My Cross-Country Motorcycle Trip from Utah to Alabama was a 4,200-mile adventure filled with mountains, storms, Graceland, and the Grand Canyon.
My passion for motorcycle riding began at a very young age and has grown into something I still love and enjoy today. For years, I dreamed of taking a cross-country motorcycle trip and seeing the United States from the seat of my bike.
Eventually, I got the chance to make that dream come true.
Where My Love of Motorcycles Began
My dad raced dirt motorcycles when I was a kid, and he is the reason I learned to love riding. When I was little, he would put me in front of him on his motorcycle, and off we would go.
We would climb mountains just to see what was at the top. Sometimes he scared me half to death, but what fun we had!
I got my first motorcycle when I was about eight or nine years old. It was a little 50cc minibike, and I rode that thing everywhere.
At the time, we lived in a fairly new subdivision with undeveloped land nearby. That gave us plenty of dirt and hills to ride on, and I spent hours riding up and down those hills with my dad.
Later, we moved to the country, which gave me even more room to ride. I eventually moved up to a Kawasaki 90. I could barely reach the ground, but that certainly wasn’t going to stop me.
Several of my friends had motorcycles too. After school, we would hurry home, get on our bikes, meet up, and ride.
One of those friends and I even made a promise: after we graduated from high school, we would meet up someday and ride motorcycles all over the United States.
Life didn’t quite work out that way, but the dream of riding across the country never left me.
Riding My Dad’s Bultaco 250
I also rode my dad’s Bultaco 250. That motorcycle was an experience all by itself.
Everything seemed to be on the wrong side compared with the motorcycles I was used to riding. Even starting and shifting the bike felt backwards to me, so it took some getting used to.
But once I figured it out, that bike was fast!
My friends couldn’t keep up with me. I was always riding ahead and then waiting for them to catch up.
When my family moved during my freshman year of high school, I didn’t ride nearly as much anymore. For a while, motorcycles became a smaller part of my life.
But I never lost my love for them.
Getting Back on a Motorcycle as an Adult
Years later, I met someone who rode a motorcycle. I was constantly asking if I could ride his bike.
The answer was always no.
Until one day, he finally said yes.
I put that motorcycle into gear, and away I went. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
I could ride!
After that, I bought my first motorcycle as an adult—a 2006 Victory Vegas. I ordered it and waited about two weeks for it to arrive.
When I finally went to pick it up, I felt like a little girl on Christmas morning.
I rode that motorcycle everywhere. I rode it to work, took my daughter to school, took her to dance, and sometimes rode simply because I wanted to ride.
Then came the trip I had dreamed about for years.
Planning Our Cross-Country Motorcycle Trip
During one vacation, we decided to ride our motorcycles from Utah to Alabama.
It was roughly 2,000 miles one way.
We planned the trip for months. We knew that sitting on a motorcycle for hours every day was going to be hard on our bodies, so for about a month before leaving, we rode approximately three hours every day to prepare ourselves.
Finally, departure day arrived.
I barely slept the night before because I was so excited.
After getting my daughter to school, we loaded up and took off. Since it was already later in the day, we didn’t travel terribly far. We stopped for the night in a small town near the Utah-Colorado border.
That first day’s ride was wonderful. The sun was shining, the weather was warm, and our adventure had officially begun.
Then came the next morning.
Day Two: What Were We Thinking?
When we packed the motorcycles the next morning, we could barely sit on the seats.
My back hurt. My bottom hurt. Everything hurt.
So much for all that practice!
But we had a long way to go on our cross-country motorcycle trip, so there was nothing to do but suck it up, get back on those bikes, and ride.
Because we were so sore, we stopped frequently that day.
Soon, we began climbing those mighty Colorado mountains. At the bottom of the mountain, it was warm and sunny.
By the time we reached the top, it was cold and snowing.
I had never ridden my motorcycle in snow before. Going back down that mountain was scary.
About halfway down, the snow stopped, and the temperature warmed up again. Then, by the time we reached Denver, it was raining cats and dogs.
Sunshine, snow, warmth, and pouring rain. We had experienced just about everything in one day.
We finally stopped for the night near the Colorado-Nebraska border and found a small hotel just off the highway.
We unpacked the motorcycles and were settling in for the evening when we heard there was a tornado warning.
A tornado?
Seriously?
We moved the motorcycles underneath the canopy near the hotel’s front entrance to try to protect them.
Thankfully, the tornado came close but did not hit us directly. I was very grateful for that.
Fighting the Nebraska Wind
By the third morning, something surprising had happened.
I wasn’t sore anymore!
We packed the motorcycles and took off again.
Riding through Nebraska brought another kind of adventure: wind.
The wind was blowing so hard that it felt as though we were riding our motorcycles sideways. We had to lean into it just to keep the bikes where they belonged.
At times, it felt like our elbows were almost close enough to touch the pavement.
Then, without warning, the wind would shift, and suddenly we had to compensate in the other direction.
It made for a long and exhausting day of riding.
Eventually, we made our way into Kansas.
Heat, Rain, and Dodge City
Parts of the ride through Kansas were long, flat, and extremely hot. Staying alert became a challenge, especially with all the semis on the freeway adding to the heat and turbulence around us.
We stopped in Dodge City because my friend was a big Gunsmoke fan.
Our experience wasn’t quite what we had imagined. The area where we stopped made us uncomfortable enough that we didn’t want to leave our motorcycles unattended for long, so we didn’t stay.
As we headed out, we could see dark rain clouds building in the distance.
One thing about riding across such flat, open country is that you can see weather coming from miles away.
We stopped and put on our rain gear.
