Ok well as some of you already know I rode my 2006 ZX6R from Phoenix to Chicago. The trip was amazing, I went through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, and the Million Dollar Highway. On the trip I stopped at some cool places along the way. I took hundreds of pictures (literally about 750) and as nice as they are to have they really do not do the trip justice, the majority of the places I went to and took pictures of are places you have to see with your own eyes. But here it goes....
I started at about 5AM, here is what the bike looked like saddled up and ready to go.
The mount I made for my Garmin GPS
As long as I had lived in AZ I never saw the sun rise, I am not an early riser, it was pretty cool to see that's for sure.
On my way to my first stop, the Grand Canyon, I noticed a cool little aiplane museum off to the side of the road, so I decided to make a pit stop and see what it was all about. It turned out to be pretty cool, definitely worth the $7
They also had a little show room with some older cars and bikes.
From here I went a few miles and was at the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is one of those places that you will never truely understand the magnitude of until you see it with your own eyes. I took quite a few pictures and not a single one of them even allow you to grasp the size of the canyon.
From here I wasn't sure how far I was going to go, I didn't plan stops or have a real goal on how many miles I was going to go in a single day. I did want to see Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods the next days so I had to make some descent ground up in the next few hours. To get me there this helped out a lot.
Well I was able to make it to Monument Valley that evening, I was fortunate to find a hotel that wasn't sold out (not sure why it was so busy). I stayed at an overpriced Best Western.
I guess this is one of the reasons for the rooms rate
I got to a late start the next day, the prior evening there were a good amount of bikes in the parking lot, when I work it it looked a bit bare.
I will say that day two was pretty amazing, I saw Monument Valley and The Valley of the Gods that morning and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip, what a cool place.
Don't mine them
Interesting, they called that the Mexican Hat
A nice little storm I saw on my way to the Four Corners
The four corners, not too far out from Monument Valley
Some pics just outside the four corners
A storm beside me
A storm in front of me, this one was not fun, but it only lasted a couple miles.
Colorado
From the Four Corners I continued through Colorado and finally hit the Million Dollar Highway, this is by far the coolest road I have ever ridden on. I got caught in some nasty weather and it was COLD, but I loved evey mile of it. Again the pictures don't show much, but it was gorgeous. Here are a few of the many pictures I took.
Cool little town in the mountains
Here is a road my gps tried to navigate me down, that didn't happen
From the end of the Million Dollar Highway and on there really wasn't much to see, I stayed a couple days in Denver with some family. When I left Denver I cleared the rest of Colorade, all of Nebraska and half of Iowa in one day. I think I went a total of 708 miles. The second half of the trip full of plains and dead deer, seeing a deer laying on the side of the road is not pretty and it puts thoughts into my head of what condition I would be in if I had a deer jump in front of me... Not good. So as soon as it got dark I stayed in a hotel just outside of Aramosa IA.
On the last day of my trip I went to a Motorcycle Museum in Aramosa and it was pretty cool, here are a few pics of it.
I thought this looked like an old busa lol
Finally
I started at about 5AM, here is what the bike looked like saddled up and ready to go.
The mount I made for my Garmin GPS
As long as I had lived in AZ I never saw the sun rise, I am not an early riser, it was pretty cool to see that's for sure.
On my way to my first stop, the Grand Canyon, I noticed a cool little aiplane museum off to the side of the road, so I decided to make a pit stop and see what it was all about. It turned out to be pretty cool, definitely worth the $7
They also had a little show room with some older cars and bikes.
From here I went a few miles and was at the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is one of those places that you will never truely understand the magnitude of until you see it with your own eyes. I took quite a few pictures and not a single one of them even allow you to grasp the size of the canyon.
From here I wasn't sure how far I was going to go, I didn't plan stops or have a real goal on how many miles I was going to go in a single day. I did want to see Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods the next days so I had to make some descent ground up in the next few hours. To get me there this helped out a lot.
Well I was able to make it to Monument Valley that evening, I was fortunate to find a hotel that wasn't sold out (not sure why it was so busy). I stayed at an overpriced Best Western.
I guess this is one of the reasons for the rooms rate
I got to a late start the next day, the prior evening there were a good amount of bikes in the parking lot, when I work it it looked a bit bare.
I will say that day two was pretty amazing, I saw Monument Valley and The Valley of the Gods that morning and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip, what a cool place.
Don't mine them
Interesting, they called that the Mexican Hat
A nice little storm I saw on my way to the Four Corners
The four corners, not too far out from Monument Valley
Some pics just outside the four corners
A storm beside me
A storm in front of me, this one was not fun, but it only lasted a couple miles.
Colorado
From the Four Corners I continued through Colorado and finally hit the Million Dollar Highway, this is by far the coolest road I have ever ridden on. I got caught in some nasty weather and it was COLD, but I loved evey mile of it. Again the pictures don't show much, but it was gorgeous. Here are a few of the many pictures I took.
Cool little town in the mountains
Here is a road my gps tried to navigate me down, that didn't happen
From the end of the Million Dollar Highway and on there really wasn't much to see, I stayed a couple days in Denver with some family. When I left Denver I cleared the rest of Colorade, all of Nebraska and half of Iowa in one day. I think I went a total of 708 miles. The second half of the trip full of plains and dead deer, seeing a deer laying on the side of the road is not pretty and it puts thoughts into my head of what condition I would be in if I had a deer jump in front of me... Not good. So as soon as it got dark I stayed in a hotel just outside of Aramosa IA.
On the last day of my trip I went to a Motorcycle Museum in Aramosa and it was pretty cool, here are a few pics of it.
I thought this looked like an old busa lol
Finally