left early as Mark and I had agreed to be at Big Sky Motorsports in Missoula by 1.00 pm to get new tyres fitted to both bikes. We arrived at 5 to 1 and while we re-caffeinated down the road at Starbucks the tyres were put on. Conti TKC70’s were the choice of the day and I have to say, the pricing was a lot better than the tyres Horse and Red got ripped for at Fort Collins in 2016!!!!!!! Or is it just that Montana is cheaper than Colorado? Who knows.

This trip we stayed at a Sleep Inn, in Missoula. We would have to say that after 65 nights at Choice hotels we are qualified to comment on what is and is not good value. We have stayed at the Quality in Missoula on a previous trip.

All I can say to prospective motorcyclists touring in Montana, go to the Quality………. The Sleep Inn would be the most overpriced, low spec’d accommodation we have stayed in yet and the touring motorcyclist would be well advised that they could get much better value elsewhere than this place, FYI.

Not much to say about today’s ride, so moving right along.

For riders in any state or abroad that have visited either Wyoming or Montana, you have likely ridden the Chief Joseph and Beartooth scenic byways so there is no point rabbiting on about how this ride from Cody to Red Lodge or vice versa is one of the best half day alpine rides known to man. It’s about 140 kms from Cody to Red Lodge, motorcycling Nirvana, there is not much else to say for it. Bit murky because of all the fires in Yellowstone but this cleared as we climbed to altitude on the Beartooth, took the obligatory pics up and down both sides.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

F rom Red Lodge, Some May head straight up to the interstate on the 212 and think they have had the best of it on the Beartooth. But wait, there is more cool riding if you are heading northwest toward Bozeman.

If you have not ridden this road, try taking the 78 from Red Lodge, through Absarokee to Columbus and then take the I90 from there. Route 78 is cool, it sweeps and rolls through farm land, Mountains in the background, a very nice ride, way nicer than the 212 north toward Billing’s.

Fantastic days riding, enough said

Grand Teton National Park is only a few kms out of Jackson and is always a great ride, cruising past those majestic peaks. Monday of Labour day and a public holiday is not the best day to be passing through these two parks due to traffic columns but it had to be done.

Leaving Grand Teton, you are straight into Yellowstone, we cruised up to Old Faithful and arrived just in time, along with thousands of other poor suckers to see this pathetic sight burst forth for less than two minutes, why do we bother, reckoned if the three blokes had three bud lights each we could do a better job, anyway that one was ticked off.

Back to West Thumb and around to Fishing Bridge Village and out east gate to Cody we had a great ride in great scenery through to Cody. Mark and Tracey took a slightly different route and got up close and personal with a Buffalo/ Bison

Great ride, great scenery

Day sixty four was a day off in Cody, Wyoming

It’s 300 kms up the 191 from Rock Springs to Jackson Hole. Fortunately the scenery changes. The first 100 kilometers is desolate personified. there is just nothing there, this is ranch country, you can see a road boundary fence for miles and miles, but no cattle. To be fair, this part of Wyoming would be more desolate than the Nullabor, but hey, I enjoy riding in expanses of nothing, pretty peaceful.

By and By we approached a wee town called Boulder, south of Boulder the desolation changed to irrigated ranches growing lucerne under center pivots and they were baling as we rode past, outstanding, something to look at.

Obviously the further North we rode the larger on the horizon the Teton Mountain range was so we started to have glimpses of actual scenery!!

Once we hit Pinedale, the scenery changed from miles and miles of nothing to almost National Park quality as we followed first a river valley, then got into some mountain country as we approached Bondurant, Hoback etc and on up to Jackson.

The last 55 kms into Jackson was gorgeous, made up for the first 100 kms of nothing.

All in all a pretty relaxing days ride, had to be done, one of those a to b rides to get us from the nice rides of Colorado up to the nice rides of Wyoming.

We unpacked at the Motel in Jackson, got changed and decided to walk the two kms into town. Lucky we decided to walk as a scrub fire had started just up the road and there was mayhem, Police and fire everywhere, roads blocked, planes and helicopters called in to dump on it as it quickly spread over about 100 acres. Fire service did well to keep it off three commercial buildings that came close, we are talking 2-3 meters away close, the helicopters even dumped water from the monsoon buckets straight onto the buildings at one stage. Posted a wee video of the fire on my Facebook page.

One night in Jackson Hole then through Teton and Yellowstone National Parks tommorrow to one of my favourite Wyoming towns, Cody.

