We’re announcing a substantially reduced price on Moto Colombia. In fact, it’s as low as we can make it: $2.99. That’s the minimum Kindle will allow. I don’t know how much longer we’ll continue it (ah, there’s the impending doom sales close), but hey, as the man in the White House would say: C’mon, Man, it’s just $2.99.
What’s it all about? Here’s the blurb:
Ride beautiful Colombia with Joe Berk, Juan Carlos Posada Roa, and Carlos Mesa on Zongshen RX3 motorcycles. This is an adventure tour that has it all: Magnificent riding on dirt and asphalt, tight mountain twisties, elevations from sea level to nearly 14,000 feet, delightful Colombian cuisine, stunningly beautiful women, majestic churches, and more. It’s an 8-day circumnavigation of Colombia’s Andes Mountains, with stops in exotic places most people have never imagined. Visit the AKT Motos motorcycle assembly line and meet Enrique Vargas, the AKT General Manager. Cruise the mighty Magdalena River and ride into the clouds. Fight fog, freezing rain, and volcanic dust at the very edge of Volcan Nevado del Ruiz. Punch through a herd of cattle, visit a coffee plantation, chat with heavily armed-Colombian troopers, ride from the tropics to the sky, and learn how you can do the same!
Other than good buddy Arjiu (that would be Joe Gresh), I’m guessing most of you have never been to Chongqing. Chongqing is home to China’s motorcycle industry and it was the starting point for your two blogmeisters’ putt across the Ancient Kingdom. I enjoyed that ride enormously. Gresh and I had some fantastic times.
I first visited Chongqing and Zongshen as a consultant to CSC when we used Zongshen’s 250cc engine in our Mustang replicas. One thing led to another, and before too long CSC was Zongshen’s exclusive North American importer, and CSC introduced the RX3 to the US. I was blown away by Chongqing, the people, the size of the city, the photo ops, the cuisine, and more. I’ve been there many times and I’d go back again in a heartbeat.
Good buddy Fan shared this video a few days ago, and I knew I had to share it on the blog. Pro tip: Hit the little button on the bottom right of the video (after you start it) to view it full screen. It’s impressive.
You can be a China hater all you want. I know more than a few people over there I call my friends. Yeah, the world is going through some shaky times right now, but that’s not the Chinese people and it’s for sure not the guys I know. I like the place.
If you want to know more about our trip across China, pick up a copy of Riding China. There’s a link here on the blog. And take a look at our Epic Rides page, where we have links to posts about that ride.
I’ve ridden motorcycles through Baja probably 30 times or more over the last 30 years, and it’s unquestionably the best place to ride a motorcycle I’ve ever experienced. Many people are afraid to venture into the peninsula for fear of a breakdown. Hey, it happens, but it’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t happen often. They don’t call it adventure riding because it’s like calling for an Uber.
Not all “breakdowns” result in your motorcycle being nonoperational. Some are just mere annoyances and you truck on. A few breakdowns result in the bike not running, but there are usually ways to get around that. When it happens, you improvise, adapt, and overcome. Here are a few of mine.
Heritage Indeed
The first time I had a motorcycle act up was on my beloved ’92 Harley Softail. It started clanging and banging and bucking and snorting somewhere around Ensenada. I was headed south with my good buddy Paul from New Jersey. It was obvious something wasn’t right and we turned around to head back to the US. The Harley got me home, but I could tell: Something major had happened. The bike was making quite a bit of noise. I had put about 300 miles on it by the time I rode it back from Mexico.
A roller lifter that converted to a solid lifter.
One of the Harley’s roller lifters stopped rolling, and that turned it into a solid lifter. And when that happened, the little wheel that was supposed to rotate along the cam profile started wearing a path through the cam. And when that happened, the metal filings migrated their way to the oil pump. And when that happened….well, you get the idea. My 80-cubic-inch V-Twin Evo motor decided to call it quits after roughly 53,000 miles. It happens I guess. Nothing lasts forever.
Potato, potato, potato.
Here’s where it started to get really interesting. My local Harley dealer wouldn’t touch the bike. See, this was around 2005 or so, and it seems my Harley was over 10 years old. Bet you didn’t know this: Many Harley dealers (maybe most of them) won’t work on a bike over 10 years old. The service manager at my dealer explained this to me and I was dumbfounded. “What about all the history and heritage and nostalgia baloney you guys peddle?” I asked. The answer was a weak smile. “I remember an ad with a baby in Harley T-shirt and the caption When did it start for you?” I said. Another weak smile.
An S&S engine in my ’92 Softail. It let me ride a slow bike fast.
I was getting nowhere fast. I tried calling a couple of other Harley dealers and it was the same story. Over 10 years old, dealers won’t touch it. I was flabbergasted. I tried as hard as I could, but there was no getting around it…the Harley dealer would not work on my engine. It was over 10 years old. That’s that; rules is rules. For a company that based their entire advertising program on longevity and heritage, I thought it was outrageous. A friend suggested I go to an independent shop. “It’s why they exist,” he said. So I did.
So, I went with Plan B. I took the Harley to a local independent shop, and they were more than happy to work on my bike. I could have the Harley engine completely rebuilt (which it needed, because those metal bits had migrated everywhere), or I could have it rebuilt with an S&S motor. I went with the S&S motor (the cost was the same as rebuilding the Harley engine), doubling the horsepower, halving the rear tire life, and cutting my fuel economy from 42 to 33 mpg.
Justin’s Countershaft Sprocket
On the very first CSC Baja trip, I was nervous as hell. The CSC bikes had received a lot of press and the word was out: CSC was importing the real deal, a genuine adventure touring motorcycle for about one sixth of what a GS 1200 BMW sold for in those days. The naysayers and keyboard commandos were out in force, badmouthing the Chinese RX3 in ways that demonstrated unbridled ignorance and no small amount of bias. And here we were, taking 14 or 15 guys (and one gal) who had bought new RX3 motorcycles that had literally arrived in the US just a few days before our departure. There was one thought in my mind as we headed south from Azusa that morning: What was I thinking? If the bikes started falling out on this first trip, it would probably kill the RX3 in America.
Hey, it worked. Adapt, overcome, improvise. The adventure doesn’t start until something goes wrong.
