A West Texas Bike Experience By way of Hill Nation, Huge Bend, and Oil Wells

The seeds of this West Texas motorbike journey have been planted in December 2019 when my buddy Reed and I joined the EagleRider Membership. Members pay month-to-month subscription charges for credit towards motorbike leases, which roll over month to month and supply vital reductions versus standalone leases.

Along with the reductions, being membership members permits us to fly into a brand new space and hire bikes which can be completely different from what we journey again house. We reside in Connecticut, so flying into Dallas saved us a 3,200-mile roundtrip that will have taken a number of days on every finish. As a substitute of grinding out miles simply to get to Texas and again house, we spent that point leisurely exploring roads and sights.

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To beat the warmth of the Texas summer time, we deliberate our journey for mid-April. Reed and I are BMW riders, however for this journey we rented two late-model Harley-Davidsons: a Road Glide for me and a Heritage Softail Basic for him. There’s one thing particular about using the open street on an enormous American V-Twin. We’re older guys who have been decked out in textile using gear and modular helmets, so we’re hardly Simple Rider rebels. Once we noticed a BMW GS in a lodge car parking zone with “Journey Earlier than Dementure” on certainly one of its panniers, we might relate.

See all of Rider‘s Harley-Davidson protection right here.

We did a clockwise loop of roughly 2,300 miles over 9 days. From Dallas, we headed south to Texas’ funky state capital, Austin. The Harleys have been steady and comfy, the torque was intoxicating, and the horns have been good and loud, however the transmissions have been a bit clunky. After visiting the Texas Capitol, we rode east to Spherical Prime, a small vacationer city recognized for antiques. We have been disenchanted to search out the vintage markets closed after we bought there, however I managed to get a photograph with a roadrunner as tall as I’m – issues actually are larger in Texas!

The using improved west of Austin after we entered the legendary Texas Hill Nation, an space well-known amongst motorcyclists. Countless hills flip the numerous rural FM (Farm-to-Market) and RM (Ranch-to-Market) roads into paved rollercoasters. We loved good twisties, gentle visitors, and fairly views alongside the shore of Lake Travis and thru Inks Lake State Park. After using by Llano, we dropped the sidestands and stretched our legs at Enchanted Rock State Pure Space. In Fredericksburg, a captivating historic city surrounded by vineyards, we ate sausages and loved reside music throughout a courtyard dinner at a German restaurant. 

Lower than an hour from Fredericksburg and west of Medina, we rode the famend Twisted Sisters. The three RM roads (335, 336, and 337) are stuffed with enjoyable curves and whoop-de-doos and are worthy of their fame. The Twisted Sisters are so standard amongst motorcyclists that there are two-wheeled vacationer stops within the space, just like the Lone Star Bike Museum in Vanderpool and the Frio Canyon Bike Cease and The Hog Pen in Leakey. We handed many ranches; two of my favourite names have been Huge Bucks Ranch and Center Age Unfold.

After an evening in Del Rio, we adopted U.S. Route 90 west alongside the southwestern border of the Texas Pecos Path area and inside a stone’s throw of the Rio Grande. Though our bikes had the identical 107 engines, the Softail’s tank holds 5 gallons whereas the Road Glide’s holds 6 gallons. That 1-gallon distinction grew to become evident after we hit an 86-mile stretch with no providers considering we had sufficient gasoline. We have been incorrect.

Decreasing velocity and tucking in behind the windshield for the final 20 miles did the trick, however headwinds meant the Softail was working on fumes after we pulled into Sanderson. On the gasoline station, a girl with a ’50s-style bouffant advised us that pickle juice is sweet for combating dehydration. We have been intrigued, however we questioned if she was having enjoyable on the expense of us Yankees.

See all of Rider‘s touring tales right here.

At Marathon, we turned south towards our subsequent vacation spot: Huge Bend Nationwide Park. Located in a pocket of West Texas the place the Rio Grande’s southeasterly course makes a pointy bend to the north, Huge Bend is gigantic, overlaying greater than 801,163 acres (1,252 sq. miles), making it the seventh largest nationwide park exterior of Alaska. In 1976, Huge Bend was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It comprises the most important intact portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, one of the vital biologically wealthy and various desert ecosystems on this planet.

