Desert roadtrip: things to see?

[180ls1]

I kinda had that route out of Moab bookmarked. Looks awesome!

Thanks for all the tips so far folks! I'm making a list of everything to plot on maps & see how much of it I can take in.

Please keep them coming

Oh, & if anyone sees this parked up somewhere, leave me a note (or a gallon of gas.....)

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You seem like the type that would enjoy the salton sea. Check out Salvation Mountain when you are there.

I'll also suggest more stuff and time in S Utah / N Arizona. You could probably spend your whole trip there and not get bored or see the same thing twice.

 

[GARLICSALT]

Bro, we have a place at the Salton Sea and we rarely see it from June to mid October. If a very possible 118 degrees is your thing then have at it. You would really get a kick out of Slab city, but dang in August on a bike OHELLNO! freaking brutal.

 

[RadialJett]

@robtattoo my dude, if you are going as far as the Salton Sea, a few hours more of high quality twisty mountain roads and some admittedly busy interstates will deliver you to beach camping in America’s finest city. I cannot imagine riding through that much heat and desolation and not enjoying SoCal beaches!

 

[displacedtexan]

Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Joshua Tree is amazing
Saguaro National Park

It would be a detour, but hitting Huntington Beach or Newport Beach is a mild suggestion. LA sucks, but the coast is cool to see.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

Chaco, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde if Native American ruins interest you.

Antelope Canyon near Page is the iconic slot canyon. Antelope is neat and very photogenic but also very touristy (guided tours only). Zebra Canyon, Spooky Gulch, and Peakaboo Gulch in Grand Staircase-Escalante are DIY slot canyon hikes further off the beaten path and also worth considering.

Arches has plenty of its namesake features within easy walking distance of a parking lot. Delicate Arch is the most famous.

If you stop at Zion, hiking up to Angel’s Landing (permit required) and up the Virgin River to the Narrows would be my top 2 recommendations.

My experience in all these places was 8-10 years ago in the month of March. I would assume everything is now more crowded than it was then and that it will be hotter than blue blazes in August.

 

[robtattoo]

@robtattoo my dude, if you are going as far as the Salton Sea, a few hours more of high quality twisty mountain roads and some admittedly busy interstates will deliver you to beach camping in America’s finest city. I cannot imagine riding through that much heat and desolation and not enjoying SoCal beaches!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Joshua Tree is amazing
Saguaro National Park

It would be a detour, but hitting Huntington Beach or Newport Beach is a mild suggestion. LA sucks, but the coast is cool to see.

I'm kinda on the fence about Salton Sea & that area. Joshua Tree is on my bucket list but I've half considered bypassing Salton altogether & taking a straight shot through to San Diego instead. I've never seen the Pacific from land & as close as I'm going to be, I think that would be far cooler than looking at a bunch of hippy's trash, America's most polluted water & spending a day dodging meth heads. We've got tweekers a-plenty round here!

 

[nomadicbohunk]

I'm kinda on the fence about Salton Sea & that area. Joshua Tree is on my bucket list but I've half considered bypassing Salton altogether & taking a straight shot through to San Diego instead. I've never seen the Pacific from land & as close as I'm going to be, I think that would be far cooler than looking at a bunch of hippy's trash, America's most polluted water & spending a day dodging meth heads. We've got tweekers a-plenty round here!

Some of the places I mentioned will be super hot that time of year. I missed that.

I finally went to Joshua Tree this April. I used to be around them so much working, I just never wanted to go. 1. Very cool. Cooler than expected. The native palms are amazing and we never saw anyone hiking as long as we left at sunrise or a little before. We will go back and we're talking about paying to fly my wife's sister's family out there as the kids would love it and they had some amazing campsites for them.

2. So many instagrammers. I've never seen anything like it. I live in Vermont for now. I see people doing this in the middle of the road and I almost hit them. Cats on Leashes. Radios on mountains with people playing drums while high. Naked groups in a pool I hiked in to trout fish. I get grumpy. However, this was next level stuff even for me. 100's of people taking selfies while posing in weird ways with giant hats like they're epic outdoors folks while on pull offs on the side of the road. I saw people spray themselves to fake sweat. My favorite was a dude who was like 65 with lots of obvious facelifts at that big overlook over a valley that takes a while to drive to. He had on a shirt like he worked in the trades. He was doing the duck face thing I haven't seen anyone do since like 2008 and he and took about 50 photos. If you're curious, he drove one of those 150k Mercedes G classes that was brand new with aftermarket extremely low profile rims, gas tanks strapped all over it, and a hi lift jack attached to it. It was one of the most absurd things I've ever seen. I almost just started talking to him as I'm like WTF is this guy about?

