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We’ve arrived in San Diego, CA, having survived the scary ride back up into the mountains after Yuma. Yesterday we descended from 7,500 feet to sea level, and today we climbed back up to over 6,000 feet as we made our way into south east California through a pass in the San Francisco Mountains. The landscape was pretty barren, and despite San Diego’s reputation for year-round sunshine, we were riding through the cloud layer as we crossed the pass, and then in rain as we came down the other side and arrived at our hotel over 200 miles later.

The photo shows the view back down towards sea level in Arizona as we were climbing up towards the pass, about 15 minutes before visibility dropped to 30 feet or so, and gusting crosswinds blew us (well me, anyway, with the sail I’m carrying) 4 or 5 feet from side to side. I couldn’t have been happier to get off the bike in the hotel carpark and was on the verge of kissing the ground when I arrived!

With over 430 miles remaining on Route 66 to Santa Monica, and then another 128 miles through LA to San Diego if I am to make my flight to Washington (DC) in 6 days, we’ve decided that ploughing on regardless will take the fun out of trip. Instead, we rode back to Flagstaff today and took I-17 south to Phoenix, and we will cross into southern California on I-8 tomorrow. We can relax in the San Diego sun for a couple of days, organise storage for the bikes and be refreshed for the flight to Washington.

Since we have to come back in January to collect the Harleys, we won’t miss the last few hundred miles of Route 66… we’ll start in LA as soon as we get back and ride East as far as the weather permits covering most of what we missed this year, and have time to visit Vegas and Death Valley before we ship everything back to blighty.

The photo above was taken from a signposted ‘scenic stop’ on I-17 near Camp Verde on the way to Phoenix today. We’d planned on riding to San Diego in 3 legs: Williams to Phoenix, then on to Yuma, arriving in San Diego on the third day, but we were approaching Phoenix by 1pm and pressed on. By the time we had reached I-8 at 5pm, we were back at sea level having dropped 7,500 feet in altitude since Flagstaff. As a result the evening air is quite warm, and we made it to a one-horse town named Tacna about 40 miles west of Yuma having ridden almost 350 miles today!! We’ll make it to San Diego tomorrow for sure, giving us an extra day of lounging in the California sunshine :-D

On the way back to Williams, our train was hijacked by train robbers, who chased us on horses for a while and then boarded. Luckily, Marshall John B. Goodemore (pictured above with Deputy Vaughan) was aboard to save the day. This really was the highlight of the day — as you can see from the photo I’m so happy I could pee my pants! More in my flickr stream.

Rather than ride, we took a restored turn of the century train up the 65 mile renovated Grand Canyon line so that we could relax and enjoy the views without fear of high winds or steep roads. The two-and-a-quarter hour train ride was an experience in itself, although it is pulled by a diesel engine rather than a steam engine outside of the high season, which was a pity. The scenery leading up to the canyon was interesting too, with the remains of fencing from original Wild West ranches, scattered shrubs and pines in the rocky desert landscape, and clear sunny skies to make it all the more pleasurable.

The train ticket included a wild west shootout show before the ride. There are more photographs of the show, the canyon, and our train hijack(!) in my Flickr stream. It would be nice to visit again and take a horseride down to the bottom of the canyon a mile below to see the Colorado River.

The photo was taken from the southern rim close to the train station where the far rim is about 8 miles away. Along the length of more than 270 miles of gorge, the rims vary between less than a mile and more than 15 miles apart, and there can be as much as 400 feet of difference in elevation from one side to the other in some spots.

Today, we rode a short 35 miles along the I-40 to the next town along. Williams is a mecca for Route 66: Route 66 Inn; Route 66 Diner; Route 66 Cruisers’ Cafe; Route 66 everything. We are still in the Thanksgiving Holiday, and Williams is a bona fide tourist trap, so the hotel was expensive… but the whole place seems to have been marinated in Route 66, and there is plenty to occupy our attention before we head up to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Tave photographed this gorgeous sunset from our hotel balcony earlier tonight.