Well we farewelled the metropolis of Rawlins after gassing up across the road from the Motel. It was 0900 on a weekday right, Corina took a photo of rush hour in Rawlins, there was not one single vehicle moving in either direction down the street. This is my kinda town. We did learn later Rawlins is the State Penitentiary town and not that popular with tourists……..just saying.

Righto, it was 160 kms of interstate from Rawlins to Rock Springs with nothing in between. When I say nothing, I mean nothing, 160 kms of that classic Wyoming desolate ranch country that only grows that low tussocky looking weed.

So we arrive in Rock Springs at about midday, having called ahead earlier to see if we could get an early checkin. The quality Hotel was one of those old school motel complexes with a massive square, all the rooms single level with a park out the front of each unit. It had a real good feel to it, a pool complex in the center of the property and in a street with eating houses for Africa.

Got changed, had lunch then while Mark and Tracey and Red and Corina had the afternoon off to relax around the pool, Bryn and I saddled up and headed south on Route 530 out of Green River to have a look at the Red Canyon Scenic byway, which was actually over the State line into Utah again.

The ride down the 530 was classic Wyoming nothingness, the 55 kms of Red Canyon riding had some awesome scenery which I have posted below. Route 191 north back to Rock Springs to complete the 250 km circuit was an awesome ride with very cool sweepers, scenery more like New Mexico than Wyoming. All in all a great wee find the Red Canyon Scenic Byway. ( It was in the book a bought a ways back that has all the US scenic byways in it)

If you had asked me yesterday what my fave rides in the US of A were, I would have told you the Million Dollar Highway and the Beartooth were my fave alpine rides and Route 12 Idaho was my fave river valley ride.

Well bugger me, if there may be a river valley ride to potentially knock the Idaho 12 of its perch shall we say. Yep, today we rode from Fort Collins to Walden initially, a ride of about 200 kms and along the CO 14, the cache La poudre canyon scenic byway.

This ride is an absolute stunner, any rider who has ridden in Colorado and has overlooked this ride needs to get their arse back pronto and ride it, maybe in both directions just cause you can.

This ride keeps on giving for its entire length, let’s discuss this. Starting at the Fort Collins end, after divesting ourselves of. a bus and a motor home we virtually had the road to ourselves west bound, as we had left at 0800 hrs and other holiday makers heading to the canyon for the labour day holiday weekend will still nye nyes.

The Canyon is one of the most stunning canyon rides I have ridden and both canyon wall and river views are amazing. This canyon does not end until about 110 kms from leaving Fort Collins……….. but wait, once you leave the river behind you climb up to Cameron Pass at 10,276’. Get this, on my bike gps, I could see the breadcrumb trail of where we had ridden yesterday, Cameron Pass on this road is but a stones throw as the crow flys from the Alpine Visitor center at the top of the Rocky Mountain National Park Road,……. I digress, Down the other side we go and the scenery changes yet again, we now move into wide open prairie/ cattle ranches as we head for the wee village of Riverside, population 52.

Now we called into the Carbon County visitor center and got to have a yarn with Gary, one of Riverside’s 52 permanent residents? Gary is a top bloke, has visited NZ, loves the South Island, was full of tips and tricks for good rides in the area and wanted to know where we had been and where we were going.

Anyone cruising through Carbon county should call in at the wee visitor center, intersection of routes 230 and 70, and have. A bit of a yarn with Gary. A wealth of information he is.

Heading north we cruised through Saratoga, Wyoming………. you know, the sheriff from Saratoga off the Tele, that town. What’s his name?

By and By we meet the I80 and run a few clicks west to our luxury accommodation for the night at the Quality Inn, Rawlins.

OK, the use of the word luxury was sarcastic and I knew you would pick it up. ……..hard case though, if there is a painting contractor in Rawlins, the young man would have a years work here painting, after he has taken 6 weeks to water blast off the peeling paint………… lovely people though and the rooms are fine. Just some useless trivia that stuff about the Rawlins painting contractor never being out of work if he marries into one of the Motel families here…………. just saying.

Posted pics are those in the Canyon taken by Corina, some of the town of Walden and the real cool cafe/ bar we had lunch in. Shame about the mounted moose head, what a magnificent animal he was in his day, shame some dickhead Hunter had to end his impressive life… There you go, my bleat for the day.

