Hi all,

We are planning a touring trip in the USA this Summer. We have about 4 weeks, and are looking at routes of about 2500 km/1500 miles max. We were thinking of starting in San Francisco and make our way up across Oregon and Washington, maybe try to visit the Rocky Mountains national park. How does that sound? Does anyone have any recommendations on routes? It doesn't have to be a circular route as long as there is good transportation back to San Francisco from the end point.

We chose San Francisco because it has good direct routes from London where we live, and we were told that the North West of the USA is very beautiful. But we are still planning and are open to any suggestions you might have

Thanks in advance!

As a historian of the American West and a cyclist with tens of thousands of miles of riding in the West, I can say that you, like most other Brits, have little sense of the scale of the region. It would take a good three weeks to ride from Seattle to San Francisco - your proposed direction is entirely wrong because of prevailing winds. Seattle to Denver would take four weeks at the very minimum. Also, the month makes a big difference - not just "summer". June may be too early to ride certain areas - while August would be brutal in the Southwest. You might be able to ride from San Francisco directly to Denver in four weeks, but that would be a tough slog for the uninitiated - 10,000 feet of climbing in the Sierras by the 3rd or 4th day and remote riding with zero services for 80 miles at a time across the Nevada desert. Remember - less is more.

A tour starting in Seattle or Portland to Glacier NP and then down to Yellowstone NP is more doable in mid-summer.
From Jackson Hole there are flights to majro international airports.

I would try to add a another week and go Portland to Denver via the adventure cycling Transamerica or Lewis and CLark routes. You'll get Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, as well as a bunch of other nice American West riding. West is best.

If you have to land in SF, train and bus travel are rather a pain, but you can use Southwest Airlines or Frontier Airlines for reasonable priced flying between many western cities, including SF, Denver, Portland, Seattle, LA, San Diego. Other airlines have higher fees to carry the bike.

Another suggestion would be a portion of the "Sierra Cascades" route or a portion of the "Pacific Coast"

You can buy maps here https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/network.cfm (or just look at their routes for ideas / download their GPS tracks). In summer (as long as that is June or later) you should be ok with any of these routes except the Southern Tier, which will be too hot.

Another possibility - if you love mountains (I do) - just start in Denver and ride around in the mountains in Colorado - you can easily spend 4 weeks in the mountains in CO without repeating yourself. If this sounds appealing, let me know and I can throw out a route I did a few years ago, that was intended to do all paved crossings of the continental divide in CO.

Hi,

Sorry for the rudeness of others on this forum.

I don't know your riding level and the type of tour or mileage you'd like. My wife and I did ride (in June) from San Francisco to Denver in two weeks on loaded touring bikes, although we didn't leave much time for "smelling the roses", and we averaged around 100 miles a day. The problem is that in the middle of the summer, this route involves crossing the hot Nevada desert.

If you've got four weeks, you might fly to Seattle or Portland and ride south to Los Angeles and fly out of there. Then you'd get to ride through along the Big Sur coast (spectacular but also busy with tourist drivers in the summer). There is a book called "Bicycling the Pacific Coast" that is pretty good with route info.

You might look at the Adventure Cycling Association website; they have lots of US bike touring info.

Enjoy.

I agree with jamawani, especially on riding from SF to Seattle. Riding north along the coast in the summer, you'll most likely experience headwinds most of the way. While we were bicycling north to south, we've watch a number of bikers heading north, struggling against the wind while we cruised along with the wind at our backs. Sure didn't look like fun to me.

Not rude - just frank.
It's nearly impossible to do SFO-SEA-DEN in four weeks.
(Unless you are a racing cyclist on steroids)
Not to mention the issue of riding north on the PCH.

I've come to the assistance of cyclists, hikers, skiers, and drivers who were in over their heads.
I don't mind doing so - but most were seriously unprepared or unaware.

Since you are from Arizona - I've carried two packs up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon -
When a person had overestimated his abilities AND overloaded his backpack.
(Somebody I had never seen before but was ready to keel over)
Almost always these people are from back East or from Europe.

Based on the info given by the OP -
Do YOU think he/she is aware of conditions in the West??

Hi, Welcome to the Forum.

I think the others have already discussed the distances and the coastal wind direction. It is almost 900 miles from San Francisco (SF) to Seattle. Also, from SF to Yellowstone National Park the distance is almost 1500 miles, and there is not easily accessible return transportation to SF. And yes, the wind on the coast during the summer is primarily a north wind.

What do you really want to see: coastal, forests, National Parks, deserts? Are you going to be camping or credit card touring? How many miles do you anticipate averaging in a day? Are the 4 weeks bike time or does that include travel days? When is your start date?

There are a lot of us from the west coast on this forum that have ridden a lot of this country; and I'm sure we can come up with some good alternatives that will meet your interests and time constraints.

Hi again,

First of all, thanks for the information. There's a lot of useful info here, and I'm still going through it.

Here are some more details about our background and objectives
- Furthest we've travelled is about 1050 miles in 19 days (18 cycling, although really 17 1/2 because of airline lost luggage), with moderate climbs (here's the profile if you are interested: https://www.twobiketravellers.com/tra...2d_profile.png). We are looking at adding 7 cycling days and one rest day more this time. Unfortunately work commitments prevent us from taking much longer
- We tend to travel more or less self supported: tent + food supplies + stove, sleep at camping sites, carry food for 1 or 2 days.
- We are relatively experienced in bike touring: this would be our sixth trip, previously we've done Europe (France, Spain, East Europe), Africa (Morocco) and the middle east (Syria). Depending on the road we can do anything between 60 to 100 miles each day, probably averaging about 80. It really depends on the road really
- I guess our preference would be for either coast and mountain, forests and national parks rather than desert, specially taking into account the time of the year. But we are flexible. If it's doable and worth the visit, we want to consider it!
- SF as a starting point was just our initial plan, but no tickets have been purchased yet!


