A SOLO TRIP FROM CALIFORNIA TO OREGON, VISITING FOUR NATIONAL PARKS IN FOUR DAYS

I blasted through the Central Valley and started my journey in earnest just north of San Francisco. The northern parts of Highway 1 hug the Pacific Coast and they are so twisty — and so breathtakingly beautiful— that they take forever to traverse. I spent a couple of days jumping between Highway 1 along the coast, which was gloomy but pretty, and Highway 101, which runs slightly more inland and takes you through redwood groves and state parks.

I can never pass up a quirky roadside attraction, so I stopped at Confusion Hill for soft serve, I rode through the Shrine Drive Thru Tree along the incredibly scenic Avenue of the Giants, and I pulled over for several oversized fiberglass statues.

My first national park visit on this trip was Redwood National and State Parks. I’d been there before, but this time I stopped and hiked Trillium Falls Trail, a lush green trail that takes you to a small waterfall straight out of a storybook. Redwood National Park is coastal with a mild, comfortable climate, but as soon as I left the park and headed northeast toward Oregon, the temperatures climbed into the triple digits. I grabbed a room at a cozy motel right on the Rogue River, and the next morning it was time to finally head into Crater Lake National Park.

Awake hours before the sunrise, I rolled into the park before 8 a.m. The last time I was in Crater Lake the park was covered in snow, but the sky was clear and the water a bright blue. This time, it was wild fire season, and a layer of smoke hung in the air throughout my visit. It gave the lake an eerie quality and made the whole thing feel vaguely unreal.

At 1,949 feet, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S. and I was determined to swim in it. I hiked the very steep Cleetwood Cove Trail down to the water and jumped in. The lake is cool — the average water temperature in the summer is about 57 degrees Fahrenheit—but it felt great after the hike.

I tried to hold on to that cool feeling because after leaving the park, as I made my way back into California, it kept getting hotter. While the coast is perhaps the most famous way to travel through the state, the inland route along the Sierra Nevada is just as scenic.

I took a slight detour on my way south to ride through Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is a completely underrated park in my opinion—it’s small but mighty. The riding is excellent, and its geothermal features are similar to those found in Yellowstone, but without the massive crowds.

Almost all national parks are spectacular, but when people ask me which one is my favorite, it’s surprisingly easy to answer. A notch above the rest, Yosemite National Park will probably always be my number one. So of course I had to ride through it on my way back from Oregon, making it my fourth national park visit in four days.

Yosemite is one of those places you have to see to believe. Photos can never do justice to the feeling of being surrounded by the dramatic granite cliffs that frame Yosemite Valley. If you’re heading east out of the park on Tioga Road, you’re in for another treat. This road is closed in the winter, and it’s not unheard of for it to see snow even in the summer. While my ride was snow free, the air was heavy with wildfire smoke. I had to put a neck gaiter over my mouth and nose but I still couldn’t keep my eyes off the spectacular surrounding mountains, their edges lightly blurred by the smoke. 

The next morning the air had cleared a bit and I headed south on Highway 395, which is flanked by the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west. I stopped at Manzanar National Historic Site—a former WWII Japanese internment camp—grabbed lunch in a small town, and visited the Pearsonville Uniroyal Gal. It was so hot, close to 100 degrees most of the day, that all I could think of was jumping into a cold river. I took another detour to Kernville where I ended my day by eating an ice cream cone while sitting on a rock in the Kern River.

The very last day of my trip I woke up early to beat the heat and rode 280 miles before lunch. I stopped at a local Harley-Davidson dealership on the way to log my mileage. The final tally? 2,385 miles in eight days.