I need not have worried. None of the engines failed. We had a few headlights go out, but that’s not really a breakdown. And then, when we were about halfway down the Baja peninsula, I took a smaller group of riders to see the cave paintings at Sierra San Francisco. That trip involved a 140-mile round trip from Guerrero Negro into the boonies, with maybe 20 miles of that on a very gnarly dirt road. As we were returning, good buddy Justin’s RX3 lost its countershaft sprocket. We found it and Justin did a good enough MacGuyver job securing it to the transmission output shaft to get us back to Guerrero Negro, but finding a replacement was a challenge. We finally paid a machinist at the Mitsubishi salt mining company to make a custom nut, and that got us home.
On every Baja trip after that, I took a spare countershaft sprocket nut, but I never needed any of them after that one incident on Justin’s bike. Good buddy Duane had a similar failure, but that was on a local ride and it was easily rectified.
Jim’s Gearbox
Four or five Baja trips later, after we had ridden all the way down to Mulege and back up to the border, good buddy Jim’s transmission wouldn’t shift.
Good buddy Jim in the Mulege mission.
That’s the only breakdown I ever experienced anywhere on an RX3 that wouldn’t get us home, and that includes multiple multi-bike Baja trips, the multi-bike 5000-mile Western America adventure ride, the multi-bike 6000-mile ride across China, the 3000-mile circumnavigation around the Andes Mountains in Colombia, and quite a few CSC local company rides. One of the guys on that Baja ride lived in the San Diego area and he owned a pickup truck, so he took the bike back up to Azusa for us.
Biting the Bullet
A couple of years ago Joe Gresh and I did a Baja road test with Royal Enfield press bikes. One was the new 650 Interceptor twin (a bike I liked so much I bought one when I got home); the other was a 500 Bullet. The Bullet was a disaster, but it really wasn’t the bike’s fault. The dealer who maintained the press fleet for Royal Enfield (I won’t mention them by name, but they’re in Glendale and they’re known for their Italian bikes) did a half-assed job maintaining the bike. Actually, that’s not fair to people who do half-assed work (and Lord knows there a lot of them). No, the maintenance on this bike was about one-tenth-assed. It was very low on oil, it had almost no gas in it, the chain was loose and rusty, and on and on the writeup could go. The bike kept stalling and missing, and it finally gave up the ghost for good at the Pemex station just north of Guerrero Negro.
Joe Gresh, inflight missile mechanic extraordinaire, getting intimate with the Bullet in Baja. “The Bullet needs me,” he said.
Fortunately for me, Gresh had one of those portable battery thingamabobbers (you know, the deals that are good for about 10 battery jumps) and it allowed us to start the bike. We bought a new battery that didn’t quite fit the bike in Guerrero Negro (big hammers solve a lot of problems), but the entire episode left a bad taste in my mouth for the Bullet and for the Glendale Ducatimeister.
Big hammers fix all kinds of problems.
That bike had other problems as well. The kickstand run switch failed on the ride home, and Gresh did an inflight missile mechanic bypass on it. Then, just before we made it back to my house in So Cal, the rear sprocket stripped. Literally. All the teeth were gone. That was another one I had never experienced before. The Bullet was sort of a fun bike, but this particular one was a disaster. We joked about it. The Bullet needs me, Gresh said.
John’s Silver Wing Leak
Ah this is another motofailure that tried but didn’t stop the show. On one of my earlier Baja forays, Baja John had a Honda Silver Wing. That’s a bike that was also known as the baby Gold Wing (it had all the touring goodies the Gold Wing had). It was only a 500 or a 650 (I can’t remember which) and it had no problem keeping up with the Harleys (but then, it doesn’t take much to keep up with a Harley).
Baja John and the mighty Silver Wing, somewhere well south of the border.
The Silver Wing was a pretty slick motorcycle…it had a transversely-aligned v-twin like a Moto Guzzi and it had plenty of power. Unlike the Guzzi, the Silver Wing was water cooled and that’s where our problem occurred. John’s bike developed a coolant leak. I was a little nervous about that. We were more than halfway down the peninsula and headed further south when the bike started drooling, but John had the right attitude (which was not to worry and simply ignore the problem). The little Silver Wing was like a Timex…it took the licking and kept on ticking, and to my great surprise, it simply stopped leaking after another hundred miles or so. I guess it doesn’t really count as a breakdown.
John’s KLR 650 OPEC Bike
Baja John had another bike, a KLR 650, that developed a fuel petcock leak on another one of our Baja trips. As I recall, it started leaking on the return run somewhere around El Rosario. I get nervous around fuel leaks for the obvious reasons, but John stuck to his policy: Don’t worry, be happy.
Baja John: The man, the legend.
We stayed in a hotel in Ensenada that night. The hotel had an attached enclosed parking structure, which immediately started to smell like the inside of a gas tank. Not that I’ve ever been inside a gas tank, but that parking garage pretty much had the aroma I imagine exists in such places.
John’s luck continued to hold, and we made it home without John becoming a human torch.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is you basically need four things when headed into Baja:
A tool kit.
A good attitude that includes a sense of adventure.
A well maintained motorcycle.
Maybe some spare parts.
So there you have it. If you’d like to know more about riding in Baja, please visit our Baja page and maybe pickup a copy of Moto Baja.
If you’re headed into Baja, don’t leave home without BajaBound Insurance. They are the best there is. If you are nice, they might even fix you up with a cool BajaBound coffee mug!
Never miss an ExNotes adventure! Sign up here for free:
Zion. The name implies something of biblical proportions, something religious or heavenly. It’s easy to understand that’s what the Mormon settlers thought when they entered this area in the mid-1800s. One of the crown jewels of the National Park system, Zion may be as close to heaven as you can get without a one-way ticket.
Late in the day, entering Zion National Park from the east on Utah SR 9.