The closer we got to those clouds, the stronger the wind became.
And then the sky opened up.
The rain came down in buckets. It was raining so hard that seeing the road became difficult.
Even with our rain gear, we ended up soaking wet. Eventually, we had enough and stopped for the night.
The next morning, my boots were still wet when I put them on.
There is nothing quite like starting another long day on a motorcycle with wet boots!
Getting Lost in Memphis and Finding Graceland
One of our next big goals was Memphis, Tennessee. We wanted to visit Graceland. It was one of the stops we had been looking forward to during our cross-country motorcycle trip.
We made it to Memphis but got lost trying to find it.
The part of town we ended up in made me very uneasy. I remember seeing boarded-up businesses, broken windows, and graffiti. My friend went to ask for directions while I stayed behind with the motorcycles.
I was scared.
Thankfully, we eventually found our way to Graceland, and it was worth the trouble.
We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the property. Elvis Presley’s home was beautiful. We saw his cars and other memorabilia, and we even toured his airplane.
After everything we’d encountered on the road, spending an afternoon at Graceland was a wonderful change of pace.
Then it was back on the motorcycles and on toward Alabama.
We Finally Made It to Alabama
As our cross-country motorcycle trip took us farther south, the humidity really set in.
It was hot!
By the time we finally reached our destination in Alabama, we were more than ready to get off those motorcycles for a while.
We spent four days visiting my friend’s daughter. Unfortunately, it rained almost every day we were there.
Eventually, the rain stopped long enough for us to get the motorcycles back to the main road.
My vacation from work was only two weeks long, so we couldn’t stay any longer.
It was time to start the long ride home.
Taking the Scenic Route Home
On the return portion of our cross-country motorcycle trip, we decided to take a more scenic route.
That turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip.
We stopped to see places connected to Billy the Kid and visited a Billy the Kid museum. Compared with our ride to Alabama, we also encountered much less rain on the way home.
I was very thankful for that.
But one stop on the return trip became an experience I will never forget.
Seeing the Grand Canyon From a Helicopter
We stopped at the Grand Canyon and decided to take a helicopter ride. This became one of the most memorable experiences of our cross-country motorcycle trip.
I had never been in a helicopter before.
What an experience!
At first, we were flying just above the tree line. Then, all of a sudden, the ground seemed to disappear beneath us as we flew out over the Grand Canyon.
It scared me to death!
Then I looked around.
It was absolutely beautiful.
We flew beside the canyon walls and down over the Colorado River. I couldn’t believe the colors I could see in the rock- yellows, greens, golds, and so many different shades.
Seeing the Grand Canyon from the ground is amazing, but seeing it from a helicopter gave me an entirely different perspective.
If I ever had the opportunity to do that again, I would.
Seeing America From the Seat of a Motorcycle
That was one of the things I loved most about our cross-country motorcycle trip.
Riding a motorcycle is an experience that can be difficult to describe to someone who has never done it. Our cross-country motorcycle trip gave me a chance to experience America in a way I never could have from inside a car.
It’s almost as though the whole world is right there in front of you, and all you have to do is look.
You aren’t separated from everything by the doors, windows, and roof of a car. You’re part of the scenery around you.
On this trip, I watched storms roll in from miles away. I saw sunsets filled with colors that seemed to stretch forever across the sky. Every morning brought a different sunrise and a different view.
If you enjoy seeing new places, discovering beautiful scenery, and making memories along the way, visit All Things Travel for more of my travel stories and adventures.
I felt the temperature change as we climbed mountains. I rode through sunshine, snow, wind, heat, humidity, and more rain than I care to remember.
You don’t just see the country from a motorcycle.
You experience it.
The Devastation We Saw in Southern Utah
As we made our way back into Southern Utah, I couldn’t help thinking about how much I have always enjoyed traveling through Southern Utah and seeing its incredible scenery.
Our cross-country motorcycle trip had already shown us many sides of nature, but what we saw in Southern Utah was different.
Southern Utah had experienced tremendous rainfall, and the damage was difficult to comprehend until I saw it with my own eyes.
Homes had been built what seemed like a safe distance from a relatively small river. There was so much land between the river and some of the houses that you would never imagine the water reaching them.
But after the enormous amount of rain, that little river became a raging one.
The water spread across the land and reached homes that had seemed far beyond its path. Some of them were huge, beautiful houses, and the damage was devastating. Seeing what the water had done made me realize just how powerful nature can be.
After seeing so many beautiful sights during our trip, this was a sobering sight as we got closer to home.
4,200 Miles and a Dream Come True
Finally, we arrived home.
My girls were there to greet me, excited to see all the pictures and, of course, the souvenirs I had brought home for them.
By the time our cross-country motorcycle trip was over, we had ridden approximately 4,200 miles from Utah to Alabama and back again.
We had ridden through sunshine, snow, pouring rain, strong winds, heat, and humidity. We had dealt with sore backs, wet boots, a tornado warning, getting lost, and plenty of unexpected adventures.
We had also seen Graceland, explored places connected to Billy the Kid, flown over the Grand Canyon, watched storms cross the plains, and seen parts of this country in a way I will never forget.
Looking back, every challenge became part of the adventure and made our cross-country motorcycle trip even more memorable.
Was it always comfortable?
Absolutely not.
Would I do it again?
In a heartbeat.
Motorcycle riding has been part of my life since I was a little girl riding with my dad. That trip allowed me to fulfill a dream I’d carried with me for years.
Years later, another major chapter of my life began when I retired after my 20-year postal career and started looking for a new path.
And after approximately 4,200 miles on two wheels, I came home loving motorcycle riding and this beautiful country even more than when I left.