Experience the Wild West from the seat of the legendary Harley-Davidson. Take in the major attractions of the South-West such as Yosemite, Death Valley, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. When your ride across the Wild East comes to an end, you’ll have traveled over 2000 miles of road, and unforgettable sights, such as the California coastline via Big Sur on Highway #1, for the last leg of the tour.
On arrival, you take the shuttle bus to the Los Angeles airport hotel. Waiting for you in the lobby will be our representative, who will welcome you and give you more information about the journey ahead. This evening you meet your fellow riders for dinner and drinks at a highly recommended local restaurant.
Following a hearty Welcome Breakfast you will be transferred to a rental location in Los Angeles, to pick up your bike. The open road awaits! After an orientation session, it’s time to head south, riding the mountain road as it winds down to Lake Elsinore. After lunch, fly like an eagle with the wind at your back along the roads of San Bernardino National Forest until you reach the desert resort town of Palm Springs, where you spend the first night. Probably the outstanding part of the day is a 28 mile stretch of non-stop s-curves with an elevation drop of over 4,000 feet!
It’s just about time for your first taste of Route 66, but first we ride a loop through Joshua Tree National Park. The incredible rock formations and colors will rock your visual world. At the old frontier town of Twentynine Palms the trip takes on a legendary dimension, as we enter Historic Route 66 at the eerie ghost town of Amboy. If you have always wanted your photo taken above one of the famous Route 66 logos painted on the old highway, this is your chance. The day ends as we cross the state line into Nevada, arriving in Laughlin. This is Nevada’s third best known gaming town, where we overnight.
Our ride on the fabled Route 66 continues into Arizona. We make a stop to check out the ‘burros’: wild donkeys that roam the streets of quaint Oatman town. Then it’s onto Kingman, often said to be "The heart of Historic Route 66", located as it is, at virtually dead centre of the longest original expanse of the old "Mother Road". From Kingman it’s onto Seligman, another surviving stretch of the original Route 66. This takes us in a northerly loop through the Hualapai Indian Reservation. We stop for lunch and then ride towards the Grand Canyon; if you haven’t seen it before, nothing can really prepare you for its magnificence. There will be ample time to enjoy a refreshment and take in the incredible sunset from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Morning at the Grand Canyon and it’s another photo opportunity with some awe inspiring views. After that, we ride the South Rim for a few miles, finally leaving Grand Canyon National Park by the East entrance. Then we’re on our way to the remarkable Monument Valley. This is Navajo Country and just to prove the point, today you can enjoy an authentic Navajo lunch. The landscape of stark and isolated sandstone hills and dramatic rock formations, rising up from a seemingly endless expanse of red sands, just screams ‘Wild West’. At Monument Valley you can see how much the popular imagination of the old west was moulded by this one place. Such scenery exists in other places but nowhere is it more dramatic as in the Monument valley. We overnight in Kayenta, which is the perfect spot to get into an Indian spiritual mood.
Saying farewell to Kayenta we will head up to the former gold mining town of Mexican Hat. This now sleepy little township takes its name from a riverside rock formation which looks like a south-of-the-border sombrero. Riding on, we come to the Valley of the Gods, which you will probably recognize from the movie "Thelma and Louise". In any case, it’s spectacular. From there we ride across the Colorado River, at the point where it flows into Lake Powell. Interestingly, Lake Powell has 96 water-filled side canyons and some 1960 miles of shoreline, more than the entire Pacific Coast. The ride continues along the southernmost tip of Capitol Reef National Park, to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Then we roar on up through the Escalante Wilderness to the so-called Devil’s Backbone en route to Bryce Canyon, where we overnight.
We have enough time this morning to visit the amazing Bryce Canyon – not so much a canyon as a collection of giant natural amphitheatres - before we continue on our way to Zion National Park. The park is home to the most majestic rock formations on the face of the earth, but you are also in for perhaps the most demanding ride of the trip here – the switchbacks of Zion! Compared to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, Zion feels more remote, cut off from so-called civilization. Yet oddly enough, from Zion it is just a short ride to the neon nightlife and gambling nirvana that is Las Vegas. Those among the party ending their trip in ‘sin city’ will enjoy a Good Bye Dinner this evening.
A whole day in which to gamble, sightsee, eat and drink or whatever your heart desires: Vegas has something for just about everyone. Probably not wise to stay out too late though, we’ve an early start the next day!
Leaving the bright lights of Vegas behind we head west, where our ride takes us through Death Valley – famously the hottest place in the world! As you’ll soon notice, it’s almost entirely lacking in shade. The valley’s chiseled tiers of rock form crevices at the foot of sharply silhouetted hills: exotic mineral content transforms prehistoric mudflats into spectrums of sun baked iridescence. Riding Death Valley is hot and thirsty work so we take an early lunch at Furnace Creek Ranch. Then after negotiating a series of mountain curves, we will have dropped hundreds of feet below sea level to discover ourselves in the basin of Death Valley. It’s time to head west again, riding through Sequoia National Park up to Mammoth Lakes, which are a popular spot for mountain biking in summer and skiing in the winter.