I’ve visited Zion many times, and I’d go back again in a heartbeat. Living in So Cal, Zion is only a day’s ride away. I’ve been there in cars and many times on motorcycles ranging from 250cc Chinese imports to Big Twin Harleys. My strong feelings for Zion are personal: It was the destination of my first big motorcycle trip. My riding buddy and departed friend Dick Scott suggested Zion back when we were going through our Harley phase (a phase most of us passed through), and it was beyond beautiful as we rolled into the park on Utah State Route 9. Zion exceeded anything I could have imagined; I remember feeling like I was riding into a Western painting. It has this effect on everyone with whom I’ve ever visited the Park. That big photo above? That’s Mr. Tso, a very likeable visitor from the Peoples Republic of China who rode with us on the CSC Motorcycles/Zongshen 5000 Mile Western America Adventure ride (a publicity effort that sold more than a few RX3 motorcycles worldwide).
Riding into Zion National Park, peering over the windshield. It’s almost a religious experience.
Nestled where the Mojave, the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau meet, Zion requires adjectival adeptness to even approach an accurate description. Pastel pink mountains, verdant vegetation, electric blue skies and emerald pools combine with abundant wildlife to create a surreal collage of seemingly endless picture postcard scenes. As national parks go, it’s small, but the scenery is absolutely over the top. I’ve been to a lot of places on this planet, and I can state with certainty that Zion’s beauty is unsurpassed. The wildlife add to the experience. On one of the CSC rides (the Destinations Deal ride), we hit what I thought was traffic and had to stop in one of Zion’s tunnels. I was frustrated until I lane split to the front of the line and found that the delay was caused by a group of bighorn sheep majestically and casually crossing the highway in front of us. They were magnificent, and no, I did not get a photo.
Stopped by a bighorn sheep herd, with my fellow Zongers in the rearview mirror.Taking in the splendor that is Zion, this group of riders is stopping to takes photos.Tony, who is finding Zion to be a bit different than the Peoples Republic of China.
The folks who know about such things think the first humans inhabited Zion a cool 12,000 years ago, hunting local game including woolly mammoths, camels and giant sloths. As these critters were hunted to extinction, the locals turned to farming and evolved into an agrarian culture known as the Virgin Anasazi. The Paiutes moved in when the Anasazi migrated south, and then the Mormons settled alongside the Paiutes in the mid-1800s (that’s when the area received its biblical moniker). Archeologists are still finding evidence of these earlier civilizations. These earlier folks were moving into Zion around the same time that the indigenous peoples were creating the cave paintings in Baja.
A wide-angle photo of SR 9 winding through Zion National Park.One of the tunnels through Zion’s mountains along Utah SR 9.
The Great Depression brought great change in the 1930s, and Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps built roads and added upgrades to make the park more accessible. The Virgin River cut deeply through sandstone to create magnificent channels and impressive geologic formations, and the CCC work made these areas easier to reach. For most people, a visit to Zion is to see the sights from the valley floor, but you can also take a half-day excursion up the western edge of the park on Kolob Reservoir Road. From there, you can look down into Zion for a completely different and equally magnificent perspective of the area.
Good buddy Rob, Willie, and more on a ride through Zion National Park.
Let’s talk about the ride — more superlatives are in order here. From any direction, you’ll know you are approaching a magical area. Antelope. Deer. Brilliant blue skies. Magnificent forests. Stunning mountains; it’s all here. From Southern California, you’ll experience tantalizing two-wheeled treats as Interstate 15 cuts through the canyons carved by the Virgin River. Riding in from Arizona’s Grand Canyon region southeast of Zion, the roads are similarly magnificent. And if you’re riding in from Bryce Canyon National Park to the northeast, well, you get the idea. This is one destination that has to be on the bucket list.
An easy ride from southern California…just take I-15 north and exit at Utah SR 9.
Zion National Park is an easy one-day freeway ride from southern California. Grab Interstate 10 East, then I-15 North through Nevada into Utah, to Utah Route 9 East (as you see in the above map). From the south, pick up State Route 89 North in Flagstaff and watch for the signs where Route 89 crosses 9 West before Mt. Carmel, Utah. From the northeast, it’s I-70 West and grab the exit for Route 89 South.
Looking up from the floor of Zion National Park. In Zion, you are mostly in the canyons looking up.
As mentioned above, unlike Bryce Canyon or the Grand Canyon (two National Parks in which you look down into the rock formations), at
Zion you are in the canyon looking up. For a different Zion perspective, take the Kolob Reservoir Road from the north to see things looking down into Zion. Check weather conditions first, as the road climbs to over 8,000 feet and may be impassible during the winter months. Kolob Terrace Road begins in Virgin, Utah, about 13 miles west of Springdale. Look for the sign to the Kolob Reservoir.
If you’re looking for a good place to eat, Casa de Amigos Restaurant in Springdale, just before you enter Zion from the south, is a good spot (the shredded chicken burritos are my favorite). It may be a victim of the pandemic, as Google indicated it was closed temporarily. If you enter Zion from the east, Mt. Carmel is the last town before you reach the Park and there are several restaurants and hotels there.
Never miss an ExNotes blog!
If you would like to learn more about our 5000-mile christening ride through the American West on Chinese 250cc motorcycles, pick up a copy of 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM.
Utah, hands down, is the most beautiful state in the Union. I’ve been to every state in the US except North Dakota, and unless there’s something hiding up there, Utah gets my vote. There are places in Utah with scenery and riding that are as close as you can get to heaven without a one-way ticket. There’s Zion National Park (to be covered in a future blog), there’s Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Capitol Reef National Park (which I’ll cover in this blog), there’s Cedar Breaks National Park (a topic for a future blog), there’s Kodachrome Basin State Park (another future blog), there’s Flaming Gorge National Park (that’s coming up in another blog), and there’s Arches National Park (to be yet another blog). And then there’s the Dinosaur Highway. I’ve been to all of them, and I’m telling you, if you like road trips it doesn’t get any better than Utah.
Panguitch on the western end of this trip, and Hanksville on the eastern end. It is a grand ride.
There’s a reason I’m touching on Bryce, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Capitol Reef in one blog. Two reasons, actually: State Routes 12 and 24. These two roads run through all three National Parks, and they are two of the best roads I’ve ever ridden. If you want to plan this grand adventure, start in Panguitch, ride Utah SR 12 and 24, and spend the following night in Hanksville, Utah. I’ve got good places to have dinner in both towns, and I’ll share them with you in this blog. It’s a full day’s ride to get from one to the other (maybe longer if you want to stop and see the sights).
