Headed to Austin. Any route suggestions?

Ducati geezer

Ducati geezer

Well-known member
Hello fellow barfers
My son will be riding to Austin for MotoGP in a few weeks. Was wondering what route would be best. Don’t need the fastest route. More interested in great roads. Tentative plans take us to Lee Vining, then Vegas, south to see the Grand Canyon, spend the night in Flagstaff, south to Sedona, then work our way to Austin. Seems like several cool routes to take down eastern Arizona. Any suggestions? Any particular highways in Arizona you suggest? We have set aside 6 days to get to Austin.
Thanks in advance.
 
ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
I always suggest seeing as many national parks as you can on a trip like that.

If you're going from Lee Vining to Las Vegas, you might as well go through Death Valley and Pahrump. You might even see a few wild flowers in Death Valley.

The north rim of the Grand Canyon will still be closed in April, but the south rim is worth going out of your way for.

Head south and east from the Grand Canyon and you can catch Petrified Forest National Park. That one also includes the Painted Desert.

Go way south to Tucson and you can visit Saguaro National Park.

If you go north out of Las Cruces instead of going through El Paso, you can visit White Sand National Monument. I normally only recommend national parks, but that national monument is worth the visit.

Finally, there is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I don't know if they got the elevator fixed yet or not, but it was out of order for several years. You'll spend a good part of a day hiking down into the cave seeing it, then hiking back out.

I won't recommend the two national parks in Texas, even though Big Bend is definitely worth seeing.

Once you get east of the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico, you're just about guarantee all boring roads the rest of the way to Austin.
 
D

davidji

bike curious
Butler Motorcycle maps are great for finding good roads to ride.

Agree with Scott about National Park stops. E.g. I might stop at Great Basin NP rather than Vegas. But if Vegas is a destination on this trip, ignore that. Lots of National Parks in Utah, and even Arches isn't that long a ride to South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Others are closer.
 
Ducati geezer

Ducati geezer

Well-known member
Thank you both. Good suggestions. I think we will look at those stops. I was looking more at the roads, trying to find some twisties. But hitting the National Parks makes sense.
And yeah, I figured once we get to Texas, it won’t be too scenic.
On the way home, will probably just hit the fastest route home.
 
D

davidji

bike curious
Ducati geezer said:
And yeah, I figured once we get to Texas, it won’t be too scenic.
Click to expand...
Butler has a Texas Hill Country Motorcycle Map, and that's the area around Austin. There should be good roads.

Pavement is different there, and some of the roads at least in town can be slick as snot when wet. Seriously, like wet steel plate slick. If the pavement appears to be smooth like glass, and is wet, be careful.

There is scenery in west TX. But if you're driving in on 10, the same landscape stretches on for a long time.
 
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davidji

bike curious
If you're not on freeways there are plenty of roads in, though they mostly look long and straight on the map--from what I remember of west texas that make sense. I think I've entered the panhandle via 84. I don't remember anything to recommend it over 10 other than where you're coming from and where you're going.

If I wanted good roads I'd probably consult the Butler maps for NM and for the TX Hill Country to help plan a route. And I'd still expect that there will be many hours of boring roads between good roads in NM and the good roads in TX.

Butler also has a guide to route 66. Apparently lots of people want to ride or drive it (inspired by the song?). If you can get interested in traveling an old ghost highway it might make the boring part less boring. 66 will get you into the panhandle anyway.
 
ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
Ducati geezer said:
I was looking more at the roads, trying to find some twisties. But hitting the National Parks makes sense.
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Believe it or not, there are usually good twisties near or in national parks. I've been to 38 of them so far and I have a hard time coming up with one that doesn't have interesting roads nearby. Okay, Channel Islands doesn't, but you can't drive there anyway.
 
Ducati geezer

Ducati geezer

Well-known member
This is great. I’ve never been to Texas. Hell, have not seen much of this country at all. Guess I’ll have to re-think our route to the races. Thank you all.
 
bikewanker

bikewanker

Well-known member
Midwest AZ State hwy 96 had some curvy bits. US 191 is enjoyable and and is higher and curvaceous south of Springerville Az with options for angling southeast to Silver City NM on 180 or south to an unfathomably large copper mine then east, or east on US 60 and ride by the Very Large Array to make contact. I enjoyed the road to McDonald Observatory on my drive back from Big Bend NP. Squiggles are your friend but keep in mind that US 191 had to be renamed from 666!
 
SD Hornet

SD Hornet

rider
+1 what BW said.

AZ191 is more enjoyable ridden south to north. Add a day to your trip and do the 191-180-78-191 loop starting from Springerville and ending in Alpine. Or start in Show Low and ride 60-70-191.

Don't try to make time on AZ191. Enjoy.
 
I

Iamos

Well-known member
89A between Flag and Sedona is beautiful. Some fun dirt roads around Sedona too if you are feeling adventurous.
 
Ducati geezer

Ducati geezer

Well-known member
Iamos said:
89A between Flag and Sedona is beautiful. Some fun dirt roads around Sedona too if you are feeling adventurous.
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I drove it once in a car years ago, and remembered saying to my wife I need to ride this road someday. On a map, there is a section south of Flagstaff that looks interesting. Very twisty. So will probably go through Sedona
Then probably south from there on 179 to 17, thinking south to 260. Then head south east through Camp Verde. That seems to lead to 87, which then leads to 188, going by Roosevelt Lake. Goal is to get to Safford. Then from there work our way down to huway 70. Seems like a good direction to keep us headed towards our target. But still trying to figure out this route. On a map the route looks fun.
 
WWWobble

WWWobble

This way...That way...
Ducati geezer said:
I drove it once in a car years ago, and remembered saying to my wife I need to ride this road someday. On a map, there is a section south of Flagstaff that looks interesting. Very twisty. So will probably go through Sedona
Then probably south from there on 179 to 17, thinking south to 260. Then head south east through Camp Verde. That seems to lead to 87, which then leads to 188, going by Roosevelt Lake. Goal is to get to Safford. Then from there work our way down to huway 70. Seems like a good direction to keep us headed towards our target. But still trying to figure out this route. On a map the route looks fun.
Click to expand...

Can't really advise on good vs. bad roads to Austin. So many good suggestions already.

What I think I should mention, is April is a little "iffy" for weather anywhere above 5,000 feet or so. Many roads mentioned exceed this, so you might have a Plan B which is mostly stay as far south as possible.

I was in Texas last week of April last year, a week after the MotoGP, and had to abandon north routes in favor of south. North was 40F with rain and sleet. South was 65-70 and sun. (duh !!) We went south to San Antonio, and then 90 west to Del Rio and up into El Paso... Texas 90 isn't so bad, a lot of western history there. What can I say.?..... :laughing
 
O

ontherearwheel

Well-known member
Google Fredrickburg .......couple of cool museums there.

I've been laying out rides waiting till June to get a tracer gt. What I figure out was, once the roads get flats..........it more about the towns than roads......until you get east of the Mississippi River......then it's back to roads and towns.

Oh.......Bracketville.........There is the abandoned movie set of John Wayne's Alamo.....

Visit Judge Roy Bean Town......Langtry......

La Garange.........Texas town.......
 
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