Just a fair warning if you go. I'm pretty unflappable with weird stuff, but I was flappin' away there at the popular areas. We were mentally prepared for a lot of selfie takers, but not the volume we encountered.

Oh yeah. If you end up in CA in the valleys, get a date shake if you can. Trust me.

 

[RadialJett]

@robtattoo J tree, Palm Springs etc. are in their prime in the Winter.

Check out camping at South Carlsbad State Beach or Silver Strand for your timeline.

On two wheels, you might enjoy Highway 74 coming up out of the desert, and all the roads around Palomar mountain. If you had a sporty bike I would guarantee the enjoyment!

Our mountains stay hot all summer, the elevation doesn’t make up for the proximity to the desert.

 

[displacedtexan]

I'm kinda on the fence about Salton Sea & that area. Joshua Tree is on my bucket list but I've half considered bypassing Salton altogether & taking a straight shot through to San Diego instead. I've never seen the Pacific from land & as close as I'm going to be, I think that would be far cooler than looking at a bunch of hippy's trash, America's most polluted water & spending a day dodging meth heads. We've got tweekers a-plenty round here!

That's home tweakers though, we're talking about fancy, exotic tweakers.

You don't not go get a beer out sometimes "because you have beer at home"! Lol

I've never been to San Diego... I need to.

 

[cal30_sniper]

I haven’t seen it mentioned here, so I’ll add: Valley of Fire State Park east of Vegas. It was one of my favorite parts of a road trip I did from San Diego to Albuquerque via pretty much the route you’ve laid out. I car camped on BLM land outside the park and hit it first thing in the morning. Even stirred up a desert ram who picked the same roadside bluff to watch the sunrise from as I did.

Already mentioned, but I’ll double down:
- Chaco Canyon (and it’s lesser known cousin Aztec ruins, which is just off the highway east of Farmington).
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison
- Vermillion Cliffs
- Staircase/Escalante
- Capitol Reef

You couldn’t pay me to spend time in Moab after my last couple times passing through there. I liked it when I first went through in 2010. It’s an absolute madhouse/freakshow now. One thing in the vicinity that IS worth seeing is the drive up through the La Sal mountains east of there. Canyonlands is a sight to see, but I much more enjoy the crowdless areas around there like Bears Ears and all the random BLM land south and west of the Abajo Mountains

Avoid driving 40. The only thing worth seeing on it between LA and Albuquerque is Petrified Forest. US-60 is a MUCH better route, and the stretch through the Salt River Canyon is one of my favorite stretches of road anywhere.

Don’t bother with Four Corners, but Canyons of the Ancients and Monument Valley are both worth spending time in near there.

 

[MTtrout]

Good suggestion from @MuleyFever. If time allows I would also give a detour route to Hanksville via going south from Moab through Bluff and turn back north just above Mexican Hat. The road from The Valley of Gods up onto Cedar Mesa is cool and steep. To shorten up that route and maybe better would be riding just south of Blandings and get on 95 to Hanksville. Route 95 from Natural Bridge area to Hanksville is what southern UT is all about from a highway perspective. Remote and the geological scenery is special.

 

[ni7ne]

A less well known area that's worth checking out in Southern Utah is Comb Ridge. Parts of the dirt road get a little borderline in wet season.

 

[hunt1up]

I've been through most of the areas mentioned. Zion is awesome. Like any National Park, you've got the usual hoards of busses and stuff. I didn't find it THAT bad though, the landscape is fantastic and worth seeing. Joshua Tree is worth the stop also. We took the kids there earlier in the day and it wasn't busy at all, it was also 105 degrees so that may have been part of it.

I was in So Cal for work a few years ago and had a day to mess around, so I drove out and around the Salton Sea since I'd never been. I don't find the landscape to be THAT amazing when compared to other parts of the SW. What's kinda cool about it is the remnants of what was once a pretty vibrant tourist destination that is long since been abandoned due to the toxicity of the lake. My walk along the shore lasted about a minute due to the smell of all the dead fish. It's something to say you've seen but it's certainly no bucket list destination in my opinion. I'd say skip it if I had other stuff to see.

I've visited most of the big cities in this country and San Diego is by far my favorite. I prefer the country and the mountains over the cities, but if I'm going to be in a city, I'd pick San Diego every time. If nothing else, it might give a nice reprieve from the heat you'll experience on the rest of the journey.