The large featured photo at the top of this blog is in Bryce Canyon National Park. This is another photo in Bryce. Unlike Zion ((where you are in a basin looking up at the rock formations), in Bryce you are up top looking down into the colorful canyon. Bryce has stunning views.
This is the most beautiful stretch of the planet I’ve ever ridden. The colors and the riding are stunning. Think bright blue skies, vibrant and verdant pine trees, and multi-colored pastel rock formations. The formations include stunning pinnacles called hoodoos, plus arches, large rock mounds, exposed vermillion cliffs and monstrous domes and folds in the Earth’s surface. Although the region was once alive with dinosaurs, you most likely won’t see fossils. But you will see an artist’s palette of pleasing pastels: reds, pinks and browns due to iron in the sandstone, yellows and creams created by limonite, and purples presented by pyrolusite. Whatever the chemistry, the display through this stretch is dazzling.
The spot for dinner in Panguitch is the Cowboy’s Smoke House Cafe. You’ll probably have to wait to get in. Trust me: It’s worth it.
You can ride US 89 from Panguitch to pick up SR 12 at its western end. Head east and in just a few miles you’ll be at Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is one of America’s jewels, with hoodoos arranged in several natural amphitheaters. An early morning start will help capture dramatic photos; the sun will be low in the eastern sky and the resultant lighting makes the colors pop. Native American Paiutes thought these hoodoos were ancestors turned to stone. Take a long look at some of these formations and you’ll see why.
Stay on SR 12 after Bryce and you’ll skirt Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on tantalizing twisties. All of SR 12 is breathtaking; it is something out of a dream. It takes you through a series of red rock formations and then winds along a ridge with sheer drops on either side. Forget about guard rails and shoulders; you’ll feel as if you are riding the sky. Cook a corner too fast on this stretch and you’ll wish you were wearing a parachute. This area, more than any other I have ever ridden, is a near-religious experience.
The red rocks of Utah along SR 12.It was tough to keep going on Utah SR 12…I wanted to stop after every corner for photos.One of many scenes along Utah SR 12. You need to ride this road. It’s one of the best.
State Route 12 tees into SR 24, but you’ll be able to see Capitol Reef National Park long before you get to SR 24. Head east on SR 24 toward Hanksville and you’ll ride through much of the accessible portion of Capitol Reef. It’s perhaps the least known of Utah’s national parks, but its scenery is as stunning as any of the other parks.
Capitol Reef and Utah SR 24.
Only a portion of Capitol Reef is visible from SR 24, but it is outstanding. Hundreds of miles of unpaved roads into Capitol Reef offer similar scenic views. The park’s unique white sandstone domes (similar to the U.S. Capitol building) were formed by a warp in the Earth’s crust 65 million years ago. “Reef” refers to any barrier to travel, and when you see these formations, you’ll certainly understand the name.
Another scene along SR 24 heading east.Gabriel, Juan Carlos, and Uncle Joe along SR 24 after rolling through Capitol Reef. We rode 5000 miles through the western United States on brand new 250cc CSC motorcycles. It was a great ride with great guys.
State Route 24 follows the Fremont River through Capitol Reef National Park, and as it twists and turns on its way to Hanksville, you’ll be thanking me for turning you on to these very special roads. The Whispering Sands hotel is a good, clean place to spend the night, and Duke’s Slickrock Grill is a great place for dinner. Try the trout; it’s wonderful. And don’t miss the photo op standing next to Duke.
Want to discover more great moto destinations? We’ve got you covered!
Man, it was cold. It was the coldest we would be on our 18-day, 5000-mile ride around the western United States. Yellowstone National Park was our destination and we wanted to arrive early. Baja John was doing the navigating and the trip planning, and we were leaving early that morning out of Cody, Wyoming, at 5:00 a.m. to beat the tourist traffic in Yellowstone. I had an electric vest; our Chinese and Colombian guests did not. I knew they had to be hurting. I had my vest dialed all the way up and I was. Did I mention it was cold?
So, about that big photo above: That’s Yellowstone Falls on the Yellowstone River. There are something like 10 waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park. I’ve only seen the one above. That means I have at least nine reasons to return.
Back to the story. I did mention it was cold riding into Yellowstone that morning, didn’t I?
Following Baja John into Yellowstone. That trip was 6 years ago, and I still get cold looking at this photo.Another shot entering Yellowstone National Park from the east. That’s Baja John in front of me…we were dressed for the cold, but I think our guests found it to be a little colder than the weather they are used to in southern China.
The trip was a wild one…18 days on the road with a dozen guys from China, two from Colombia, and all on free motorcycles provided by Zongshen via CSC Motorcycles. CSC was the importer, I was the go-between spanning the CSC/Zongshen interface (and two continents), and while we were arranging the initial shipment Zongshen asked if I had any ideas to promote the bikes in the US. Wow, did I ever!
In Zongshen’s main offices, with key Zongshen execs viewing photos from my rides in the US and Baja. Sue grabbed this photo and it’s one of my favorites. Without realizing it, I was selling those guys on giving us 15 motorcycles to ride around the US. This looks like a staged photo. It’s not.
That ride became the Western America Adventure Tour, and it was a hoot. I mean, think about: Every angry and ignorant asshole on the Internet was condemning Chinese bikes and here we were, with 15 of the things just arrived in America, setting off on a 5,000 mile ride from So Cal to Sturgis, west across the US to the Pacific Ocean, and then riding the Pacific coast back to So Cal. On that epic ride we didn’t have a single breakdown and that was giving the Internet trolls meltdowns. It was a grand adventure.
But I digress. Back to Yellowstone. On our ride, we hit every National Park along the way, and Yellowstone was one of the best. Prior to that ride, I’d never been to Yellowstone and I had always wanted to see it. And for good reason…it is (in my opinion) the quintessential National Park. Yellowstone is surreal, with sulfur-laden steams and ponds spewing forth, majestic views, waterfalls, bison, bears, deer, elk, wolves, geysers, and more. It was a first for me. I was a Yellowstone green bean.
