Day 9 - Zion to Vegas. End.
Last day for the regular part of the tour, another scenic park is calling: Valley of Fire and its shades of white, red, brown and reddish rocks. After cruising along lake Mead the glitters and neon of Las Vegas will welcome us for the final night of the trip!
The Seven Sisters (ok, hard to spot all of them from this angle)
Picnic in White Dome inside Valley of Fire
And here we are, THE END for now... See you on the next blog for the California Extension
Day 8 - Bryce to Zion
Two parks in one! Bryce Canyon in the fresh morning breeze over 9000ft and then after a short ride we go through another marvelous park: Zion.
The majestic amphitheater of hoodos
Entering Zion we are welcomed by the chess board mesa
And also by three rathter happy German ladies (new Edelweiss fans) on a long road trip across Southwest USA like us.
Day 7 - Moab to Bryce Canyon
Long ride today across San Rafael Desert, Capitol Reef, Dixie forest and Escalante and finally up to Bryce Canyon! No snow this time, we had a bit of that on the other tour.
Day 6 - Rest day in Moab
Entering Utah the landscape amazes us even more. Every rock here seems scuptured by a talented artist! Today we have time to explore Arches national park and enjoy a picnic in Devil's garden.
A nice winding road along the Colorado until Castle Creek Winery. No tasting allowed though, just smelling.
And..guess? Yes, Jocelin again, randomly! She and her riding buddy are on the way to Crested Butt to meet some other serious dirt riders, what a lady!
Fall or not to fall, that is the question
Hiking around broken arch (still standing though, almost like Wendy)
Picnic time prepared by Schad. The most difficult part is to keep everything on the table fighting against the wind!
Day 5 - Kayenta to Moab
Another great day ahead us: magnificent Monument Valley with its unmistakable shapes, colors and aura. Dozens (or hundreds) of movies have been set among these speacial rocks in the Navaho Nation.
Look who we meet randomly in Monument Valley! Jocelin, the greatest female racer of all times! She has been on various Edelweiss tours and I met her on Sequoia Feschtl. What a great coincidence!
Noah having a break! He is starting to enjoy that new GS!
That's long, eh?
Twin Rocks cafe
Church rock
In front of Wilson Arch, Moab is just around the corner
A quite unique sight: an entire home carved inside the mountain. Lot's of hand work.
Day 4 - Williams to Kayenta
One of the big highlight: visitng the sotuh rim of the Gran Canyon is such an experience! The wide landscape that we face at Mather Point and Desert View is simply astonishing! In the afternoon part of the group comes with Manuel on the long ride towards Antelope Canyon, just closed for flash flooding, so we decide instead to have a look at the Horseshoe bend of the river Colorado.
Day 3 - Lake Havasu to Williams
Today is Route 66 the queen of our highlights! First we ride to Oatman, a little town became famous during the Gold Rush. Many donkeys were helping the miners, then when the gold finished the miner went away but the donkeys stayed there. They had noting much to do, except having fun on themselves, and as a results today there are looots of baby donkeys around town!
Ice cream anyone? We all got the small, ridiculously small single scoop, which (being an American ice cream) is like a super large extra big European cone!
After Oatman the "Mother Road" 66 becomes even more twisty
The rider on the strange blue iron ship and not wearing an helmet is obviously not on tour with us... but everyone is welcome on route 66!
Our support van today: we want to be coherent with the theme.
Lunch in style at this 50s Diner... what a pity they forgot our order today!
Oliver is thinking about buying a new car.
The glorious Hackberry store, still in business.
Which door, excuse me?
Another famous shop, this time in Seligman, recently bought by a Swiss couple
They serve the best espresso in town! Or perhaps the best espresso of route 66!
Just before pulling into Williams a rainbow is colouring our sky.
Day 2 - Big Bear to Lake Havasu
After a fresh start with alpine style vegetation and temperature we roll down to Lucerne Valley. Then through the cowboy movie set Pioneer Town we enter Joshua Tree national park, the first of a long series of natural marvels.
Everyone ready for the robbery?
Just a little walk...
...brings us into Hidden Valley, where they used to hide stolen cattle.
Uhm, where are we?
Easy! Near the Desert Center!
"and after two days in the desert storm..." Wendy got so hungry that started to chew her own camera bag. Weird.
Speedboat splashing waves, we are on the Colorado river, almost in Lake Havasu
Yeah, London Bridge, the original... when it became to small for British needs they shipped it here. Quite pretty sight at night.
Well, near London Bridge we surely can't avoid to have a beer, or a few.
Day 1- Santa Monica to Big Bear
Santa Monica ocean breeze, Beverly Hills and Hollywood glitters, a roof top dining venue overlooking the concert at the pier... Just a few treats for our cosy group from Taiwan (Wendy), Canada (Peter), Doug, Marianne, Noah, Stanley (USA), Oliver (Germany) and Joe (Switzerland) with Manuel (Itlay) on the lead supported by our driver Schad (Vegas). The next days will see us climbing mountains over 9.000 ft, traverisng deserts at 107°F, cruising along lakes and discovering some of the finest natural parks that United States can offer. Ready to follow us on this motorcycle tour?
The famous Chinese Theater in Hollywood
Stanley and Noah in Griffith Park, yep we are in Hollywood as the mountain says
Photostop along Angeles crest, unfortunately the pass is closed due to bush fire.
Newcomb Ranch restaurant is quite an institution among L.A. motorcyclists. Wanna buy a new (second hand) bike?
They even have such a beauty inside the dining room!
While I was filling gas I hear an RT stopping behind me, ops, it's a police RT, what have we done? Then someone shouts "Edelweissss!!". Mike Marshall, motorcycle police cop founds us by chance, he was on an Edelweiss tour on the Alps with Christian Preining! How small is the world.
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