Spectacular California

From the airport, just take the brief shuttle ride to our hotel. If you’re still awake, I think you’ll find something to do this evening in this glitzy and unique resort town with it 24 hour casinos and endless entertainment!

It’s a relaxing first day’s ride on your Spectacular California self-guided motorcycle trip, as you shake Las Vegas out of your system. You’ll head north out of Vegas. Skirt Death Valley on your left and the Nevada nuclear test sites on your right,  and far beyond that the infamous Area 51. Stop for an early lunch in the tiny town of Beatty, then continue on toward Bishop. Be sure to stop at Schot’s Bakery for a coffee and a delicious Danish pastry before heading up into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Before you know it, you’ve arrived at your hotel in the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes. Enjoy a nice dinner and have a good night’s rest, you’ve got another great day tomorrow!

Today is spent exploring the majesty and wonder of America’s most-visited national park, Yosemite. Immediately after leaving Mammoth it’s worth a side trip to the other-worldly landscape of Mono Lake. Then make your way up through the winding valley and granite canyon to the summit of Tioga Pass at over 3000 m. Stop to take a trail etched into a vertical cliff as the mist from a 900 m waterfall keeps you cool. Make sure you take the trip up to Glacier Point for the best view of this incomparable natural wonder. Yosemite is just as beautiful, wild, rich and sublime as you’d expect, only more so! The riding fun isn’t over yet, as you head south down scenic Highway 41 through the vast groves of Pine, Cedar and Blue Spruce t0 the California goldfields and your hotel at Oakhurst.

You ride along the Merced River before picking up a lovely backroad over the mountains towards San Jose. Some urban interstate brings you around Oakland, where you cross San Rafael Bridge into Marin County, an unabashed introduction to Californian self-indulgence: a pleasure zone of conspicuous luxury and abundant natural beauty, with sunshine, sandy beaches, high mountains and thick redwood forests. You then ride south to pretty Sausalito and the chance to see San Francisco from across the Bay. Once a hotspot for drunken sailors and bawdy saloons, Sausalito is now much more like the Cote d’Azur. Then it’s over the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco.

A free day on your Spectacular California self-guided motorcycle trip to enjoy the beautiful city of San Francisco. It’s a funky individualistic, surprisingly small place – and certainly the most liberal city in the USA. Several excursions are possible, such as a trip to Alcatraz, a Bay Cruise or a Napa Valley wine tour.

Back on the road on your Spectacular California self-guided motorcycle trip, roll out of the city on the beautiful, winding Skyline Boulevard for coffee at Alice’s Restaurant. Take the Pacific Coast Highway, the famous Route 1, to the Monterey Peninsula, whose crescent shaped bay and cypress groves have been celebrated by poets, authors and artists. Stop for lunch, take in the shops, Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and the great ambience before our incredible afternoon ride – the Big Sur. 90 miles along cliff edges, this road is universally considered the best section of Highway 1. Rocky cliffs form a sublime landscape, redwood groves line river canyons and the Santa Lucia Mountains rise out of the blue-green Pacific. About halfway along you come to Esalen, named for the long-gone native tribe who once enjoyed the natural hot springs on a cliff top high above the raging surf. You cruise up to Hearst Castle, where you may take a guided tour of this grand mansion, and your overnight stop is in San Simeon.

Set off through tiny seaside art communities and miles of sandy beaches to Morro Bay. Then head inland and take the Carillo Highway across mountains and farmland to Bakersfield, country music capital of California. After lunching you head back into the hills, following the Kern River to Lake Isabella Reservoir and Sequoia National Park. Both Isabella and Kernville towns were moved following the damming of the Kern River and the creation of Lake Isabella reservoir in the 1960s. As with many of our small-town stops on this tour, this area is a haven for wildlife and nature lovers, with no major industries or businesses, reliant almost totally on tourism. Your day’s ride ends with the descent to Ridgecrest.

Well, you’re nearly there, but you have one more spectacular ride today. Head north into Death Valley, taking a different route through this incredible scenery, the vistas are immense, like looking across a sea of sand and stone. After lunch at Furnace Creek (aptly named!) you rise up from the valley floor to over 600 m elevation at the once thriving Death Valley Junction, current population 4! From here, it is an easy run into Las Vegas. If there’s time you’ll visit Red Rock Canyon before you return your motorcycles and enjoy your final evening on tour.

Well, it’s the end of the road on your Spectacular California self-guided motorcycle trip. We hope you have some fantastic photos to remember your scenic adventure! Safe flight home.