When we entered Yellowstone, we arrived so early the gates were unmanned and we entered for free. But it had been a long, cold ride in from Cody and we were nearly out of gas. My fuel light was blinking as we entered the park and I didn’t know for sure if there would be gas in Yellowstone. John felt confident there would be, and he was right. I saw the Sinclair sign up ahead, but before we got there, we had a close encounter of the bison kind. We were cruising along at about 30 mph, and all of a sudden I noticed this locomotive next to me. I was too slow to realize what it was until I was alongside, but our chase vehicle driver John (we had two Johns and one Juan on this ride) grabbed this photo…I had passed within 10 feet of this monster!
Just as I went past my big buff buddy above, he exhaled. In the frigid Yellowstone air, fog came out of his nostrils. It was like riding alongside a steam locomotive.
Here’s another cool shot in Yellowstone: The Continental Divide. We had crossed it several times on the ride to Yellowstone already, but I think this is the first time I stopped for a photo.
Sometimes the photos almost take themselves.
One of the many attractions in Yellowstone is Old Faithful. Here’s a shot of the geyser in its full glory.
It was one of those motorcycle rides that was so much fun it made me feel a little guilty. (That’s a Jewish thing; maybe some of our Catholic readers will understand it, too.) I felt bad because Sue wasn’t enjoying the trip with me. So I fixed that. A few years later Sue and I hopped in the Subie, pointed the car north, and a few days later I rolled into Yellowstone National Park again (this time with my wife). Naturally, I grabbed a few more photos.
Peering into the valley carved by the Yellowstone River.Ah, the bison. This was really cool stuff.Click. Click. Click.A photo of Sue in the Subie photographing a bison.Wow.
I’m not a geologist, but geology seems to me to be a pretty interesting subject and there sure are a bunch of geological things in Yellowstone. Like the bubbling and burbling pits and pools you most definitely do not want to fall into.
You get the idea. In doing a bit of Internet research on Yellowstone, I came across this Yellowstone map. It is a good way to get the lay of the land up there in Wyoming, but visiting Yellowstone National Park would be even better.
You can learn a little bit more about Yellowstone as a destination (and how to get there) by reading an article I wrote for Motorcycle Classics magazine. It’s a cool place and I’ve never met anyone who felt like visiting Yellowstone was anything other than a marvelous experience. Trust me on this: Yellowstone National Park belongs on your bucket list.
Never miss an ExhaustNotes blog:
Would you like to read more Motorcycle ClassicsDestinations articles? Hey, just click here or better yet, buy your own copy of Destinations.
One more thing…if you’d like to learn more about the RX3 motorcycle and our 5,000-mile Western America Adventure Ride, you should do two things: Buy yourself a copy of 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM, and watch Joe Gresh’s video:
Real Indiana Jones stuff, this is: Baja’s prehistoric cave paintings, or as they are known in BCS, Pinturas Rupestres en Baja California Sur. They are in the Sierra de San Francisco mountains in an area north of San Ignacio on the eastern side of the peninsula.
No one knows for certain how old these paintings are or who created them. Conventional wisdom holds that the prehistoric Comondú people (ancestors of the Cochimí natives first encountered by Spanish explorers in the 1600s) created the paintings perhaps 7500 years ago, but like I said, no one knows for sure. One of the very few relatively accessible sites is about 520 miles south of Tijuana, but don’t let the miles fool you. You’ll need a very full day of hard traveling once you’ve crossed the border to reach Guerrero Negro, and it will be a full day from there to get to the cave paintings and return.
The red arrow on the left points to Guererro Negro; the red arrow on the right points to the cave paintings at Cueva del Raton.
There are well over a hundred known prehistoric Baja cave painting sites throughout the peninsula (there may be others yet to be discovered) and with very few exceptions, most involve traveling by mule for a day or two through difficult terrain. One of those exceptions, though, is the Cueva del Raton site (the subject of this blog). Getting there makes for a grand adventure, and you can do it in a day if you’re already in San Ignacio to the south or Guerrero Negro to the north. Our advice is to visit Guerrero Negro and take in the whale watching, have a grand breakfast at Malarrimo’s the next morning, and then head southeast on Mexico Highway 1. Guerrero Negro is where Mexico Highway 1 turns to cut across the peninsula to the Sea of Cortez. You’ll head southeast for about an hour. Keep your eyes open and watch for the Pinturas Rupestres sign pointing to the left. Trust me on this: The ride into the mountains is grand. The road runs straight as an arrow for maybe 15 miles, with the at first distant and magnificent Sierra de San Francisco mountains straight ahead.
The path into the Sierra de Francisco Mountains. Mexico Highway 1 bends southeast to go across the peninsula at Guerrero Negro on Baja’s Pacific Coast. The big lagoon is Scammon’s Lagoon, one of two choice whale watching locations in Baja.
Then the road climbs through a series of desolate, precipitous, and tight switchbacks with stunning views in literally every direction. I don’t use the word stunning lightly: The ride into the Sierra de San Francisco Mountains is, all by itself, worth a Baja trip. I’ve never seen other vehicles out there, unless they were fellow riders in the groups I’ve led to the cave paintings. I’ve seen goat herds tended by shepherds and sheep dogs (don’t tempt those dogs; sheep dogs in general are fiercely protective of their flock and the ones in this region seem particularly aggressive). You may see other things out there as well. On one trip, I had a close encounter with a very docile Mexican Red rattlesnake.
This guy (or gal; I wasn’t going to turn it over to check) was very polite. He (or she) was just outside my car door in the early morning hours. He (or she) didn’t rattle, although with those nine buttons I imagine its rattle would have been impressive.They say few people (or even horses) survive a bite from one of these Mexican Red rattlers. This one’s previous meal might have been a rabbit; you can still see a hair on the right side of its mouth. I shot this photo with a 70×300 Nikkor lens (on a Nikon D810 camera) at 70mm. I was maybe 6 feet away in my Subaru with the window down, and the snake was just outside my door.
The road to the Cueva del Raton site (after you leave Mexico Highway 1) is paved for maybe 15 miles, and then the pavement ends for the next maybe 10 miles. I would call it a fairly gnarly dirt road, but I’m an old guy and what’s gnarly to me may not be to you. I wouldn’t attempt to ride it two up on a motorcycle. I’ve done it in my Subaru with no problem and I’ve done it several times on my 250cc CSC RX3 motorcycle. Depending on your skill level, you might be able to do it on a street bike. Common sense is the order of the day: If you’re on a Gold Wing or an FLH-anything, I would not think any less of you if you took a pass. I think towing a trailer or driving a large recreational vehicle on this road would be a very bad move.
