What is the BEST route in the United States of America?
 

In your opinion, what is the best touring route out there? Off road, on road or whatever.

What's the BEST?

-j

It depends.
Your best and my best may be entirely different.
Winter or summer, camping or lodging.
Ocean sunsets, mountain vistas, or big sky prairies.

What do You want to see?

in 3 months, of summer, Several Hundreds of riders want to see the Pacific Coast.

US Highway 101 and Cal 1 .. between Canada and Mexico ..

gdmbr

Do you have about 5 years? It's a pretty big place by bicycle.There's neat stuff to see all over.Taking the side roads you'll get to see Uncle Bobs' antique barbed wire collection and the worlds biggest bra ball......depends on what you want to see.

It's easier to ask where not to tour.

Please add time of year and tour length expected. Otherwise this is way to general of a question.

Any time on a bike touring is better then being in the office reading a touring message board :-)

Newark, New Jersey and central Los Angeles pretty much covers that. The rest is good :)

Adventure Cycling Association has maps that have been proven to be safe that go all over the USA. http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...route-network/

Have a look through some of the photos etc. in this thread ... does something there appeal to you? If so, maybe that would be the best place to go for you.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...Through-the-US


But it really does depend ...

Anyplace with hills or mountains, low traffic and a reasonable facsimile of a shower is the best place to tour. YMMV.

Hard to define the best, but if you want to see God's Country, we are talking about touring the Pacific Northwest. Washington, Oregon and maybe the six or seven northern most counties of California. Of course to really see it all, you will need a passport to enter British Columbia. Maps are optional, you can just start riding in what ever direction catches you eye or ask any local. It's that good. Of course the Olympic Peninsula verges on the sublime. Don't forget to put some folding dirt tires in the bottom of your panniers.

Yeah, it's kind of like asking what's the best flavor of ice cream. For myself, I like warm, dry weather, forested mountains, sparkling lakes and streams, funky little mountain towns, cheap or free campsites with swimming and/or showers, interesting geology such as volcanoes, so the inland Pacific NW and adjacent areas fill my bill.

The OPs question makes me wonder, where the longest downhill tour is?

Start someplace in Minnesota and end up in New Orleans?

Rowan and I have travelled through most of the states in the USA ... and one of the most spectacular areas is the red rock country of Utah and Arizona. That would be a fascinating area to cycle through. We did a bit of cycling there, but not a point-to-point tour.

However, it probably wouldn't be the best choice in July.

In July, perhaps Washington, Montana, or the area around Lake Superior might be nicer. :)

The "bestness" of any tour will depend upon your touring preferences. What goes into your idea of a fun tour? Lots of camping/roughing it, or whipping out the credit card at local hotels and/or bed & breakfasts? Weekend, week, month, or "time is no object"? What sort of sights would you be looking forward to seeing? Paved streets and/or trails, or unpaved trails all the way down to bunny-hopping over logs and boulders while the bears look at the insane human in their midst?

the one YOU find the time to ride.

It's all good from a bicycle seat. look around you and enjoy the country.

I like the West best and the East least, only because it rhymes.

Look up the San Juan Huts trail from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT (Four Corners area.) This trail is not super long (approx. 205 miles) but it's just a gorgeous mountainous route that you'll enjoy day after day. You'll need a touring bike with wide tires (or a MTB) as it's mostly off-road -- on very well maintained forest roads, however. If you want something a big longer, I think you could combine it with Canyonlands National Park.

+1

My life's ambition is to find the "best" tour, and I'm fortunate enough to still be looking for it.

My "best" tour so far has had little to do with location.

I wasn't asking what is the best for me, or what time of year is the best!

I'm asking what is the BEST in YOUR opinion.

One person said the great divide mountain bike trail. He/she thought that is the best.

What do you think?

But again ... it depends.

I could cycle in one area one year and think it's "the best", then go off and cycle in several other areas for the next few years, then return to the one I thought was "the best", and maybe it is, or maybe it isn't as good anymore for whatever reason (time of year, weather, traffic density, influence of the other areas I've cycled, etc.)


That said, I do have one area I really like ... one route I consider my favourite cycling route of all the places I've ridden in the world. But it isn't in the US.

For MTB type touring you will not be disappointed in the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Canada to Mexico.

The one I'm riding right now, unless I'm having a really bad day.

Yesterday, it was a day tour through my county. I got this crazy idea to visit all 15 incorporated towns within a day. It was challenging, fun and great to see every corner of my home county.

Today,it's the three day backpacking hike I'll do with my wife in a couple of weeks. After that it will be something else.