#MotorcycleAdventure

The motorcycle is the ultimate adventure vehicle. Whether you ride on dirt, sand or asphalt, wherever you go in the world, chances are pretty good you’ll find someone on a motorcycle. Check out these 5 incredible motorcycle adventure photos and let us know in the comments below where your motorcycle takes you.

In a couple months, I will cross over the mathematical point where I will have been a motorcyclist for more than half my life. When thinking about this in recent days, I realized that I have been riding motorcycles for a lower percentage of my life than most – if not all – of the motojournalists I know – even those who are almost a generation younger than me. Although I may have started motorcycling comparatively late in life, when I fell for it, I fell hard. Motorcycling changed my life in more ways than I could ever explain.

Strolling into the scorching day market in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam there was a vendor selling old American G.I. Zippo lighters from the war. I picked up a rusty one and had a look at its engraving, “Vietnam is the land that God forgot, but we were there, and we remember.” It was a small moment, but it would ring in my head throughout my ride in Vietnam.

If someone told me that the best sport riding in the West was going to be in Idaho, I would have laughed, called them crazy, and booked my ticket to Colorado. Yes, the scenery in some of the other states will attract attention with Facebook posts showing pictures of incredible twisting roads scaling epic mountains, but this trip is for true riders, not just bragging rights between friends. This is for the kind of riders who would rather get after it on a racetrack with a blurred desert than look over a cliff on a weather-beaten switchback while the bike strains for air at 12,000 feet.

If you are looking to experience all types of America’s riding in one state, Utah is your destination. We started at Utah Lake State Park, which is centrally located three hours from the barren red desert of Moab and an hour from the green forest-covered mountains of the Nebo and Alpine Loops. In between the two extreme environments lie classic desert plains, which lead to the fascinating flats of Bonneville. Just north is the city of Salt Lake. If you are traveling from outside of the States and want to see the entire American backdrop in one week, nothing compares to the diversity of Utah.

One week in Colorado just wasn’t enough, and if I have to blame it on the average 19 mph uphill speed of our truck and a long detour through Wyoming’s Route 80 to avoid the mountain passes of I-70, then so be it. But ask anyone riding a motorcycle here, and they’ll agree we made the right decision. With the idea that some of us might decide to call this place our post-adventure home, a second week gave us a chance to experience everything that Colorado has to offer. No flukes or honeymoon effects here, just real, raw Colorado.

If you know how to ride a motorcycle, book your next vacation to Colorado. Immediately. It’s the mecca for riders of all kinds, attracting adventurous riders from around the world to ride above mile-high elevations in epic scenery, and endless twisties. It’s undoubtedly lived up to its hype.

After the ride of my life in the Ozarks, New Mexico was expected to be a pass-through state as we made our way to Pikes Peak and the hype that is Colorado. With rumors of strict traffic law enforcement, a reputation for hot, flat desert, and a drastic change of scenery from the green mountains back east, expectations were set fairly low. But never have I been so wrong.

One month, $2800, 6000 miles and 13 states later, we concluded the first half of our cross-country voyage in Missouri, on arguably the best all-around road in the region: Route 125.  Now some may argue that the long hillside sweepers of West Virginia hold the blue ribbon, or that the tight mountain switchbacks on Route 16 in Virginia take the cake.

On the way back from the Grand Canyon of Arkansas and a 300-mile tour of some of the best roads in the Ozarks, we ended our day’s route careening down a mountain, crouched tightly behind windscreens in one of the most nail-biting rides in motorcycling. Miles of switchbacks and sweepers painted the Mona Lisa of Motorcycle roads on Route 123.