Another successful motorcycle tour is part of history. We traveled more than 3,700 miles experiencing smoke from fires all around the west.

A group of seven riders--including my 11-year old grandson--set off from Paso Robles, CA headed for the Canadian Rockies. Our group also included my wife on (in?) her Slingshot. After two fun days of backroad riding, we added two additional passengers flying into the airport in Boise, ID.

Continuing on, now as a group of nine, we traveled through the mountains in Idaho stopping in Idaho City for lunch and to re-create a street photo with my grandson that matched one taken 19 years before with his mom on a previous moto journey. The 99-miles of Lolo pass delivered us into the Missoula, MT area.

From there we slogged north through considerable traffic to Glacier National Park. An overnight of glamping just outside the entrance enabled us to get ahead of most of the traffic on the Going to the Sun Highway. While the glaciers continue to shrink each year, this road retains spectacular views, amazing engineering, and is on the short list of "must be experienced" American motorcycle roads.

Passing into Canada we made our way to Canmore near Banff, our "down day" destination. After enjoying much of what the area has to offer (including: great food, sights, and cable car rides), we traveled along the western range of the Canadian Rockies pausing for some of the most fantastic scenery I've ever encountered until reaching our most northerly spot at Jasper.

A two-day ride west and south got us to Horseshoe Bay where we boarded a ferry--bikes in tow. About two hours later,arriving in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, we got out of town quickly to ride narrow and twisty Pacific Marine Road over the low mountains through the forest to the island's south shore. Port Renfrew was our destination on this lightly populated coast dotted with small coastal towns. Port Renfrew, a fantastic resort with associated bar and grill, provided much needed refueling and rest.

The next morning we broke up the team with various groups returning via differing schedules and routes. All traveled via the ferry at Victoria--a morning's ride down the coast. Once back in the US of A at Port Angeles, three more days of largely freeway riding returned wife, grandson and me to our starting point in Paso.

See the route details below or the full screen map and the pictures.