Denver and Fort Collins are about 95 kms apart straight up the interstate? Denver and Fort Collins are both veritable vipers nests when it comes to traffic congestion. Country folk like us, out for a relaxing and peaceful days ride on their motorcycles should avoid both Denver and Fort Collins peak hour traffic like the Black Plague.. Thus, being tourists from across the ditch and country folk who detest these big cities, we decided we would take the long way to Fort Collins, 312 kms in fact via Rocky Mountain National Park.

Now this means initially we had to shoot back west on the I70 50 kms to exit onto the road to allow us to do this. Fortunately some dickhead roading company had not elected to block 2 of 3 lanes on the interstate to do maintenance work in peak hour traffic today, maybe they had weet bix and were a bit sharper today, so the run down the I70 was as tolerable as it could be and once you get to about Idaho Springs the scenery is even cool.

Right, so we rip up route 40 and summit Bertold Pass at a tad over 10,000’ and carry on to Granby for a coffee. From Granby it’s onto the 34 and straight into the Rocky Mountain National Park, climbing up to the alpine visitor center at the summit, with pics at many of the overlooks. This scenery is big big country so hard to get it in a scenery shot on the phone, but you get the idea from the few below.

The road tops out at 12,183’ asl at the alpine visitors center and it was still 15 degrees up there, nice. Even rode past a whole herd of Elk sunning themselves on one of the meadow areas. I think there was a pic taken by someone from the team as well of a Moose cow with calf at foot. Nice, don’t see too many moose.

Down we go for lunch at Estes Park and then down through the Thompson canyon road into the shitfight of afternoon traffic that is Loveland, to enable us to get to another shitfight of afternoon traffic, the I25 Up the road a piece to Fort Collins, but make it we did.

Summing up, a ride that has to be done, but. Not as scenic as the Million Dollar Highway From Durango to Ouray………just saying. Any day on the motorbike in an alpine area in awesome sunshine has to be a good day.

Today was supposed to be a great days riding, firstly it’s Bryn,s first full day on the Harley, a good time to get used to it and take in some nice scenery. Secondly, it’s Marie’s last day on the bike as she flys to Paris tonight to spend 3 weeks with Ashley and the grandies before we head home in September.

To be fair, the riding itself was excellent but what a hell day in terms of traffic and the habits of the American driver.!!!! You want me to explain myself don,t you?

OK, today starts off as we jump onto the I70 west from our accom in Wheatridge, Denver and immediately get stuck in a log jam of traffic caused by some lane closures about 10 km west. Nightmare. We had planned to ride Mount Evans first, but my patience was wearing thin with the logjam on the interstate, so we took an off ramp and headed to Blackhawk on Route 6 and 119 through the Clear Creek Canyon as our morning ride. This is an outstanding ride and gorgeous scenery. We were going to do this in the afternoon anyway. The blog pics show some canyon shots and then the cute town shots are of Blackhawk and Central City. These two old gold mining towns are a strange phenomenon, they have historic homes restored, but also new builds. Both towns are 100 percent casino,s and nothing else. Cute architecture, a neat environment build in rock canyons but what a hideous concept, spoiling this with casino,s. !!!!

Down the Central City Parkway to Idaho Springs for coffee before heading up Mt Evans. sadly on this road we got stuck in A long line of traffic behind this absolute drop kick doing like 20 mph on the corners, 23-24 mph up the hill. Now the posted speed limit says 30 mph but this driver could not even manage 20.

When the line of traffic behind him built up to about 20 vehicles, a couple of cars in front of me could see I was getting a tad impatient and waved me past, I could see the anticipation on their faces that they wanted me to have a quiet word with this driver.

I kid you not, even Marie on the back was over this dickhead.

On a bit of a straight, Now not the happiest of motorcyclists, I managed to pull up beside the white Ute. the wanker was on his cellphone. I tooted ever so vigorously and then told him to get off the road and lets people pass. I even spoke to him by name.

I hear you commenting to yourselves asking how I knew this mans name? Well I have to confess the name I used was unlikely the name his Mumma gave him at birth, nor that with which he was christened with, but in fact the name I addressed him with was more than appropriate, And by the look on his face, he clearly recognised the name I was addressing him with was meant for him, so there you go. it would have been beeped out if there was footage on the Tele if you know what I mean.

We then roared past and Bryn followed close behind so we made a show of force. When the troops caught up to us at the visitor center, they confirmed he had pulled over to let everyone past, so either he got the message, or perhaps …….. by sheer coincidence, the name I used to address him was in fact correct, he recognised he had been called that before by other drivers, a name never previously used by his mummy to address him……………perhaps thought I was a good friend of his, and pulled over as a courtesy? I think I could be onto it here.?

