20180630-0707_NW Excursion Trip

20180630_Saturday Day-1

0630_Sat_Home-2-Vernal 346 miles

·         three other motorcyclists and I headed out for an 8 day, 7 state, 2595 mile “road trip”

·         travel 14 through the Poudre Canyon

·         to Walden for breakfast

·         40 thru Steamboat to Craig for lunch

·         to Vernal Utah for the night

  

  

20180701_Sunday Day-2

0701_Vernal-2-Logan 286 miles

·         191 North from Vernal over the Flaming Gorge Dam to Dutch John to see what that little community is

·         then back to the Flaming Gorge Dam Visitors Center

·         back to 44 and up the West side of the reservoir with a stop at the Red Canyon Visitors Center

·         and on to Manilla Utah

·         43 to 44 in to Wyoming 414 thru McKinnon, Lonetree, and Mountain View

·         412 past I-80 thru Carter to 189 and to the US-30 Kemmerer bypass then West on US-30

·         stopped at the Fossil Butte National Monument to check it out

·         cross in to Utah

·         then at Garden City next to Bear Lake

·         take US-89 to Logan Utah for the night

20180702_Monday Day-3

0702_Logan-2-Twin Falls 270 miles

·         US-89 from Logan thru Brigham City 13 to Corinne and 83 to the Golden Spike National Hist Site

·         went for an early morning walk in the suburbs of Logan and spotted an old station

·         they brought out a Replica of UPRR #119 and parked it near the location where the Golden Spike was placed

·         back to 83 and North to Howell Utah

·         I-84 for a short distance to Snowville then 42 (Old Highway 81) in to Idaho

·         stay on 81 thru Malta, Declo, Burley then US-30 to Twin Falls

·         stop and look at the ShoshoneFalls

·         and the before we settle in for the night

20180703_Tuesday Day-4

0703-Twin Falls-2-McCall 309 miles

·         before heading out, we took a walk from the motel over to check out the Perrine Bridge

·         north on US-93 to Shoshone and begin the Sawtooth Scenic Byway on 75

·         thru Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, to Stanley

·         from Stanley to Lowman on 21 will be the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (part of it)

·         take the Banks Lowman Hwy West along the South Fork Payette River to Garden Valley
and continue on to Banks Idaho

·         take 55 North on the PayetteRiver Scenic Byway thru Cascade, Donnelly, and Lake Fork
to McCall Idaho where we spent the night

20180704_Wednesday Day-5

0704_McCall-2-Lewiston 309 miles

·         woke up to a pretty cool morning and somewhat of a neat sunrise

·         we walked across the street for breakfast where a clever sign was found

·         stay on 55 and the Payette Scenic Byway West to New Meadows then take US-95 to
Council, Mesa, and Cambridge then 71 on the HellsCanyon Scenic Byway

·         Quite scenic ride down towards the byway

·         went up the canyon to the Brownlee Dam

·         cross in to Oregon

·         follow the Snake River and continue on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway
to Oxbow and north 23 miles to the Hells Canyon Dam

·         a change of route took place here as we were going to backtrack up through Idaho but decided to venture up through Oregon and Washington instead

·         re-ented Idaho in Lewiston where we’ll spend the night

·         took a walk that evening for a view of the Clearwater River just before it dumps in to the Snake River

20180705_Thursday Day-6

0705_Thu_Lewiston-2-Hamilton 243 miles

·         before we headed out a couple of us decided to go back down to the river as a little exercise before leaving town and spotted this in Locomotive Park

·         US-12 follows the Clearwater River on the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway thru Lenore,
by Orofina, and Kamiah before turning West and heading up the 99 miles of curves to
Lolo Pass and the Visitors Center

·          where we cross in to Montana

·       continue on US-12 to Lolo then take US-93 South to Hamilton Montana where we spent the night

20180706_Friday Day-7

0706_Fri_Hamilton-2-Dubois 424 miles

·       beautiful morning as we head south out of Montana in to Idaho – YES, we kept a close eye out for deer and any other critters

·         stay on US-93 South in to Idaho thru North Fork then follow the Salmon River  to Salmon

·         a few miles south of Salmon the 2018 Goldwing DCT Tour turned 9000

·         take 28 to Leadore, and Mud Lake then 33 to Rexburg and then we’ll stop briefly at the
site of the “Teton Dam Site” (failed shortly after completion and before it was even completely filled) and flooded back on June 5^th, 1976

·         continue on 33 thru Tetonia, Driggs, and Victor before entering Wyoming on 22

·         over Teton Pass

·          thru Wilson in to Jackson then North on 189 through the GrandTeton National Park

·         Spotted a few Bison grazing near the Triangle-X Ranch

·         on past Moran Junction and then US-26 to Dubois Wyoming for our last night on the road

·         “Ginny” all tucked in for the night

20180707_Saturday Day-8

0707_Sat_Dubois-2-BQs 414 miles

·         continue on US-26 thru Crowheart then South on US-287 thru Fort Washakie and Lander,
Sweetwater Station, Jeffrey City then South thru Lamont in to Rawlins

·         I-80 to Walcott Junction then South to Saratoga Wyoming for lunch before riding over the Snowy Range in to Laramie and down 287 and home to Colorado where I found the temperature at home to be 103 (F) degrees!

·         wonderful trip and Ginny performed exquisitely – some stats from the trip:
- 15 gas fillups (always using the lowest octane available 85-87)
- Minimum MPG calculated was 43.9 compared to indicated of 45.5
- Maximum MPG calculated was 55.0 compared to indicated of 56.1
- Average MPG calculated was 50.3 compared to indicated of 51.5
- The RANGE as calculated was off from about 14 miles over to 15 miles under
- Lowest elevation was 614 ft
- Highest elevation was 10,861 ft