Motorcycle Tours

Maine: Exploring Lighthouses and Mountains

Hewn from bedrock and shaped by glaciers, Maine’s landscape is unique, from its rugged coastline dotted with lighthouses to its pristine lakes and deep woods. Maine has always attracted individualists and adventurers, from lumberjacks and hunters, to fisherman plying Georges Banks, and to Henry David Thoreau and motorcyclists.Lighting

Mar/Apr '23

Classic Roads: Washington SR-14

Historic Columbia River Gorge HighwaySeen from high above, two-lane tarmac traces a serpentine path along the banks of a river that is both colossal and historic. The river flows into the Pacific Ocean through a deep, wide chasm of scoured volcanic rock, deposited over many millennia. Riders feel strong winds

Mar/Apr '23 Premium Content

Chile: Rewards and Just Desserts

With 10,000 miles clocked on the odometer since kick-starting our trip in South America five months ago, I’d stopped seeing it as an extended vacation. Traveling had become a way of life for Jason and me. The honeymoon period wasn’t over—it was a new chapter, having

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Classic Roads: Storm King NY SR 218

About 50 miles north of New York City, along the Hudson River, Storm King Mountain rises abruptly to lofty heights above the river’s west bank. Geologists tell us that this striking granite formation is several hundred million years old. The mountain’s evocative name was coined by writer Nathaniel

Destinations

Destination: The Dalles, OR

Yesterday & TodayAlthough indigenous people inhabited the Columbia River area for millennia and the Lewis and Clark expedition camped here, The Dalles owes its beginning and name to French-speaking Hudson Bay Company fur traders. The word dalle roughly translates to English as a “large tile” or “flagstone,” and dalles is

Mar/Apr '23 Premium Content

Hot Springs, North Carolina Shamrock Tour®

I was wrapping up another season of selling pumpkins and staring down the barrel of an open calendar when the Yamaha Ténéré 700 began to take on a life of its own from the bits and pieces I was adding to it for the trip. October is the month to

Mar/Apr '23 Premium Content

City Escape: Vancouver, British Columbia

The Sea-to-Sky Highway is one of those famous motorcycling roads that you have to ride at least twice. Once to revel in the sweeping bends and smooth surface, and then again to soak up the spectacular views over the turquoise-blue waters of Howe Sound and the majestic pine forests reaching

Travel Guide

5 Great Motorcycle Rides in California

California boasts many fantastic motorcycle-friendly roads. Motorcyclists can enjoy riding year round with mild winters and limited rainfall. Here are five great rides in northern California. You can find the GPS files and map at the bottom of this article. Pacific Coast Highway (SR 1)—San Simeon to CarmelWhether you

Destinations

Destination: Rome, GA

Resting on seven hills, with the Etowah, Oostanaula, and Coosa Rivers running among them, Rome’s topographical layout is believed to have inspired early European-American settlers to name their city after the capital of Italy. Owing to the location’s geographic advantages, earlier inhabitants were the Creek people, who were

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Lost Sierra

It was the most exciting newspaper story I’d read in a long time—a group of outdoor enthusiasts had gathered sufficient capital and government support to begin carving 600 miles of multi-use, single-track trails through the Lost Sierra. To me, this was catnip. I already had a friend connected

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Cabrillo National Monument

The Pacific Ocean is jaw-droppingly beautiful as I ride my motorcycle along Highway 1 from Monterey, CA, toward San Diego. It’s easy to allow your imagination to run free along each curve on this scenic highway, envisioning sailing ships exploring new lands. Albert Einstein said that “imagination is more

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Petrified Forest National Park

I’m on historic US Route 66 heading east for a small village nestled next to the Rio Grande in New Mexico called La Joya. Each year, I make this journey across the wild west, past little communities and towns with interesting names: Newberry Springs, Oatman, Cool Springs, Valentine, Peach

Travel Guide

Americana: Round Barns

Riding cross-country in rural America, you may have happened upon round barns with conical roofs and wondered, “Why?” Several scientific theories suggest that round shapes are more calming and pleasing to the observer’s eyes than shapes with corners, which may explain why you noticed and remembered those barns in

Jan/Feb '23

City Escape: Marietta, Georgia

Destinations

Destination: Grants Pass, OR

The town was “named in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant’s 1863 victory at Vicksburg. Originally named Grant’s Pass’s, the apostrophe was dropped after 1900. Grants Pass was a stagecoach stop in the 1860’s. It became a rail head when the Oregon-California Railroad (now Southern Pacific)

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Hahntennjoch & Kaunertaler Gletscher: From Valley to Glacier

It’s motorcycling season and today we’re going to ride a route that should cover an amazing range of scenery types as we climb two famous motorcycling roads from the verdant floor of the Elmen Valley in Austria at 3,200 feet to the very foot of the Kaunertaler

Jan/Feb '23

Snowville, Utah Shamrock Tour®

Snowville, UT, is located off an unassuming truck stop exit along I-84, about 110 miles north of Salt Lake City. I glided into the Earp and James Hitching Post RV park, pulling my ATC travel trailer with my 2017 Honda CRF250L Rally secured inside. This type of moto hauling is

Destinations

Destination: Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

The picturesque desert landscape some 60 miles west of Albuquerque, NM, is home to one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in America—Acoma Pueblo. The pueblo, founded in 1100, is a component of the Acoma Indian Reservation and is perched atop a 357-foot-tall shear-walled sandstone mesa. Before modern times,

Jan/Feb '23

City Escape: Henderson, Nevada

This City Escape northeast of Henderson, NV, offers some of the most striking rock formations and desert landscapes in the Southwest. The loop ride includes the stunningly beautiful Valley of Fire State Park, and a great return route through Lake Mead National Recreation Area. This is a four-season ride that

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A Thousand Shifts

The strange, quiet noise of travel. When you have nothing but time to think—about the past, about all the good and the bad times, about the things that lie ahead, for now unknown but certainly there, approaching on that smooth ribbon of pavement. I was somewhere between my home

Classic Roads

Classic Roads: Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway

Jan/Feb '23 Premium Content

Iceland: The Land of Fire and Ice

It didn’t start very well. After two days in Reykjavik—which included eating whale, hiking to a live volcano, getting accustomed to 20 hours of daylight, and soaking in the Blue Lagoon hot pools—two friends and I traveled to nearby Selfoss to begin a six-day off-road motorcycle tour

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Abo Ruins

In the 2009 documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Director Ken Burns spoke about the grandeur of a world known as Yellowstone National Park, as well as less familiar National Park Service areas, such as Abó Ruins, an integral part of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New

Jan/Feb '23

Classic Roads: Kentucky's Alpine Road

Heading west out of Burkesville, KY, you’ll find Rte 2276. On the map, it’s named Hill St—but it’s better known by the locals as Alpine Road. This treacherously crooked stretch of pavement traverses Big Hill Mountain which is one of the highest points in the Cumberland

Jan/Feb '23 Premium Content

Texas: The Mysteries of Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake sits on the border between Texas and Louisiana, a maze of tight waterways, cypress trees, and abundant wildlife. It’s often called the only natural lake in Texas, but as with all Texas tales, that may or may not be accurate. Regardless, it’s a perfect spot for