Planning a trip out west

[sebwiers]

My mom and step dad live in Santa Cruz CA.  I live in Minneapolis MN.  I haven't seen them for a really long time, and my wife and 4 y.o. son have never met them.  Both parents have failing health, to the point where step dad is regularly in hospital, and mom needs to stay with friends to be cared for.

So, plan is for us to go out to the west coast to stay with parents and take care of mom.  Bonus is we will be driving... wife & son in car, me on the FJ1100!  We will be staying for an indeterminate period, since I can do all my work online, or visit a branch office in CA if needed.

I'm looking for route advice / info, sites to see along the way, places to stay.  Its possible that I could take a different route for some legs than the wife does, if the ride is more fun and we meet up at the end of the day.  Obviously once I get out to CA, there will be more riding opportunities, certainly the PC highway, also visiting friends in SanFrancisco / Oakland. 

[FeralJuggernaut]

If going sooner, route by weather.  Rockies over or around?  If in May/June better than March/April for elevation in Colorado...   Keep a pretty close eye on your battery fluid level if running a wet cell.  A long highway run on the stock charging system will boil it up in a few days.  Safe travels!

[Flynt]

Obviously once I get out to CA I'll visit RPM and make sure to ride with Frank in San Jose

Fixed it for you...  Santa Cruz is a great spot to start a bunch of great rides.  I'm happy to be your tour guide.

Frank

[Capn Ron]

I've been known to do a bit of touring around on the FJ and by car and know most of your route pretty well!  Doing a straight plot on Google maps gets you at just over 2000 miles from MN to Santa Cruz.  I carved that up a bit and added some of my favorite roads and sights along the way and it's just over 2600 miles.

Here's the overview:



The first section of interest is as you get near the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Absolutely beautiful there!  Don't just pop in to see Rushmore...drive/ride through the parks in the southern part of the Black Hills.  Amazing.  There's a Minuteman Missile Silo that you can see and even go down into the control room...pretty cool:



From there, you'll hit Cody, WY...cool little western town with the most amazing gun museum ever!  Could have spent days there!  Then there's Yellowstone of course!  Hike the waterfalls!!!  Then down through the Grand Tetons and into Jackson for some great sights!



From there, going west, your choice is super slabbing it on I-84 while you contemplate your own suicide...or run up through the Sawtooth mountains!  Easy choice!



Once over near California, head for Yreka and the 3 south to the 36.  An epic day of riding awaits you!



From there, take the 101 south...you can ride/drive through the Avenue of the Giants (redwoods) on the way to Leggett and the start of PCH south from there.  Fort Bragg is a big town and you can stock up on food/fuel and sleep and check out Glass Beach.



The PCH south from there is nothing short of amazing...run it all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge with some interesting sights along the way!



The run from there to Santa Cruz is great as well and you can stick to PCH or head up into the mountains for more great motorcycle roads!



I did a ride report from the Willits rally last year (Near Fort Bragg on the above map) and you can see some of the roads/pictures I'm talking about starting on "Day 6" as I toured north.

http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=11922.0

So much to see!!!  I labeled and circled a few interesting things along the way...I'm envious of your trip if you get a chance to even see half of them!

[FJscott]

Nice Job Ron.

can I hire you to plan my trip out to coleville?

Scott

[Mark Olson]

That's the Captn for ya . Got it all handled ... Way to go Ron .

[sebwiers]

Thanks Ron, that's just the kind of info I was looking for.  Not sure how much of that I can fit it, but it gives us lots of great options, and it looks like the wife could take some of the alternate routes if she'd rather spend less time in the car.

I'll probably save skyline / la honda / pc highway loop for after I;ve been there a bit, 

[Keith]

Camping or Hoteling?.... If camping I would like to recommend Craters of the Moon in Idaho, It looks like your ace travel planner routed you pretty close to there, cool cheap spot to spend a night and stretch the legs.... Safe travels!

[sebwiers]

Unknown.  We're cheap, so camping seems likely.  Preferably free camping (National forest service calls it dispersed camping, AKA boondocking).  But with a small child on the trip, you never know. 

[CatTomb]

Ron, nicely done. 

If you end up taking Ron's sage advice. It looks like he routes you through Bend, Oregon and I live not too far from there. We have an extra room. You and your family are welcome to stay with us, share a meal, change some oil and get a good night sleep.

Jeff
Sisters, Oregon

[FJ1100mjk]

he routes you through Bend, Oregon and I live not too far from there.

Jeff
Sisters, Oregon

Beautiful area out there. You're lucky to be living there. I've been out there many a time to enjoy it. My brother lives in Portland and has a nice place on a lake (Odell) south of Oakridge.

If you've never been, and have a chance, stop at Crater Lake. What a place!

[anson45]

Good luck on your ride out.
I spent some time in Boulder Creek. Route 9 was a great ride.
Route 1 south out of Monterey... Well it's Big Sur.
I hope you find the time for all the great riding out there.
Taking care of my Mom was one of the most meaningful experiences in my life.
Anson