Leaving Mammoth Lakes for dust our trip continues northwards for a while before we arrive at the notorious Tioga Pass to traverse Yosemite National Park. Through the winding granite canyons we go, giving both you and your Harley a proper workout. For the first several miles, muscle flexing turns are standard and the road demands all your attention as at last we enter the mother of all US National Parks. The very name Yosemite conjures up such a range of imagery, and raises expectations about as high as they can go. Yet as you’ll see, Yosemite is just as stunningly scenic and untamed as you could ever expect – and then some. The day’s ride finishes at El Portal (the gateway), where we overnight.
Our bikebound exploration of Yosemite National Park continues for a while before yet again we head west – this time towards San Francisco. Crossing San Rafael Bridge takes us into Marin County, which is often rated the wealthiest county in all of the US. It’s a playground for the rich, but also lovers of natural beauty; where deep redwood forests, mountains and sandy beaches compete for your attention with flashy displays of wealth. We stop at picturesque Sausalito, a seaside town that was once lined with saloons and sailors on shore leave. These days it’s more like the French Riviera. After lunch we head directly for the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and right into San Francisco, where we’ll stay for the following two nights.
You have the whole day at your leisure to explore San Francisco, arguably the most liberal city in the US. It’s a hip, highly individualistic, and surprisingly compact place which has an almost European panache and offers many opportunities for sightseeing. We offer several optional excursions today, such as a Cable Car rides, a Bay Cruise, a trip to Alcatraz, or even a Napa Valley wine tour. Or you can just go at your own pace.
Today as we ride the craggy coastline, you’ll get your first taste of what is widely held to be one of the best motorcycle rides in the world, heading south on the celebrated PCH (Hwy #1) along the Pacific Ocean. En route to Monterey, we’ll admire splendid views of the coves and inlets of the Pacific. Monterey is home to the world renowned Laguna Seca Automobile and Motorcycle Racetrack and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The coastline here is simply astonishing and there’s plenty of scope for great photo stops. We overnight in Monterey.
Our ride along scenic Hwy #1 continues in style, hugging the cliff’s edges of the wild and undeveloped Big Sur Coast. The 90-something miles of rocky cliffs form a transcendent landscape where river canyons are lined with redwood groves, and where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise spectacularly out of the blue-green Pacific. About halfway along the Big Sur Coast we arrive at Esalen. Located on a cliff top high above the raging Pacific surf, Esalen is named after the long gone native tribes who must have once enjoyed its natural hot springs. Cruising by San Simeon, Cambria and Morro Bay we eventually come to Pismo Beach. A special treat - our overnight stay tonight is at a luxurious ocean resort.
The final day and we get our motors running, and head out on Hwy 101 one more time – this time heading towards Los Angeles. We cut inland at Santa Maria for some fun on the scenic back roads to be found there. At Santa Barbara it’s back onto Hwy 101, and then we ride directly into Malibu, the beach colony favoured by the rich and famous. Some twenty miles later we come to Santa Monica and Venice. Santa Monica is LA’s biggest resort – and its oldest. In the 1960s it was a far out beachfront playground. These days it’s a liberal and overtly health conscious community. Just look at the bodies at Muscle Beach in Venice. People come to Venice Boardwalk from all over the world – because nowhere else does LA parade itself as it does here. From Venice there’s just one more ride, and that’s to our drop-off location, to return your motorcycle and transfer back to the hotel for the "Good-bye" dinner, where you can cherish all the great memories still fresh in your mind.
The hotel shuttle will transfer you to Los Angeles International Airport. See you on your next biking vacation!
1 rider 1 motorcycle 1 room, from: US$8,200.00 (£6,396.00, AU$12,710.00, NZ$13,940.00, 7.708,00 €)
2 people 1 motorcycle 1 room, per person, from: US$5,100.00 (£3,978.00, AU$7,905.00, NZ$8,670.00, 4.794,00 €)
2 people 2 motorcycles 1 room, per person, from: US$6,700.00 (£5,226.00, AU$10,385.00, NZ$11,390.00, 6.298,00 €)
1 rider 1 motorcycle 1 room, from: US$5,280.00 (£4,118.00, AU$8,184.00, NZ$8,976.00, 4.963,00 €)
2 people 1 motorcycle 1 room, per person, from: US$2,800.00 (£2,184.00, AU$4,340.00, NZ$4,760.00, 2.632,00 €)
2 people 2 motorcycles 1 room, per person, from: US$3,900.00 (£3,042.00, AU$6,045.00, NZ$6,630.00, 3.666,00 €)
Because of the chance of illness, accident, airline inefficiency, company insolvency or other unforeseen situations that may cause a customer (you) to miss a tour, we suggests to purchase travel/medical/health/trip cancellation insurance. It is a little expense that gives you piece of mind, highly recommended!
Various motorcycle insurances are available that you can book with your rental, for more information please have a look at our Insurance webpage.
To book this tour we need following information from you:
Please note: please do not purchase domestic/international airline tickets until tour is confirmed by us!