 

[robtattoo]

Good suggestion from @MuleyFever. If time allows I would also give a detour route to Hanksville via going south from Moab through Bluff and turn back north just above Mexican Hat. The road from The Valley of Gods up onto Cedar Mesa is cool and steep. To shorten up that route and maybe better would be riding just south of Blandings and get on 95 to Hanksville. Route 95 from Natural Bridge area to Hanksville is what southern UT is all about from a highway perspective. Remote and the geological scenery is special. View attachment 898159

I just screenshotted that & saved it. Thank you!

 

[MuleyFever]

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Good suggestion from @MuleyFever. If time allows I would also give a detour route to Hanksville via going south from Moab through Bluff and turn back north just above Mexican Hat. The road from The Valley of Gods up onto Cedar Mesa is cool and steep. To shorten up that route and maybe better would be riding just south of Blandings and get on 95 to Hanksville. Route 95 from Natural Bridge area to Hanksville is what southern UT is all about from a highway perspective. Remote and the geological scenery is special. View attachment 898159

@robtattoo That is definitely the more scenic way to get to Hanksville if you have the time. I wasnt sure how long you wanted to spend in UT. If you want any other ideas on stuff to see or placed to stop or camp shoot me a PM.

 

[Weldor]

Don't forget the north rim, nice drive down from Jacob lake to the north rim. Who knows you might see some Bison. LOL.

 

[displacedtexan]

I haven’t seen it mentioned here, so I’ll add: Valley of Fire State Park east of Vegas. It was one of my favorite parts of a road trip I did from San Diego to Albuquerque via pretty much the route you’ve laid out. I car camped on BLM land outside the park and hit it first thing in the morning. Even stirred up a desert ram who picked the same roadside bluff to watch the sunrise from as I did.

Already mentioned, but I’ll double down:
- Chaco Canyon (and it’s lesser known cousin Aztec ruins, which is just off the highway east of Farmington).
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison
- Vermillion Cliffs
- Staircase/Escalante
- Capitol Reef

You couldn’t pay me to spend time in Moab after my last couple times passing through there. I liked it when I first went through in 2010. It’s an absolute madhouse/freakshow now. One thing in the vicinity that IS worth seeing is the drive up through the La Sal mountains east of there. Canyonlands is a sight to see, but I much more enjoy the crowdless areas around there like Bears Ears and all the random BLM land south and west of the Abajo Mountains

Avoid driving 40. The only thing worth seeing on it between LA and Albuquerque is Petrified Forest. US-60 is a MUCH better route, and the stretch through the Salt River Canyon is one of my favorite stretches of road anywhere.

Don’t bother with Four Corners, but Canyons of the Ancients and Monument Valley are both worth spending time in near there.

40 goes so close to so much cool stuff.

But misses just about all of it!

Avoid driving 40. The only thing worth seeing on it between LA and Albuquerque is Petrified Forest. US-60 is a MUCH better route, and the stretch through the Salt River Canyon is one of my favorite stretches of road anywhere.

I don't understand how 40 west of the Mississippi passes close to so much cool stuff, but misses just about all of it!

Petrified Forest/Painted Desert is cool, not amazing.
Cadillac Ranch is cool as part of American motoring pop culture.

And a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Tilzbow]

Here are a few relatively unknown that rank high on my list after traveling to nearly 40 National Parks and most of the states in my motorhome since I retired a few years ago:

1) Valley of Fire State Park - It’s small, just outside of Las Vegas but worthy of a National Park designation and you night see some really nice desert bighorn sheep.

2) Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Better than Saguaro NP IMO.

3) Ride the tram to the top of the mountain near Palm Springs. It’s cheesy tourist crap but worth it.

4) Painted Rock Petroglyph site. It’s a short detour off the interstate and you’ll see more petroglyphs in a small area than you can imagine.

5) If you happen to be riding by, Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada would be worth a quick detour.

Not sure if you’ll pass by but other surprises we’ve seen are:

Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Natural Bridges National Monument
Bears Ear National Monument - The road to the top is… Wow!

 

[7mm-08]

I kinda had that route out of Moab bookmarked. Looks awesome!

Thanks for all the tips so far folks! I'm making a list of everything to plot on maps & see how much of it I can take in.

Please keep them coming

Oh, & if anyone sees this parked up somewhere, leave me a note (or a gallon of gas.....)

View attachment 897915

If you're tough enough to ride 300 miles a day on that bike, you deserve a lot of credit. Sounds like a great adventure. Have fun!

 

[robtattoo]

If you're tough enough to ride 300 miles a day on that bike, you deserve a lot of credit. Sounds like a great adventure. Have fun!

At least that'n's got suspension.

My other bike is a bit less practical.