World Heritage Biker

Wild range buffaloes,  cattle markets, multi-vortex tornadoes and spectacular thunder storms – the West is certainly still wild in Oklahoma! My first stop in the Sooner State was Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge where I, besides getting really close to a large buffalo bull, was surrounded by long horns and beautiful green fields. I continued towards Oklahoma City and got less than 24 hours after a tornado had struck the outskirts. It’s sometimes hard to understand the damage nature can cause.

In Oklahoma City I visited Stockyards City, a cowboy district southwest of downtown, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum before I met an old friend: Route 66. The Motherroad is going to accompany me all the way to St. Louis and so far Pop’s has been the most interesting stop. I have never seen a place with more soda! Hopefully I’ll run in to more exiting places in the next few days.

And I don’t know why anybody would – jealousy perhaps? Cause there’s definitely something special about Texas; it’s almost like the state has its own soul with lots of character and attitude. The green, open fields and the warm, friendly people made me forget about the rain and the winds.

Despite that I haven’t heard much good about Lubbock I decided to make this one of the longest stops of the journey so far. And I was surprised; this town is actually more than the tombstone of some old rock-star. It’s a calm and relaxed town with lots of green parks and somehow it seems to fill you up with good energy. Almost like it’s the worlds largest small town. Big thanks to Christine and her friends who showed me that it’s even possible to have a really good time there!

Yesterday I crossed the Oklahoma border and right know I’m in Altus on my way to Whichita Mountains. Tonight I’ll hopefully be able to see some wild buffaloes!

The expedition has lasted for 37 of its 74 days. I’ve ridden about 2 500 miles of the 5 000 that I plan to ride. I’ve visited 6 of the 12 World Heritage Sites that I plan to visit and I’ve been through 2 of the 4 time zones that I plan to cross. I’ve come to the point where people are just as impressed of where I started as of where I hope to end up. I’m halfway. I’ve even been to Halfway – it’s true, there’s a place right between Carlsbad and Hobbs in New Mexico that’s called Halfway which I passed yesterday!

So what have I been up to the last couple of days? I went east from El Paso, had my tubes massacred by yucca plants and viewed an amazing sunset over Guadalupe (highest summit in Texas, 8 749 ft) before I returned to New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns. Carlsbad Caverns, the 6th World Heritage Site of my journey, might have been the coolest place on the trip so far! It was so unreal, almost as if you where in the middle of a video game or a cartoon. Definitely a must see!

Now I’ve crossed the Texas border again and currently I’m in Seminole heading north towards Lubbock. Weather is hot, just bought another tube of sunscreen and I’m so amazed that I hopefully has just as many fantastic places left to visit.

White Sands National Monument was absolutely fantastic! Strong headwinds delayed me so I arrived there one day later than what I’d expected – luckily! This friday was actually no regular friday, it was full moon and a midnight bicycle event was about to take place. Though booked up for weeks I was lucky enough to be able to take part in the event and it was amazing to see over 200 cyclists riding the White Sands in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the moon didn’t showed up until after the event.

I camped at the backcountry campground that night and the next morning I was able to take some nice photos of the white sand dunes in the sunrise. This morning I arrived to El Paso and I even went Mexico for a quick-lunch. Compared to all the militaries and federal polices over there, U.S.A. feels pretty safe. Soon I’ll be going east towards Carlsbad Caverns, hopefully the winds will bring me some help from now on.

The last week I ‘ve dedicated to explore the ancient Puebloan Culture; the Native American culture that dominated the Four Corners area for the first half of the last millennium. I started out in Mesa Verde where the Puebloans sometime during the 12th century decided move from their houses on the mesa tops and started to build cities in the niches of the cliffs below them, so-called cliff-dwellings. Today the ruins are spectacular, no one knows why they left but my favourite explanation is “because it was time”.

I continued south towards New Mexico and the 4th World Heritage Site of my journey: Chaco Culture National Historic Park. Before I got there I stopped at Aztec Ruins National Monument, which actually is a part of the Chaco Culture World Heritage site. It was really interesting to see the differences and similarities between a vertically built city like those of Mesa Verde and a horizontal built like this one. Still it was just foretaste of what Chaco Culture was going to be like, when I finally got there after a rough dirt road ride with though headwinds I was amazed by how large these cities must have been and I could almost feel how life must have been back then.

The next destination was Taos Pueblo, the 5th World Heritage Site of my journey. Taos Pueblo is a small village where Puebloan ancestors still lives in old adobe-style houses, and you could see many similarities to the architectural styles of the ruins of both Mesa Verde and Chaco Culture.

Yesterday I was in Santa Fe, the state capital of New Mexico that’s just as beautiful  as the rest of the state. Right now I’m in a small town called Corona on my way south toward White Sands National Monument and El Paso, TX. Hopefully I’ll make it to White Sands in time to catch the full moon!