Twists and turns through the Sierra San Francisco Mountains.When the pavement ends, this is what is ahead. It gets way rougher as you get into the mountains.Traveling in style: My Subaru CrossTrek. It was a grand automobile for Baja exploration.Don’t let this photo phool you. This was the only smooth stretch on the dirt road to the Cueva del Raton site.
You’ll see the sign for the Cueva Del Raton cave paintings on your right, but you can’t just go in. There’s a locked gate and a set of stairs to get to the cave paintings, and to get in, you’ll need to buy a ticket. There are two little villages in this area. One is almost directly opposite the Cueva Del Raton site; the other is another two or three miles along the same dirt road (which dead ends in the little village of San Francisco de la Sierra). At times I’ve tried to buy tickets in the little village directly across from the cave painting site and they sent me on to San Francisco de la Sierra, and at other times I’ve gone up to San Francisco de la Sierra and they’ve sent me back to the little village near the cave paintings. The fees are modest and I always use larger Mexican bills and tell the people there to keep the change. You’ll have to sign in when you purchase your ticket. The cave paintings are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Seeing them is a big deal.
If you ride to the end of the road to the little village of San Francisco de la Sierra, there’s a cool little church that is normally left unlocked. It’s a good spot for grabbing photos.
After you have purchased your tickets, one of the guides will meet you at the locked entrance to the Cueva del Raton site. He will walk down from the village, so you may have to wait a couple of minutes. Sometimes two guides come along. They don’t speak English, so they don’t provide much explanation. But you don’t really need much narration. The paintings speak for themselves, which is no doubt what the artists who created them thousands of years ago intended.
The Cueva del Raton entrance. I led groups of CSC RX3 riders to this site several times. CSC offered no-charge Baja trips to its riders as part of its marketing approach and it worked. I don’t know why other motorcycle manufacturers don’t do the same.Our local guides. These fellows didn’t speak English, but they didn’t need to. The paintings spoke to me.
Once the guide unlocks the gate, it’s a modest climb up about three flights of steps, and there you’ll see the cave paintings (the cave is actually more of an overhang). The paintings are protected from the rain and the region’s arid climate have protected them well.
Deer, a puma, and a human with a black face. In the more than one hundred known Baja cave painting sites, only four instances of humans with a black face have been found.Another painting of a puma and a deer. In some cases, the paintings are done over other paintings. The black puma makes me wonder…was it really a cougar, or was it a jaguar? Jaguars have been found as far north as Arizona, even in modern times.Goats? Or deer?Another depiction of a person.A better photo of the figures to the left of the humans.And another. It was an eerie feeling, seeing these paintings and knowing they were done by a civilization that vanished thousands of years ago.
As I mentioned at the start of this blog, there are more than a hundred known cave painting sites throughout Baja and most are relatively inaccessible. I’ve been a Baja traveler for more than 30 years, and many of my trips have been on Mexico Highway 1 down through the Cataviña boulder fields. Several years ago I noticed a new sign for cave paintings just north of Cataviña on a trip with my daughter and three of her college friends. We had to stop. These paintings were just off the main road and I’m pretty sure they were done by the famous Cochimí artist Sherwin Williams and his sidekick, Dutch Boy. Don’t be taken in; you want the real deal and that’s the much further south Cueva del Raton.
A Spring Break trip through Baja with my daughter and three of her friends. All of these young ladies have gone on to very successful careers.
Our preference when traveling by car or motorcycle is BajaBound Insurance. I’ve been using them for years and they are the best.
If you would like to learn more about Baja’s cave paintings, Harry Crosby’s The Cave Paintings of Baja California is a stellar reference with outstanding photos. It’s the best work of its kind on this fascinating topic.
Want more Baja moto adventure? Check out our collection of stories on several trips in the full color Moto Baja book!
You guys remember good buddy Sergeant Zuo from the Dajiu and Arjiu ride across China (Dajiu and Arjiu are me and Joe Gresh, as christened by our Chinese riding buddies).
Zuo hiking the Ma Ya Snow Mountain in China at an altitude of 4,500 meters.
Zuo is a great guy and he and I correspond regularly. He wrote a guest blog, and here it is (first in Chinese, and then followed by an English translation).
What, hey…you don’t speak Mandarin? Well okay, then…here you go!
Night Rain and Autumn Breeze 2021
Remnant Lotus Feixue Leiyin Temple Dihua Sese Dinosaur Bay
I think I should go around, lead the horse out of the trough, the weather is very cloudy and the temperature is very low. Very often, loneliness becomes a good friend without even a single speaker. It’s not like someone said, “Lonely, only geniuses and lunatics have it. You are lonely at best.” I don’t know if I am lonely or alone. In short, I think I should go to Hanauma Bay Geopark for a dream, and Leiyin Temple for the memory of distant places.
It seems that this is the first time since the new junior three (Seccoron RX3s) started to run this far, more than 1,000 kilometers. Leaving the city, the sky seems to be fluttering. After all, it’s a heavy snow festival today. Oh, the sky is slowly getting cold. I can feel the coldness through the helmet at a corner. The coldest time is here, I’m really I’m afraid, it seems to be extremely cold this year. The temperature has dropped. There are not many cars on the road.
The new small three has a good power reserve and easy handling performance. It feels that the low temperature grip performance of Tenson tires is better than that of Zhengxin tires. The auto-sensing headlights are very powerful when entering the tunnel. After running-in to 1000 kilometers, it is time to run at high speed. After the speed reaches 120km/h, it is still not pulled up. After all, the mileage is only 1000 kilometers. It is better to bear with the top speed. People are so selfish, and their cars are always cautious. When I gave the manufacturer a test ride, the stalls turned red.
