Death Valley by Sport Bike Didier Smith Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 7, 2015 I bought a new bike recently, a KTM RC 390. I just finished babysitting it through its break-in period, and decided to celebrate by spending the long weekend fulfilling an old dream of mine — riding through the American desert.

There aren't a lot of routes from the SF Bay Area to Death Valley. I decided to cross the Sierra Nevada by going through Yosemite, which necessitated an early departure to beat the long weekend crowds.

Yosemite was beautiful, and the 6:30AM departure really did help with crowd avoidance. I almost froze to death though — I’d packed for the desert, not for a morning in the high mountains. Bought a sweatshirt at the earliest opportunity.

But the other side was more resembling what I came here for. US Route 395 snakes lazily between the mountains in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. The road is well maintained, the population is sparse, the views are incredible, and massively exceeding the speed limit is de rigueur. An excellent environment for testing out the capabilities of my bike. It proved capable.

At Lone Pine, you turn off and head towards the Valley of Death. The landscape looks like an alien planet.

The number one cause of death in Death Valley is single-vehicle accidents — the road alternates between straight-line desert driving and twisty mountain passes. Keep your wits about you!

I spent the night at Emigrant Campground, which had a big sign saying “tents only”. I didn’t have a tent, so I made a token effort with a couple of tarps.

Which I completely ignored by sleeping face-up on a picnic table instead. The number one reason I wanted to come out here was to get away from the clouds and light pollution and see the night sky in its true glory. If I had a real camera I would have taken a picture of it, but I didn't so you’re going to have to go out there and see it for yourselves.

The way the sun lights up the landscape in the evenings and mornings is awesome. I love the way the lack of vegetation allows you to see the raw geology of the mountains.

I left the next morning before the real heat started, and headed for Nevada.

I've wanted to see remote, rural America for a while, and I found it. The big challenge for the day was conserving fuel — my bike has a small tank and gas stations are few and far between out here.

I took US route 95 from Beatty to Tonopah to Hawthorne. This was taken in the “semi-abandoned ghost town” of Goldfield.

Gold was discovered here in 1902. Mining took off rapidly, and by 1906, it reached its peak population of 20,000. They quickly mined all the available gold, and the town today has a population of only 440. It seems frozen in time.

The town of Coaldale is completely abandoned. It used to have a gas station, store, restaurant, and motel. However, the gas station was closed down in 1993 after it was discovered that its underground fuel tanks were leaking. Since the gas station was the #1 thing Coaldale had going for it, the other businesses closed shortly thereafter.

I met a nice couple from LA who were touring around and visiting ghost towns. Upon learning that I was Canadian, they alerted me of a building with “beer is Canadian cocaine” sprayed on the side.

I loved the Rural America Experience. This isn't the only town with such a sign posted outside. This is evidently a problem in Nevada.

Walker Lake, just north of Hawthorne, NV. I was originally going to camp here for the night and head back the next day, but I arrived too early in the afternoon, and faced with the prospect of of sitting in the heat for several hours, decided that I’d rather just ride home instead.