Coast to Coast USA

E1121

Hey, I am planning on riding across America next summer and was wondering what route to do. Obviously there is the already planned out adventure cycling trans america route which seems to go through nice places like yellowstone and is scenic. Since I have never been to America before I would like to pick the most scenic route possible and was debating weather to use the whole route from adventure cycling or start further south and go past the grand canyon and up to Colorado but as I will be doing this in summer I belive it might be quite hot going that way and I would miss out yellowstone. So what would you say are the best places, roads or nationals parks to go through? And is there any advice I would benefit from? Obviously it's quite a while away and I don't really want to have an exact plan as it will be an adventure.
Thank you so much and feedback would be greatly appreciated

sheffsimon

E1121 wrote:

Hey, I am planning on riding across America next summer and was wondering what route to do. Obviously there is the already planned out adventure cycling trans america route which seems to go through nice places like yellowstone and is scenic. Since I have never been to America before I would like to pick the most scenic route possible and was debating weather to use the whole route from adventure cycling or start further south and go past the grand canyon and up to Colorado but as I will be doing this in summer I belive it might be quite hot going that way and I would miss out yellowstone. So what would you say are the best places, roads or nationals parks to go through? And is there any advice I would benefit from? Obviously it's quite a while away and I don't really want to have an exact plan as it will be an adventure.
Thank you so much and feedback would be greatly appreciated

I've no direct experience myself, but take at a look at https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

Loads of folks on there have ridden all over USA.

FKS

ACA (Adventure Cycling Association https://www.adventurecycling.org/) are a great resource for X Country USA trips, I did a Portland Or to Portland ME trip in 2001 and did a mix of ACA routes, Lewis and Clark, TransAm, and Northern Tier.
How long do you have? Yellowstone is outstanding, so is Glacier National Park and the Northern Cascades. Link to the trip I did last year,( http://www.hkcrystal.com/cycling/)

baron_o_buchlyvie

Hi mate.

I rode across in 2014 from Orlando to Seattle. My advice on any tour is to have a start point, and end point and then just follow your nose, be open to advice along the way, and don't hurry.

I'm going to be controversial here and say that unless you plan on hiking through Yellowstone, cycling through it isn't great. I know it might be a hike, but going to Glacier NP was much more rewarding for me.

I think you should use the Adventure cycling routes as a good guide of cool places, but find out where you'd really like to visit and make those your priority. Utah is unreal. I only touched into it briefly, but it was a hugely rewarding experience.

How long do you have? I would respectfully suggest California to NY or Boston, mainly due to the availability of flights. You can then go through the redwoods, Yosemite, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado etc.

If you want to know more I'll happily give you some tips. My email is daferguson83@googlemail.com.

Good lick.

David

popularname

I'm a bit of a fan of Janice McCrae who did a transamerica East to West a few years back. She has a fantastic website and the transam stuff is here: http://www.nodirectionknown.com/transam/day-by-day/

May give you some ideas.

Good luck with your trip - have a great time

mea00csf

I did the TransAm last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree with the earlier poster who said Yellowstone isn't so great to cycle through. The Attractions are spectacular (i particularly liked the Grand Prismatic) but the cycling is nerve racking. The roads have no shoulder and are full of rental RVs, I was glad to leave! Loved Virginia and everything west of Pueblo, CO. Kansas and eastern Colorado are a bit dull once you get used to immense-ness of being there in the middle of nowhere!

Once i had done the TransAm i went up the Pacific Coast, round the Olympic peninsula to the San Juan Islands, then back down to Portland. I expected to love the pacific coast part of the route but it was so busy and noisy. Washington State was great though, with lots of hiker/biker camping.

The good thing about being on the Adventure Cycling routes is that you will meet lots of other cyclists, I found once i was away from the AC routes, i was the only one, so it depends if you want company really.