In the cold weather, the Daxiong Hall also hung a thick curtain, whether the Bodhisattva is afraid of the cold, there is no one in the clean Leiyin Temple, the incense is still, the solemnity is still, there is still a slight pain in the forehead when I kowtow again, in fact, the Bodhisattva Forget it, gods, no one can save anyone, knocking one’s head and chanting Buddha’s name is to eliminate one’s greed, hatred, infatuation, jealousy, and slowness. Obviously knowing that there is no bodhisattva. If you want to have a bodhisattva, you will also go to the temple for the sake of the health of the Buddha. If you have to give a reasonable explanation for refuge, it is to give your own soul. Find a home, let loneliness no longer be lonely, let wandering no longer wander, let Qiannian can travel through time and space, maybe this is the Bodhisattva, maybe this is the Buddha, but I really like the quietness of the temple, and I like to be with that statue. The Bodhisattva looks at each other and likes to hear the sound of chanting Buddha.
The remnant lotus in the pond of Hanauma Bay shows its sadness as always. There are just a few snowflakes falling, and the rustling flowers. The swaying wind is more of an unspeakable past. My friend said He likes the rustling Dihua, which is the background of life, just like the vast and desolate western environment.
Standing and riding slowly on the trail, surrounded by ponds, remnants of lotus, Dihua… the environment, you can quietly hear your heartbeat, the soft engine sound still startled the unknown big bird, and stopped Xin Xiaosan by the railroad. Looking at the tunnel from a distance, for so many years, still for the youth and recklessness of the past.
—- 2021.12.07 Lanzhou Snow Festival
If you’d like to know more about our ride across China (and it was a great one) you can read the story in Riding China: Running with the Cult of the Zong. Don’t wait for the movie (although there have been a couple of YouTubes on our grand adventure riding through the Ancient Kingdom, which you can view below).
A day or two before Joe Gresh and I began our ride across China on Zongshen RX3 motorcycles, the Chinese took us to dinner in Chongqing, the megacity in which the Zongshen company is located. It was a typical summer night in Chongqing, which is to say it was hot, humid, and steamy. Sultry is a word that comes to mind. Exotic is another one.
Chongqing is where two of the world’s great rivers meet (the Jialing and the Yangtze). Downtown Chongqing is in the center. We were returning from dinner on the south shore of the Yangtze River (the lower river in the map) when I grabbed the photo you see above with my Nikon. Where it says Yuzhong…we were right about where the g is in that word.
Chongqing is huge. How big? We think New York is big (and it is) with 8 million people. Chongqing has 34 million people. It’s hard to imagine, and it’s hard to imagine we rode 250cc motorcycles through it (as well as many other Chinese megacities). I like everything about Chongqing, and you’ll see more favorite photos from there in upcoming ExNotes blogs. But this one stands out for me.
You can read more about what we saw in China in Riding China.
Earlier Phavorite Photos? You bet! Click on each to get their story.
Baja is a motorcycling paradise and I have a bunch of favorite destinations there. Seven of them, to be precise, although truth be told, I like everything in Baja except for Tijuana and maybe La Paz and Loreto. That said, my favorites are:
Tecate
San Quintin
Cataviña
Guerrero Negro
San Ignacio
Santa Rosalia
Concepcion Bay
Here’s where they are on a map:
So what’s so great about these places? Read on, my friends.
Tecate
Tecate is the gateway to the middle of northern Baja, and it’s the easiest point of entry. Both Tijuana and Mexicali are too big and too complicated, and the Mexican Customs guys are too official in those bigger cities. Tecate is a friendly place. The last time I picked up a tourist visa in Tecate, the Customs officer tried to sell me salsa he and his family made as a side gig. That’s what the place is like. I love it.
If you’re into fine dining (not as in expensive dining, but just great food), it’s hard to go wrong anywhere in Baja. Tecate has some of the best, from street taco vendors to Malinalli’s to Amore’s. I could spend a week just in Tecate. It’s that good.
Uncle Joe Gresh with street tacos in Tecate. Wow, were they ever good.The buffet at Malinalli’s is regional, awesome, and inexpensive. It’s a hidden treasure.Dos Joes’ motos on an Enfield expedition that took us through Tecate.The Tecate brewery dominate the Tecate skyline and is visible from just about anywhere in town. A can of ice cold Tecate with sea salt around the rim and a bit of lime juice…life doesn’t get any better.
San Quintin
San Quintin is 186.4 miles south of the border on Baja’s Pacific coast. It’s usually a quiet ag town that has a lot of things going for it, including interesting hotels, good food, and Bahia San Quintin. The Old Mill hotel and its associated restaurant, Eucalipto, is my personal favorite. The hotel is about 4 miles west of the Transpeninsular Highway, and what used to be a harrowing soft sand ride to it is now easy peasy…the road is paved and riding there is no longer a test of your soft sand riding skills. The Eucalipto restaurant is second to none.
What could be better than an ice cold Tecate overlooking Bahia San Quintin after a day’s riding in Baja? We once saw a California gray whale from this very spot.
A man, a motorcycle, and Mexico….the sign on the Transpenisular Highway pointing toward Bahia San Quintin and the Old Mill Hotel. The bike? That’s the 650cc Royal Enfield, perfect for riding Baja. But then just about any motorcycle is perfect for riding Baja.Bahia San Quintin at dawn. It’s an awesome spot.Uncle Joe enjoying breakfast in the Old Mill’s Eucalipto. It is an exquisite restaurant.
You’ll notice at the top of my scribblings about San Quintin I said it is usually a quiet town. The one exception for us was when there was a labor riot and we were caught in it. The Mexican infantryman about 80 miles north of San Quintin told me the road was closed, but his English matched my Spanish (neither are worth a caca), and without me understanding what I was riding into, he let me proceed. It’s not an experience I would care to repeat. But it’s the only event of its type I ever experienced in Old Mexico, and I’d go back in a heartbeat.
The Cataviña Boulder Fields
Ah, Cataviña. Rolling down the Transpeninsular Highway, about 15 miles before you hit the wide spot in the road that is Cataviña you enter the boulder fields. Other-worldly is not too strong a description, and if the place wasn’t so far south of the border it would probably be used more often by Hollywood in visits to other planets. The boulders are nearly white, they are huge, and the juxtaposition of their bulk with the bright blue sky punctuated by Cardon cactus.
Pastel geology. The area really is as beautiful as the photos depict it to be.