(ohh, and not that it matters anyway, but we are not British, we just live here!

Well, it's a good thing you are not British - especially around July 4th - long memories, you know.

There are non-stop ($$$) and cheap flights into Seattle - Icelandair is way cheaper than the majors.
Seattle would allow you a great start to a trip provided it was not too early in the summer - after Jun 1, better Jun 15.
You could start in the San Juan Islands, ride the Northern Tier to Glacier National Park (Going to the Sun Road!!)
Then ride down to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks - getting coast and mountains plus best wildflower season.
(The Northern Tier has some killer climbs right from the get-go.)

Another option that would allow you more coastal riding would be to fly into Portland, Oregon -
You could ride part of the lovely Oregon coast (N to S) then follow parts of the Trans Am -
perhaps cutting thru the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho to shorten distance to Yellowstone.
Coastal cliffs, a little high desert, hot springs, alpine mountains.
From Yellowstone you could rejoin the TransAm to Rocky Mtn N.P and Denver.

You can use Amtrak to get back to your starting point - - BUT - - (And I am a supporter of rail)
Amtrak is notoriously late - sometimes absurdly late - like 12 hours.
Usually only one train a day - not good if you are trying to meet a deadline.
But is is very easy and quite pleasant and easy to ship bikes on.
One possibility is to fly INTO Denver than Amtrak to the West coast.
(That would also let you acclimate and get over jet lag.)

I live in San Francisco and have ridden in all possible directions from/to here. I've written journals of these rides which might help you with deciding where to start, ride, and finish. For comparison, I tend to ride in the 50-60 miles/day range.

I've ridden to LA from SF several times. One journal describes a 70 mile/day ride and the other a 50 mile/day tour. This route doesn't really fit your timeframe as it is little more than a week of riding.

I've ridden along the coast north of San Francisco, which has stunning views of the sea. This journal describes a 3 day ride from Fort Bragg to Petaluma. If you want wonderful ocean views (and a tailwind) this section of coast is hard to beat.

I did one of the rides described by Jamawani above, from Portland, OR to Jackson Hole, WY via the Transamerica Trail through Oregon then going across lower Idaho and over the Sawtooths. I didn't ride into Yellowstone or the Tetons, as I did that in a car with my wife. The tour took about 3 1/2 weeks. Here is the journal. It is a fabulous route, though there is a fair amount of desert riding in the middle.

I've also ridden from Bellingham, WA (sorta between Victoria Island and Seattle) down to Portland, again along the coast. That tour took about 11 days. Here is the journal of that ride. While there isn't much coastal riding in the northern part of the route, the San Juan Islands are beautiful.

I've also ridden east from San Francisco (it starts with a ferry across the bay) to Carson City, NV. This ride goes from sea level to 8574 ft. in 3 days! The ride from Placerville to Kirkwood (just below Carson Pass) was one of the hardest days I've ever had on a bicycle. One way, it was 4 days of riding. Here is the journal of that ride.

I've also ridden from San Diego to Phoenix, AZ. This is not a ride I would recommend. I did it in April and it was getting hot, there is very little shade once you hit the desert and the terrain isn't interesting.

One thing to consider is that once you get over the western mountain range (Cascades up north or Sierra further south) there are deserts that you have to traverse. I've not ridden east from Puget Sound but from there to Glacier NP is on my to-do list of tours. The Northern Tier - Glacier NP - south to Yellowstone sounds like a very enjoyable tour, though it doesn't include any coastline.

It would be a shame not to ride along any of the coast if you are going to be starting in either Seattle or San Francisco. One option might be to rent a car, drive to some place, do a couple day rides along the coast, and then drive/fly/train to your starting point for going east.

Depending on how you want to tour, you might consider renting a car for one-way to get to a starting place without an airport.

There are many routes, but the Pacific Coast Route is a classic. It has spectacular scenery, National Parks, and pristine forests. However, there is a lot of traffic during the summer.

You could start in Vancouver B.C., cycle north to Powell River, cross over to Vancouver Island, and then just head south to San Francisco. My wife and I did the entire route to the Mexican Border, but that would add a few more weeks to the trip.

Cycling through Canada to the U. S. is a fun leg with a lot of water and ferry crossings. Victoria is a city worth visiting. There are two routes through Washington, one following the coast (although not very close) and the other more inland. We took the inland route and did not regret it.

In Oregon the route generally follows Hwy 101 along the coast. IMO- Oregon's coast has the most beautiful actual coastal views of the entire route. However, I'm biased.

The Route in California goes through some of the most spectacular trees in the world. Redwood National Park and Avenue of the Giants.

Washington, Oregon, and California State Parks all have "Hiker/ Biker" campsites at a very reasonable cost, $5- $10/ night. State Parks, RV parks, and motels are plentiful along the route.

As mentioned above the book Bicycling the Pacific Cost Highway is a good resource if you are thinking of doing this route. https://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Paci.../dp/0898869544

I tend not to do A to B destination touring, but rather pick an area of interest to explore. If you are starting and ending in San Francisco I would head east to Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks. Ride north to Mt. Lassen and Mt Shasta and the surrounding National Forests. Head north some more to Southern Oregon and the Upper Klamath Basin (one of the Earth’s great flyways) and Crater Lake (one of the wonders of the natural world). Ride west into the Lower Klamath, the Klamath Mountains and Trinity Alps and a number of culturally alive First Nation communities. Head over the Bald Hills to Redwood National Park and finally ride the Adventure Cycling Pacific Coast route back to SF. That will keep you pretty busy for four weeks!

I’ve ridden about half of it and would love to see more, much more.