....a massive bison/buffalo wandered right through the campground. Leaving Sturgis we headed back west via Devils Tower, an amazing rock jutting straight out of the ground that was the USA's first National Monument and is a climbers Mecca, to Cody. From Cody, we rode the Chief Joseph and Bear Tooth Passes - amazing roads that wind up and down the huge mountains. On the Bear Tooth Pass we met 3 Aussies, John, Ron and Phil, who have shipped their bikes over from home for Sturgis and Milwaulke. With these guys we camped in Yellowstone National Park for the next 2 nights and enjoyed the mountains, lakes, geysers and heated rivers that make Yellowstone so famous. On the first nights camping we had sat down for dinner when a massive bison/buffalo wandered right through the campground. He was literally 2 metres from where we sat but no one was giving up their dinner. We rode through the Grand Teton National Park's huge mountain range then headed south through the corner of Idaho into Utah, swimming in the incredibly blue, Bear Lake on the way. In the south of Utah we hit Canyon country and were blown away with the rugged beauty of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park and slept a night in a Tipi.

Just outside Zion we met a group of guys from New Orleans for an entertaining evening of story swapping then headed for the Grand Canyon. Wow - it's huge. In the Grand Canyon, Sam from Swansea (Wales) joined us and played the harmonica while the sun rose.

From the Grand Canyon we rode to Monument Valley and once again watched the sun rise between these wonderful rock formations that jut vertically out of the ground and are just amazing. It´s easy to see why the Indian people hold this place in such mystical regard.

We rode through the beautiful desert to four corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet, then on to Mesa Verde where the ruins of old Indigenous settlements have been uncovered. Some of the structures are entire villages that have been built in dry stone walling. These structures are still largely intact and sit on tiny ledges half way up shear cliff faces. There isn’t one or two but dozens of these dwelling places that date back to 800 years ago.

We then continued through the west of Colorado and it was such a pleasure to see some greenery again after the stark beauty of the deserts. We then crossed back into the east of Utah to visit Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

In Canyonlands we drove along the top of three distinct levels. It is called the Island in the Sky and from there we looked down onto a plateau that has been created by a layer of hard rock that wasn’t weathered, then down into the gorge and Colorado River on the third and lowest level. The three levels are at massively different heights and are separated by shear cliff faces. Being at such different altitudes they have completely different climates and hence different plants and animals. Once again the entire area is coloured red so it makes for spectacular viewing.

The Arches National Park is a serious of amazing rock formations that have been heavily weathered to form natural arches. Most of the arches involve walking to view them and we had a wonderful early morning hike to visit some of the more famous ones. It was great fun playing underneath them and taking photo’s.

We then rode back into Colorado and rode along the wonderful Ridge Road that makes up the Colorado National Monument. Combine magnificent scenery with twisty roads up and down mountains and through tunnels and you’ve got Colorado. It was just a pleasure.

We had quite an amazing experience while in Colorado. We pulled into a tiny town called de Beque at about 9pm one night. We met a chap, Don, who was stood by the side of the road where a temporary shelter had been set up. We got chatting to Don asking if there was a campsite nearby. He was helping set up the corrals for a mustang (wild horse) exhibition that was happening over the weekend. He was chatting away to us about the horses when Roby arrived. Roby is the president of the Mustang Association and was to stay out with the horses over night. They suggested we pitch the tent under their shelter and spend the night with Roby. Well, what an experience it was. Roby is one of those older guys who is full of wisdom and insight. He shared the most wonderful stories with us, from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (He has a photo of himself as a baby sat on Butch Cassidy’s lap) to rounding up wild horses, to saving mistreated dogs and the help he has from his neighbors and friends. We hung around the next day and saw the horses in action and left town in the afternoon feeling very lucky to have spent time with Roby and his friends.

We went down to Leadville and back to Copper Mountain where we stumbled on Super Moto Racing. This is a wonderful type of bike racing where the track combines motorcross jumps with gravel road and sealed track. It was great to watch.

Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is just beautiful and when we were there we had to pull into the visitor center as it was raining so hard. We met some people who gave us the advice; “Wait until the weather clears as it is snowing up ahead”. Snow in the middle of summer while England and Ireland are having a heat wave. What’s going on? Luckily the hot chocolates in the restaurant were great. We waited it out and continued over Camerons Pass at higher than 10,000 feet.

We bid goodbye to the mountains and headed east. The following day we did 700 miles from Colorado across Nebraska and Iowa to Wisconsin. It was about 105 Fahrenheit and flat the whole way. We were on our way to Milwaukee and the Harley Davidson 100 year anniversary party.