As a result of Huge Bend is way from main cities and the 118 miles of the Rio Grande alongside its southern boundary serves because the border between the U.S. and Mexico, it receives comparatively few guests in comparison with different nationwide parks. That makes it the proper vacation spot for many who love wide-open areas and don’t look after crowds.

That afternoon we loved Huge Bend in all its glory. Mountain peaks topping 7,000 ft competed with colourful desert blooms for lovely surroundings. In Rio Grande Village, we realized of a tramway system that transported lead and silver from Mexico throughout the Rio Grande to ultimately join with the railroad in Marathon. For migrants, crossing the Rio Grande would have been a matter of merely wading the low waters, however passing the Border Patrol checkpoint some miles inland (in open desert) is one other story.

Highlights of Huge Bend Nationwide Park embrace the winding street as much as Chisos Basin, the Rio Grande Overlook, and Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, which passes by Tuff Canyon on its strategy to Santa Elena Canyon Overlook. Of the 304 miles of roads within the park, 123 miles are paved, 45 miles are unpaved however improved, and 136 miles are unpaved and primitive, so there are many miles to discover no matter your most well-liked floor – or bike. That mentioned, at our lodge in Alpine, positioned about 80 miles north of the park by way of State Route 118, one other visitor recounted how two Honda Africa Twins struggled in Huge Bend’s sandy unpaved tracks, taking place so typically they gave up and had their bikes towed out.

After spending the morning at Fort Davis, a nationwide historic website north of Alpine with a well-preserved complicated of buildings and customer heart, we launched into our most difficult journey of the journey. We headed south on State Route 17 to Marfa after which took U.S. Route 67 to Presidio. From there, we rode east on FM 170, referred to as River Highway. The 64 miles to Research Butte-Terlingua wind alongside the Rio Grande by Huge Bend Ranch State Park. Aside from the low water crossings, the street floor is usually good – and the views are improbable – however riders want to remain frosty as a result of there are sudden elevation adjustments, reducing radius and off-camber blind curves, and generally wildlife on the street.

After getting our fill of mountains, canyons, rivers, and memorable Rio Grande surroundings, we headed north by empty excessive desert to Fort Stockton, Odessa, Midland, and Lubbock, an space of Texas notable for the Permian Basin, an 86,000-square-mile space that’s house to among the nation’s largest oil reserves. We rode for hours with oil wells scattered throughout the panorama in each route. To our shock, we additionally noticed dozens of huge wind generators towering above among the oil rigs, so some Texans are clearly hedging their bets. 

Simply south of Amarillo, we visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the place we took in expansive views of America’s second largest canyon, which is 120 miles lengthy, a median of 6 miles extensive, and as much as 1,000 ft deep. The sprawling canyon was the topic of work by Georgia O’Keefe, who lived close by, and the positioning of a battle between Texas Rangers and Chief Kicking Wolf in Larry McMurtry’s novel Comanche Moon.

Having accomplished a lot of our loop, we headed southeast towards Dallas. We took secondary roads by cities corresponding to Turkey and Matador, the latter being the house of Bob’s Oil Effectively, a vestige of the times when daring roadside structure attracted clients – on this case a wood oil derrick towering above a gasoline station.

The skies darkened as we rode east, and in Crowell, a girl pulled over to inform us there have been tornados touching down close to our subsequent waypoint in Vernon. When an EMT reiterated the warning, we stayed put till the coast was clear. Once we lastly hit the street once more that night, it was a moist journey, however there was a lot lightning arcing throughout the clouds within the distance that we had loads of gentle to information us. Once we checked into our lodge in Wichita Falls, we realized they’d had heavy rain, wind, and golf ball-sized hail – one visitor had a damaged windshield to show it.

On our final day, we blasted alongside state highways to Dallas, and for lengthy stretches, we loved explosions of shade from roadside wildflowers. Bluebonnet and Indian paintbrush have been ample, and mid-April was the proper time to see them. We all know higher than to mess with Texas, however we positive do respect all of the great roads, sights, and wonder we skilled within the Lone Star State. And thanks, EagleRider, for renting us the Harleys – they have been the proper steeds for our journey.