It was our first visit to the U.S. While indulging in stale airline snacks in cattle class on our way to Texas from South Africa, we had a good laugh about all the contradicting and varied opinions of the U.S. we’d heard. “They have the World Series of American football, although they’re the only ones playing it.” “The poor bastards pay $5–$13 for a beer in a restaurant and think beef jerky is something nice to eat.” Google “biltong," which is now available in the U.S., you’ll thank me later, and yes, paying that for beer is a human rights violation, in my humble opinion.

Nevertheless, the media is guilty of creating many mistaken perceptions about countries, something we’ve discovered to be true in almost every nation we’ve visited. The same came to pass for the U.S. What we found was a country we fell in love with during our nearly six months there, and most of the proffered opinions were rubbish.

As we were sitting in the BMW workshop of our friend Hank, in the bloody hot, small town of Dilley, Texas, he slapped a few Butler BDR maps on the table while sucking on iced tea. These are about the best way to plan where to ride, he said. With added suggestions from the local gamut of adventure riders, those maps became our go-to for route planning. After buying two low-mileage Suzuki DR650s in San Antonio and rigging them for the long run to Ushuaia at the southern tip of South America, we hit the road at the beginning of summer.

After buying two low-mileage Suzuki DR650s in San Antonio and rigging them for the long run to Ushuaia at the southern tip of South America, we hit the road at the beginning of summer.

Riding from Texas’ Big Bend National Park, north toward New Mexico, the images of old westerns with their dirty, dusty, and sweaty cowboys came to mind. You quickly fall in love with the tiny, bucolic one-horse towns, each with its unique charisma. Not to mention the small diners, with their incomparably great food. If we weren’t careful, the DRs would not be able to carry the husky bodies we were busy growing. Those towns still have the seductiveness of times gone by, and some are as rough as a bear’s arse. The chummy, chatty folk are a treat, from fuel stop attendants to interesting characters we encountered in quirky, dodgy bars. Conversations always ended with smiles and suggestions of places to see.

The summer heat was unbearable at times, but our friends did warn us that the sun at that time of year could boil your brains from early morning. Lucky for us, Americans like their comforts, they know how to do things properly, and we were able to find some relief at service stations, buying ice for our CamelBaks and humongously large sodas with crushed ice to suck on while attempting to avoid brain freeze.

A brutally hot day somewhere between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. They even offered us some snacks and drinks on the house!

The plan was to curve through small towns, using as many backcountry and dirt roads as possible, to Wyoming. Advice to stay off the Interstates was 100% appreciated. Our route crisscrossed to the west through Texas, up to New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, eventually turning around in Washington, where we pointed toward Mexico. We traveled over the mountains of Colorado, the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and the incredible roads winding from Wyoming to the state of Washington, a route of roughly 4,000 miles, covering some of the most scenic roads and landscapes the U.S. has to offer.

The U.S. sports 300 million inhabitants; however, the country’s landmass is gigantic, and therefore the ratio of people to land is relatively small. There are more than a few lifetimes of exploring to do. To add, we found Americans are besotted, passionate lovers of the outdoors, and we fit in like a glove. In so many other countries, the term “camping” means a day picnic with a horde of screaming toddlers at a public pool. Just the thought of exploring a country that has created open areas for camping, hunting, and almost every kind of recreational off-road activity known to man had us grinning like a cat over a bowl of cream.

The beautiful quaint town of Red Lodge, Montana. A great place to link up with other motorcyclists.

The national and state park services are the quintessence of what is great. The staff are well trained and the volunteers friendly, and all seemed eager to help, going out of their way to assist with information. Perhaps most surprisingly, you don’t even need to be a Bear Grylls and drink your pee to hike and explore the rugged, remote parks. Make no mistake, if you want a Chuck Norris-style adventure, there are plenty to go around in the backcountry. The trick is to mix it up a bit.

Our weak South African currency kept us out of hotels. But we needed to work and shower while still experiencing some of the must-sees that are inevitably in the cities, so we stuck with poverty-spec hotels. And that ain’t easy. For outdoor travel types, there is a staggering range of options from free camping on BLM land to a myriad of paid sites. The national parks are a bit more expensive and require some planning, but a treat to stay at now and then. Sadly, our budget only permitted wild camping much of the time.

Wild camping at Lake Powell with the mother of all storms that evening. Still made for incredible views over the lake and of lightning.

Our first landmark stop after Big Bend National Park was the Grand Canyon’s north rim. We found fewer tourists there and opted to wild camp just outside the park. Seeing the expanse unfold as you walk up to the edge of the canyon is unbelievable. Your brain tells you that your eyes are deceiving you. The vastness and sheer scale are overwhelming. Layers of colored earth descend hundreds of meters into the canyon. At one point we sat on the edge trying to comprehend the sheer majesty of it all, our only other reference being the Fish River Canyon in Namibia (southwest Africa).