To bad I’m not able to upload photos right now cause I’ve ridden through some pretty amazing surroundings! But let’s begin with the Navajo National Monument, the cliff dwellings I was heading for when I wrote my last post. The ride there was no problem, good weather and friendly people, so I really wasn’t in a hurry. Unfortunately I arrived just a few hours after the last guided tour for several days left, the only chance to get really close to the ruins. Instead I had to walk the trails and see the ruins through binoculars, not to bad either. I took the rest of the day of and enjoyed the quietness of the almost empty park campground.

Right now I’m in Cortez, CO, I’ve left Arizona and ridden through Utah and like I mentioned before I’ve seen some really amazing surroundings. First I rode Scenic Byway 163 through Monument Valley, the famous red buttes you see in my header, where I crossed the border to Utah. All the way through Monument Valley and past Mexican Hat the landscape was so dramatic and so intensively red that I just wasn’t sure that I still was on Earth. If it wouldn’t have been for the green plants and wild horses I could have sworn that I was on Mars.

Tomorrow I’ll get to Mesa Verde National Park, the third World Heritage site on my route. Hopefully I get to enjoy it before the bad weather arrives. And I promise I’ll upload some more photos soon!

The last couple of days have been amazing! Right now I’m in Tuba City, AZ in the Navajo Indian Reservation. Arizona have been really beautiful so far, I crossed the border from Nevada at the Hoover Dam which was just as spectacular as you can imagine. When I came to Kingman I hooked up with the longest part of the original Route 66 still in use, the part of the Mother Road that gave inspiration to the movie “Cars”. I had a tour in Grand Canyon Caverns, one of the worlds largest dry caverns before I continued towards the second World Heritage site on my trip: the Grand Canyon National Park.

Every time I approach a new destination on my route I get a little worried that it won’t be worth all the extra mileage and extra feet of climbing that it has taken to get there. Grand Canyon was totally worth all the extra effort! It’s so enormously big that you can’t quite understand it and it seems to be so never ending. I rode out to Hermit’s Rest and then all the way to Desert View along the South Rim and the scenic beauty kept improving as the weather got better. If you haven’t been there, be sure to visit it sometime!

Today I’ve seen some real dinosaur tracks out in the wild, a boyhood dream coming true! My next destination is the cliff dwellings of Navajo National Monument, I hope to get there by tomorrow after some climbing.

I climbed down to Death Valley and I climbed up from there and I’ve made it alive to Nevada and Las Vegas! There have been many steep passes to climb on the way, the highest was Mountain Springs Summit (el. 5,502 ft (1,677 m)), but of course there have been some sweet downhill riding in there between. The best was probably in the desert before Death Valley, after sunset and I was all alone on the road.

Death Valley itself was really amazing; so beautiful and different from anything I’ve seen before and still you get a feeling that you shouldn’t be there. I’ll upload some photos as soon as possible. Now I’m gonna treat myself to some Vegas fun!

California is certainly a state of great contrasts! Right after I arrived to Yosemite Valley the snow started falling and, though I never thought it would stick, the next day my bike was covered in two feet of snow. I spent the night in Brian’s place but unfortunately I never got to meet him. Instead I was accompanied by Ben, another couch surfer who Brian hosted in his small apartment.

Overall, Yosemite was amazing! Perhaps the most dramatic landscape I’ve ever seen and all the waterfalls made the scenic beauty something that just has to be experienced. Over a night the snow changed the entire landscape to a winter wonderland and when I came back to El Portal I was able to take some great photos of flowers and green leaves covered in snow.

The last two days I’ve been able to ride a lot of miles. From Yosemite I made it almost all the way to Fresno in one day and yesterday I rode the straight and flat roads of the Central Valley down to Wasco where I treated myself with a nice and warm night at a motel. The weather has been warm and I haven’t seen a cloud for a while and I’ve got my first sun rash to.

Right now I’m in Bakersfield where I’m getting ready for going up to the mountains again, to cross Sierra Nevada and get to Death Valley. It’s probably a little bit warmer than Yosemite but hopefully just as beautiful!

My legs are tired. I’ve made it to El Portal, the last stop before Yosemite Valley, where I’m spending the night. Actually, I intended to go all the way to Yosemite Valley tonight but on my way here I was stopped by Casey in her colorful pick-up truck. She was fascinated by my journey and invited me to stay with her and her friends. I accepted the invite, which i don’t regret, and found their house further down the road. It’s a big house, looks kind of like an old hotel, filled with warm and friendly people. Almost wish I didn’t have to leave so soon but I’m already after my schedule.

The way to here was mostly dominated by headwinds and uphill slopes. It started out with some winding roads in the Bay Area before I reached the Central Valley where the rain started falling and the wind started blowing. Central Valley was nice, mostly calm small towns and lots of fields. I have to mention the unbelievable amount of olive trees, the plantations reached as far as I could see and seemed to be never ending. The rest of the road where full of beautiful green hills and curious cows and I even think I saw a coyote.

I didn’t go very fast and because of the weather I decided to enter Yosemite Valley from another direction. Therefore I went to Mariposa where I got a taste of higher elevation and a tasteful tuna sandwich at wonderful diner along the road.

Tomorrow I’ll reach the first World Heritage site of my trip, really hope it’s worth it!