Anyway, my anger at this dickhead on the Mt Evans road was bought about by a number of similar experiences in recent weeks on a variety of roads. I am thinking I could get hold of that guy with the orange hair that lives in the Trump Tower sometimes and wise him up with a massive overseas debt savings he could make for the good old US of A.

My suggestion to the intrepid republican joker would be that he could negotiate. A trade deal with Japan, more specifically Japanese car manufacturers and suggest that they put no rear vision mirror on either side of all cars exported to America and no rear vision mirror mounted to the inside of the windscreen. I make this suggestion as all three mirrors on cars imported into America, appear to be a complete waste of time. I have yet to witness them being used by an American driver. The trend over here seems to be drive as slow as you like, ignore how many cars are behind you, drive as far as you like and don,t give a toss. There have been an uncountable number of drivers that I have witnessed not giving a damn about what is behind them. I have to say generally U.S. drivers are considerably more polite than kiwi drivers, We must have the worst drivers in the world in NZ, but I don,t know what it is about American drivers and there total ignorance of what a mirror is put onto a car for.

Maybe old Trumpywumpy could invest in a nation wide driver education program as to what rear vision mirrors are for?

Right, sorry you had to read that bleat but it had to be said, they are driving me to the piss, ………..seriously.

Anyway, back to the ride, we Summit Mt Evans, took. A few pics which I will post but they don’ t really show the scale of the scenery up there, 14000’ asl. After that, back down and back into Denver as Marie had to get organised and get an Uber to the airport for a 6.00 pm checkin.

Bryn enjoyed his first day on the bike and suggested the Harley was. A breeze to ride, Marie flew to Paris and we have texts and pics of her with the Grandies. Marie will fly back to LA the same day we arrive there to take the bikes back to Mainfreight for shipping home.

A great day ride out of Denver, a hell day for traffic, both congestion and absolute dickhead drivers. get me out of the big city, away from tourist routes and out into the boonies where there is no traffic.

ITs about 90 km from Glenwood Springs to Denver on the I70 but this is not the route we wanted to take today to get in some good Colorado motorcycling. Thus we left Glenwood Springs on Route 82 heading for Aspen where we did the compulsory coffee stop and gassed up, so we could say we had had coffee in Aspen. To be fair, this town is always packed to the gunnels with people, parking is a hassle, so I was not sad to see the back of it as we headed toward Independence Pass.

The road was relatively quiet for the ride up to Independence Pass, 15 degrees at the top which sits a little over 12,000’ asl. Couple pics from up there added to the blog. Down the other side is equally nice riding as we got to the end of the 82 and took a left onto the 24 into Leadville. Leadville claims to be the highest town in the USA but a couple minutes consulting Mr Google shows the town of Alma, a couple passes away is actually higher. We would ride through Alma later in the day.

We had a spot of lunch at Leadville then headed down to Copper Mountain, took the I70 for about 10 km then ducked off at Frisco and up route 9 to Breckenridge.

Breckenridge is an expensive wee town, not unlike Aspen I guess, plenty of the rich and famous there, it was a brief stop while the girls did some window shopping before we saddled up, headed up and over Hoosier Pass and down into the town of Alma, famous as I stated earlier and along to Fairplay where we gassed up.

From Fairplay we took Route 285 East, this is a very cool road with lots of stunning scenery, much of it vast open grasslands between passes. We cruised first up Red Hill Pass Down the other side, the next one was up and over Kenosha Pass, somewhat higher, with the roads great sweeping curves, once again, like climbing the western side of the Kaimai’s. Nice riding.

At the wee village of Grant, we took a left and climbed higher still to summit Guanella Pass on our way down to Georgetown,.

We stopped at Georgetown and had a wee look around, it is an original 1880,s gold mining town and is pretty much untouched. Gorgeous as, couple pics on the blog of that, not only in the village but looking at it from above as we came down off Guanella Pass.

At Georgetown, we rejoined the I70 into our accom At Wheatridge, in the western suburbs of Denver.

Bryn James, another Naki rider had flown over to join us for the last months riding around the Rockies and the Western states, he had picked up his hire Harley from Denver and was at The Hotel to greet us on our arrival. Naturally we had to rehydrate after our long day and Bryn gave us a hand with that exercise.

Welcome aboard to Bryn.