8 days, 7 States, 5 National Parks

8 days, 7 States, 5 National Parks

Ever since my 1996 Alaska ride, when my return trip had me riding south through the Jasper and Banff National Parks in Alberta, Canada, I have wanted to take a trip to see Glacier National Park in the Montana area of the Rocky Mountains, a couple hundred miles south of its sister parks in the Canadian Rockies. Given a "change" in employment this spring (i.e., "I quit! ) I decided I had better engage in a little "test retirement" and take this trip I’d been thinking about for almost 10 years.

My destination was officially a UNESCO World Heritage site: Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, which straddles the U.S. border and includes our Glacier National Park. I figured that since I was going that way I may as well throw in a few other National Parks along the way.

I anticipated a 7-10 day ride over a lot of miles, so I did an oil/filter change and put a new set of Metzler Tourances on my 2004 DL1000 “V-Strom”. I had recently done the 15K valve check/adjust and started the journey with 17,155 miles on the Stroms’ odo.

This was my initial travel itinerary:

Day 1 – Home (SF Bay area) to Bridgeport, CA
Day 2 – Bridgeport, CA to Zion, UT
Day 3 – Zion, UT to Flaming Gorge in UT & WY to Grand Teton Nattional Park, WY
Day 4 – Grand Teton to Yellowstone National Park in WY & MT to Glacier National Park, MT
Day 5 – Glacier National Park, MT to Weiser ID
Day 6 – Weiser, ID to Silverton, OR (visit the relatives)
Day 7 – Silverton, OR to Anderson, CA (visit relatives)
Day 8 – Anderson, CA to Home

Here's an overview of the route...



Monday, June 20

Since I figured this would be a relatively short travel day I didn't leave home until about 10am.

Ready to depart from the south Bay.


This mid-morning departure also let me avoid the morning Bay Area traffic mess. Following I-680 I worked my way to I-580 East then followed Hwy 120 to Hwy 108 east.

As usual, Hwy 108 was a blast! I had to watch for gravel debris on some corners as cars and trucks cutting the tight corners have a tendency to kick gravel onto the road in places. Just before the Dardanelle area I stopped to check on a downed Harley rider. He had the misfortune to get into some of that loose gravel. There was another vehicle already stopped there and the rider said he was OK. They were trying to straighten his front wheel enough to allow him to ride it home. Since no additional help was needed I continued on.

Near the top of Hwy 108


And here’s one from the top.


Descending from the summit, I liked the look of this rock formation so I rode out on it and took some pics.



I also stopped at Leavitt Falls for another photo opp.







Leavitt Falls.


Just before Hwy 108 ends, at Hwy 395, you pass the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, where the Marines conduct winter training. Just past this (going East) I had to stop to enjoy this scenery.

Great view from here.


At Hwy 395, where Hwy 108 ends, I turned south and rode to Bridgeport where I refueled and bought a small pizza and a couple of beers (to go). Just outside of the south side of town I took a left on Jack Sawyer Rd., a small dirt road that takes you to one of the local natural hot springs. I spent this first night camping at Travertine Hot Springs, with a nice view of the mountains above Twin Lakes.



You can see the hot tubs at the end of the formation in the picture below. (There's a guy standing on top of the formation.) It’s a unique geo-physical formation with hot water coming down along the top in a small channel, about 1-2 inches wide and deep. It must have taken centuries for the hot mineral water to make these mounds. There are three separate hot tubs in this immediate area.



Pizza, beer and soaking in natural hot springs… this is a good start!

Day 1 was a relatively short day: 239 miles total