I get a funny feeling every time I enter this part of Baja. Not funny as in bad, but funny as in I feel like I’m where I belong. I once rolled through this region in the early morning hours with my daughter and she told me “you know, it’s weird, Dad. I feel like I’m home.” She understood (as in completely understood) the magic that is Baja.
I like the area and its stark scenery so much that one of my photos became the cover of Moto Baja! I grabbed that shot from the saddle at about 30 mph on a CSC 150 Mustang replica, which I subsequently rode all the way down to Cabo San Lucas (that story is here).
You should buy a copy or three. They make great gifts.
Every time I roll through Cataviña with other riders, the dinner conversation invariably turns to how the boulders formed. When I was teaching at Cal Poly Pomona, I asked one of my colleagues in the Geology Department. He know the area as soon as I mentioned it. The answer? Wind erosion.
Guerrero Negro
The Black Warrior. The town is named after a ship that went down just off its coast. It’s a salt mining town exactly halfway down the peninsula, and it’s your ticket in for whale watching and the best fish tacos in Baja (and that’s saying something). I’ve had a lot of great times in Guerrero Negro. It’s about 500 miles south of the border. You can see the giant steel eagle marking the 28th Parallel (the line separating Baja from Baja Sur) a good 20 miles out, and from there, it’s a right turn for the three mile ride west into town. Malarrimo’s is the best known hotel and whale watching tour, but there are several are they are all equally good. It you can’t get a room at Malarrimo’s, try the Hotel Don Gus.
CSC RX3 motorcycles at the Hotel Don Gus. We used to do annual Baja tours with CSC…those were fun times and great trips, and introduced a lot of folks to the beauty of Baja.What it’s all about…getting up close and personal with the California gray whales. They are in town from January through March.Tony, taco chef extraordinaire. You might think I’m exaggerating. I’m not.It’s worth the 500-miles trek to Guerrero Negro just to savor Tony’s fish tacos. You might think I’m exaggerating. But like I said above…I’m not.Man does not live by fish tacos alone, so for breakfast or dinner, it’s either the restaurant at Malaririmo’s or the San Remedio, a block north of the main drag into town. You won’t be disappointed at either.Sue’s photo of a Guerrero Negro osprey enjoying some sushi.
After you leave Guerrero Negro and continue south, the Transpeninsular Highway turns southeast to take you diagonally across the Baja peninsula. About 70 miles down the road (which is about half the distance to the eastern shores of Baja and the Sea of Cortez along Mexico Highway 1) you’ll see the turn for San Ignacio. It’s another one of Baja’s gems.
San Ignacio
San Ignacio is an oasis in the middle of the desert that forms much of Baja. The Jesuits introduced date farming to the region hundreds of years ago, and it’s still here in a big way. Leave Guerrero Negro, head southeast on Mexico Highway 1, and 70 miles later you run into a Mexican Army checkpoint, a series of switchbacks through a lava field, and when you see the date palms, turn right.
An oasis is usually formed by a volcano, and when a volcano is done discussing politics, it forms a lake. That’s the San Ignacio volcano and its lake, visible on the left as you ride into town.The San Ignacio church, built as a mission in the 1700s, dominates the center of San Ignacio. It’s a beautiful spot, one of the most photogenic in all of Baja.Another photo of the San Ignacio Mission. You’ll want to grab some photos in San Ignacio.Dates? Nope, not on that trip, but dates are one of the things San Ignacio is known for. I’ll bet they are delicious.
San Ignacio has a town square that’s right out of central casting, there’s a little restaurant that serves the best chile rellenos in all of Mexico (I’m not exaggerating), and the place just has a laid back, relaxing feel about it.
Santa Rosalia
You know, this town is another one of Baja’s best kept secrets. As you travel south on Highway 1, San Ignacio is the first town you encounter after traveling diagonally across the peninsula. Folks dismiss it because it’s an industrial town, but they do so in ignorance. There’s a lot of cool stuff in this place.
The ride into Santa Rosalia a few years ago with novelist Simon Gandolfi, Arlene Battishill, J Brandon, John Welker, and yours truly. That’s a dead fish I’m holding. We did a round trip to Cabo San Lucas on 150cc Mustang replicas, just to say that we could.
One of the things that’s unique about Santa Rosalia is the all-wooden architecture. The town was originally built by a French mining company (Boleo) and they built it they way they did in France. Like the Hotel Frances, which sits high on a mesa overlooking the town and the Sea of Cortez. I love staying there.
The Hotel Frances. It used to be a brothel.
There’s a cool mining musuem a block or two away from the Frances, and it’s worth a visit, too.
The mining museum in Santa Rosalia.
There are many cool things in Santa Rosalia, and one of the best is the Georg Eiffel church. It was designed by the same guy guy who did the Eiffel town.
Santa Rosalia’s church. It’s an unexpected delight. And I’m not even Catholic.Inside Santa Rosalia’s Georg Eiffel church.Stained glass. Photos ops abound in Santa Rosalia.
I’ve heard people dismiss Santa Rosalia as a gritty, industrial place not worth a stop. Trust me on this: They’re wrong. It’s one of my favorite Baja spots.
Bahía Concepción
Concepción Bay is easily the most scenic spot in Baja. It’s just south of Mulege (another delightful little town, and the subject of an upcoming ExNotes blog). Bahía Concepción runs for maybe 20 miles along the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula. I’ve seen whales from the highway while riding along its edge, the beaches are magnificent, and the photo ops just don’t stop. The contrast between the mountains and Cardon cactus on one side and the pelicans diving into bright green water is view from the saddle you won’t soon forget.
On one of many rides along Bahía Concepción, good buddy Joe Lee and yours truly rode our Triumph Triples. This is a favorite shot of mine.Besides “wow,” what can I say?World-famous novelist and motorcycle adventurer Simon Gandolfi andn yours truly on 150cc scooters. We were on our way back from Cabo San Lucas when we stopped for this Bahía Concepción photo. Hardtail 150cc scooters. Up and down the length of Baja. I think about that ride every time I see a GS parked at a Starbuck’s.
So there you have it: My take on seven favorite spots in Baja? How about you? Do you have any favorite Baja destinations? Let us know here in the comments sction!
