Jamul To Sturgis 08-05

Having lived in Rapid City South Dakota for 5 years, and visiting my parents who have lived there for about 25 years, I've been to the Sturgis Rally many times over the years. In June 2003, I purchased my first Harley and put together a ride from Jamul to Sturgis with my good friends Gary & his wife Pam. Gary would drive his truck with his Harly Road King in the back and pull my trailer with my Harley Road Glide and Pam's Harley Sportster. We drove the first day to Cedar City Utah, and I would unload my bike and start riding the next morning. After Breakfast at McDonalds, I hit the road.

Pam took a pic of me riding down the road.

We planned on making it a 3 day trip to Rapid City where we would be staying with my parents. This works out great since we have a quiet place to sleep and good home cooking!!! Sturgis is only 20 miles from Rapid City. Pam unloaded her Sportster in Wyoming and rode with me the last day into Rapid City. We stayed in Rapid City for 5 days then did a 2 day ride/drive home. This was my first trip to Sturgis on a bike in 2003 and we had a great time. The following year in 2004, Gary and I rode to Sturgis again. It's 1,550 miles from Jamul to Sturgis and we did a two day ride both directions. Once again, we stayed with my parents and had a great time.

So, I was planning my next trip to Sturgis for 2005, and Tammy says she wants to ride with me to Sturgis. Really??? You want to ride 775 miles per day on the back of my Harley??? She said "NO!!! - I don't want to do a 2 day ride, but I want to ride with you to Sturgis. Why don't we take more time and see some of the sights along the way?" I said, "you mean I have to slow down and actually stop for something other than gas along the way?" She said "yes, make it happen..." in a nice way. I said "OK, but I'm not stopping to shop". The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. Instead of hauling ass through the desert all day, we'll take a different route and see some of the sights in Arizona and Utah and still ride Hwy 70 into Denver - Hwy 70 was always my favorite part of the ride to Sturgis.

Instead of heading north on Hwy 15 through Vegas, we would head east on Hwy 8, then north through Arizona to Flagstaff for our first night. We would stop at the Grand Canyon and stay at Lake Powell the next night. Then head north and east through Utah past Zion, Bryce, and Capital Reef National Parks staying in Hanksville Utah the 3rd night. We would continue east to Denver for the 4th night then into Rapid City on Day 5. This route is about 1,800 miles, 250 miles farther than my normal route, but we will ride it in 5 days instead of 2. After going to Sturgis and visiting with family, Tammy would fly home, yes, fly!!! Then I would do my normal 2 day haul ass ride home. Here is the route we took.

Tammy was the official picture taker, as I was still not in the 'pictures for my blog mind set yet'. We left at 6am Saturday morning and headed east on Hwy 8 to Yuma Arizona. This was a very familiar route, as we took it many times with our motorhome and boat when traveling to the Colorado River with friends. The morning ride was very nice with cool temps and not a lot of traffic. However, when we reached Yuma, it was getting hot - almost 100 degrees. We stopped for gas and put on our cool vests. These are vests you wear over your t-shirt and under your vented jacket. The vest is made of material that soaks up and holds water. All you do is soak it in water for a few minutes, then as you ride, the air passes through the vented jacked and the wet vest cooling down your body - they work great. It's like your own personal air conditioner. We continued north on Hwy 95 towards Quartzsite, then east on Hwy 10, to Hwy 60, to Hwy 71, to Hwy 89 towards Prescott. We stopped along the way to take pics of the cactus and mountains before Prescott.

The air temp started cooling down as we climbed the mountains into the Prescott Valley. At the next gas stop, we removed our cool vests and continued north on 89a towards Sedona. The thunderclouds started to form - this is August and you always hit thunderstorms in the mountains. We rode into a few light showers on our way through Jerome. The ride on Hwy 89 throught Prescott and continuing on 89a to Flagstaff is awesome. It's mostly a 2 lane road, with beautiful mountain, valley, and rock views. A lot of the road passes through Red Rock State Park, which is well named. We stopped at the top of the mountain before entering Jerome.

Jerome is an old historic copper mining town founded in 1876. It is referred to as "America's Most Vertical City" and "Largest Ghost Town in America". These are both good names as the town sits on the side of a steep mountain. The road sweeps back and forth with hairpin turns as you decend through the town. We stopped for a drink and to walk around town for a little while. Hers's a pic of the historic Connor Hotel.

We could see a large black cloud with heavy rain in the distance as we were leaving Jerome. We decided to put on our rain gear and continue north to Sedona. Before we left on this trip, I told Tammy to go buy a set of rain gear at either Harley Davidson or REI. Well, she gets her jacket and pants at REI, and shows me when she gets home. A lime green jacket and black pants. I tell her "you can't wear a lime green jacket on a Harley! - take it back and get a better color - something like black or silver" You know how that went over - NOT! We put on our rain gear before leaving Jerome. I'm wearing my Harley rain gear (black of course) and Tammy has her lime green jacket and black pants on as it rains pretty hard on us for about 15 minutes, then we emerge on the other side of the cloud and it stops raining again. We got a few pics pf the mountains and red rock formations around Sedona.

Sedona reminded us of Del Mar or La Jolla CA. It was very nice and manicured. The look of all the buildings and houses were built to fit in with the red mountains and landscape. It seemed like the most expensive area to live in the valley. North of Sedona the canyon narrows as you ride through the canyons following the river. There were a lot of people river rafting and swimming along this stretch. It was very beautiful in this area. We continued on into Flagstaff where we stayed for our first night. This would be our longest mileage day of the trip as We put on 475 miles total.