Due to the vast distances we had to cover, we kept moving. Lonely, shimmering roads took us through the famous Monument Valley, where many westerns were shot. It’s pretty cool to see real-life scenery from the movies we’d watched as kids. Monument Valley is a red-sand desert region on the Arizona-Utah border known for the towering sandstone buttes of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Much of the Mittens’ buttes can be viewed from the road, but it’s best to camp for a few days to hike and ride the area.

From Monument Valley, it was a full day’s ride to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah is known for its crimson-colored hoodoos, which are spire-shaped rock formations. Bryce Amphitheater is a hoodoo-filled depression lying below the Rim Trail hiking path. From above, the spikes rising from the deep red earth are a true marvel to behold.

 Zion National Park is a short ride from Bryce Canyon and its steep cliffs provide beautiful campsites with big, shaded trees. The road through Zion Canyon cuts through curves set in high cliff walls, leading to forest trails along the Virgin River. The river flows to the Emerald Pools, which have the coolest waterfalls. Riding in Zion National Park is like being on a real-time movie set.

Riding the pass into the slot canyons in Zion National Park is the stuff of dreams.

On the ADVRider site, many local riders invited us to stay with them. The generosity and kindness of strangers are unbelievable. We were, unfortunately, unable to stay with many of those kind folk, as they were just too far off our route, but those we did stay with became good friends, and we kept in contact afterward. The magic of meeting locals was that we’d often receive tips and information about places to see and ride that we would otherwise never have known.

We could write a book about all the tracks we rode. One route offered by a local dual-sport rider took us over a mountain range for a day loop. It was an off-road track over the mountains from Durango, Colorado to Telluride and back to the famous U.S. Route 550, The Million Dollar Highway. The origin of that name is a bit murky due to conflicting legends, including that it cost a million dollars a mile to build in the 1920s or that it’s filled with a million dollars of gold ore. Apparently, it is classified as one of the most spectacular roads globally, and that is not a lie. Although asphalt, these types of scenic roads are also part of the adventure riding and experience.

Playing in the snow around Grayrock Peak outside of Durango, Colorado.

We were offered a house in the town of Moab, the perfect small town to use as a base camp to explore Canyonlands National Park. We saw so many reports on the mind-bending Canyonlands White Rim Trail it was an absolute must-ride for us.

The White Rim Trail traverses the top of the white rim sandstone formation below the Island in the Sky mesa in southern Utah. It consists of deep layered canyons resembling old redwood carvings and sheer drop-offs created by the harsh wind and water over the millennia. The huge trees in the valley below resemble small shrub-like entities when admiring the canyon from above. This place can be described as picture-perfect.

The inimitable White Rim Trail in Utah, a 100- mile track that loops around and below the Island in the Sky mesa high above the Colorado and Green Rivers with unreal views of the red dirt landscape.

The Colorado River, entrenched in a deep red-brown corridor, bursts into magnificent colors at sunset and sunrise. About a 160-kilometer loop, the White Rim Trail is an off-road 4x4 track. It took us a good part of the day to ride this route, but we were rewarded with insanely beautiful views the entire day with a substantial amount of our time taking photos. It is one of those places where photos can barely convey the immensity and impressiveness of the landscape. As our friend remarked, you can’t take a bad photo there.

As we headed north, the temperatures cooled down a bit, making riding much more pleasurable. Entering Yellowstone National Park, the weather was perfect, and we rode it for a few days. It’s the home of the famous Old Faithful, the geyser that has entertained millions. There is so much to experience in Yellowstone. From the brown, yellow, and blue candy-colored calcium build-ups around the thermal geysers to the endless numbers of waterfalls and bison gracing the park, it’s a nature lover’s paradise. From there, we headed out over Beartooth Pass to the quaint town of Red Lodge.

Over a proper old-time American diner breakfast, a farmer told us about a road called the Magruder Corridor. When it comes to epic backroads, the Magruder Corridor is one of them. Take the wildest, most remote backcountry you can think of and imagine a slice of a one-laner through the mountains and forests. Pack the road with tire-chewing rocks, rip it into the edge of cliffs, carve it across steep passes, bridge it over raging, flood-prone rivers, and link two of the most prominent western states, and you’ve got the Magruder. Fun to ride is a massive understatement. In the Central Idaho Wilderness Complex, real cowboy stuff comprises the most significant chunk of wilderness in the United States outside of Alaska, at nearly 600,000 roadless hectares.

Magruder Corridor in Idaho is one of the most scenic stretches of landscape through forested mountains.

Our turning point was Seattle, where we decided to turn around for Mexico. We have only seen and experienced a thumbnail-sized sample of what the U.S. has to offer. I envy U.S. adventure riders for what they have to enjoy, especially landscapes and unadulterated dirt riding. The country is truly unique in so many ways, including the people and their various cultures.

Michnus Olivier, GenX’er born and bred South African product. Known on PikiPikioverland as the tire fixer. Not known to follow or believe his own advice, but he loves to share stories and inspiration with others. Michnus and his better half, Elsebie, left South Africa 10 years ago on an initial six-month planned motorcycle trip up to Europe through Africa. Sold mom and the family pets, and hit the road exploring on a semi-permanent basis to this day.