Tour Five

Grand Loop Extended Tour
15 riding days and 16 nights lodging
3100 miles

August 9 to August 23, 2010

This tour is the largest of our tours as far a distance but also for the amount of incredible destinations in the west that we will visit. We visit our favorite locations in the north, such as Yellowstone National Park and the Beartooth Highway and onto the southern Utah national parks of Bruce Canyon and Zion’s with the Colorado Rockies in between. When you finish this ride you will have visited some of the best and most fascinating locations in the western Rocky Mountains.

From Utah, we first travel north to the town of Jackson, Wyoming by way of several Utah mountain roads and a scenic byway through a very remote bird refuge. Dinner that night in Jackson will be a surprise you won’t forget.

From Jackson, we visit the Grand Teton National Park and take our first venture through Yellowstone to explore the eastern side. That night we will stay in Cody, Wyoming, the “Cowboy Capital” of the West where the adventurous can experience a rodeo that evening.

Leaving Cody you will travel on what we consider the most incredible road in the north, the Beartooth Highway. At 11,000 feet we are above the timberline and surrounded by hundreds of lakes and views that are incomparable. We end up in a small town outside of northeast Yellowstone that is in a beautiful valley surrounded by 10,000 ft. peaks.

Our second venture into Yellowstone will take us across the northern valleys with their predominate wildlife and down the western side of the park for an evening at a little geyser they call “Old Faithful.” We have the opportunity to stop by several of the geyser pools and hot springs on the way.

Now we venture east into the mountains and plains of Wyoming and into Colorado to Estes Park which is the gateway town to the Rocky Mountain National Park. While exploring the park, we will cross the continental divide at 12,000 ft. then drop down past the headwaters of the Colorado river for a stay at a beautiful resort hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

We are not quite finished with the Colorado Rockies as the next two days will take us through Independence pass at 12,000 ft, Black Canyon National Park with it’s narrow 2500 ft. deep canyon and the “Million Dollar HIghway” through the heart of the Rockies.

Now things change. Drastically. We now venture into the southern Red Rock deserts of the southwest for some very different riding and scenery. We take a day to visit Mesa Verde National Park and climb among the ancient cliff dwellings of the Pueblo Indians. And then, a beautiful cruise will put us overnight in a small town with two restaurants, one of them serving one of the best steaks dinners in the region and the other with a great southwest style breakfast.

Next we cruise through a very remote part of the south but there is Natural Bridges National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park to visit before we land in Torrey, Utah, the motorcycle crossroads of the the southwest, for a dinner at highly acclaimed restaurant owned by a rider friend of ours.

The next day is Highway 12, the “Hogsback” , which has been repeatedly voted one of the top 10 scenic roads in the country. We know a side road off of it that will make it even more of an experience. We end up in Bryce Canyon National Park in time to enjoy the sunset on the red spire rock formations of the park. We then take a beautiful cruise into the extreme opposite of parks by ending up riding the bottom of the deep canyons of Zion’s National Park. The following day we travel the scenic country roads of central Utah back to Salt Lake City.

Seven national parks, two national monuments, incredible dining and 3100 miles. This is a great way to spend two weeks and see the best of the Western Rockies.

For our international guests, please go to the following site for converting currency to the U.S. Dollar. Now is an excellent time to visit our region!

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

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