USA: Route 66 and the American Southwest

We’ll pick you up at the airport and deliver you to your hotel.  Later that day, you’ll get a chance to inspect your motorcycle and go over your tour itinerary. We’ll have dinner at a traditional Western-style American restaurant, before taking you back to your comfortable hotel for a good night’s sleep.

We’ll leave Scottsdale and immediately head out into the dry and colorful desert to Wickenburg, one of the oldest cowboy towns in Arizona.  Then it’s on to Kingman, the hub of the longest uninterrupted stretch of historic Route 66 in the US – 173 free-range miles of unadulterated Mother Road.  Built in 1926, Route 66 stretched across the US.  Today, these frozen-in-time small towns play host to thousands of Harley riders every year.

Today we’ll ride Old Route 66 as it winds through the Truxton Canyon between the Cottonwood Mountains and the Grand Wash Cliffs.  We’ll pass tiny towns lost in time, with their 1950’s era establishments, diners, drive-ins, general stores, barber shops and vintage gas stations.  In the afternoon, we’ll turn north and roll into glittering Las Vegas for the evening.

Las Vegas is truly an otherworldly place and a fascinating city to see.   We’ll take some time off the bike to walk the strip and see the sights, ducking into a few sparkling and lively casinos along the way.  Then we’ll ride out into the mountains again to Utah and Zion National Park.

The ride through Zion National Park is stunning, with its massive sandstone cliffs of cream, pink and red reaching high into the bright blue sky.  We’ll ride under the 3000 foot Vermillion Cliffs, a prehistoric landscape of iron-oxidized rock formations. Today we end the day at the edge of the mighty and awe-inspiring Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is one of America’s best National Park:  1.2 million acres of rugged plateaus, crumbly spires, and shadowed ridges, a marvel to behold.  We’ll take you there on the best motorcycle roads along the Rim, stopping at the best viewpoints along the way.  Or if you prefer to see the canyon off the motorcycle, a helicopter is available to take you over it.

Today we take the back roads of the Navajo Indian Reservation, past ancestral  Puebloan cliff dwellings sitting in rock alcoves to the Canyon de Chelly with its sheer sandstone walls, swirling patterns and petrified dunes.  We’ll ride along the canyon, stopping at the most dramatic vistas to get to Spider Rock Overlook.  We’ll spend the night on the Navaho Indian Reservation.

We’ll ride through the heart of the Colorado Plateau to Sedona, into the towering rock formations, blazing crimson, gold and orange against the pure blue skies.  The towers, grand buttes and flat-topped mesas yield to the dramatic crimson, orange and gold cliffs of Oak Creek Canyon.  Tonight we overnight is the spiritual center of the area – Sedona town.

Today we head south, traveling steadily through the flat lushness of the Verde Valley, through breezy pine forested low mountains, on our way back to Scottsdale.  We’ll spend some time strolling in Old Town, enjoying the fabulous restaurants and saloons and shopping for authentic Stetson hats and cowboy boots before our farewell dinner tonight.

Today you can relax or explore the sights of Scottsdale or the surrounding city of Phoenix.  If your flight leaves today, we’ll take you to the airport.