In 1975 the Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club made its first visit to the largest national park in the United States: Death Valley. Comprised of over 3.3 million acres of desert wilderness, it's surrounded by mountains with the towering Telescope Peak at 11,049 feet in the west and in the east, Dante's View at 5,475 feet.

            Our first trip was an adventure as six of us strapped on our gear, sleeping bags and tents with bungee cords for a camp out. This three-day adventure featured a wind and rainstorm that blew down our tents. We now sleep in either the Furnace Creek Ranch (motel) or the more luxurious Furnace Creek Inn. We have to make our reservations each year around nine months to a year in advance for our large group.

            On this, our 32nd annual trip, we left the San Francisco Bay Area at 10 a.m. on a Thursday. Our group of 22 riders wound down coast highways ending up on what we feel is one of the best roads in California, Highway One, from Carmel to Cambria for our first day's destination. Our "bar car" arrived and we set up a cocktail hour at the Blue Bird Inn before going to a nice restaurant for dinner.

            At 7 a.m. on Friday we skipped breakfast and took off for Bakersfield, about three hours of great back roads, the best being Highway 58 with a few "whoop-tee-doos," long straights, sweepers and twisties over the hills to have breakfast.

            We left Bakersfield on Highway 178 and rode past the sweet smelling orange grove and entered the very tight, narrow and twisty two-lane road up the Kern River Canyon. We raced up the canyon, breaking hard in the corners and accelerating to the next turn, while keeping our eyes on the flowing Kern River on the left and the jagged rock crossings on our right. We always hope there are no big trucks or campers ahead that could slow us down on this double lined narrow road. All of a sudden, this narrow road became a major four-lane freeway with tremendous sweepers in the middle of the mountains (obviously some politician's "pork") with a speed limit of 60 mph and signs that read, "patrolled by aircraft!" Do as you will at your own risk!

            We then went past Lake Isabella and over Walker's Pass (5,250 feet) flying down 178 to 395 and then Ridgecrest for gas. Here is where we usually take off the layers and prepare for the heat. For the next 99-miles we had some very long straights, a few twisties, some great sweepers before we climbed to Townes Pass (elevation 4,956) and then descend over more "whoop-tee-doos" into Death Valley and Stove Pipe Wells Village. Watch out for CHP and park rangers, as they will give speeding tickets that go on your record. The final 26 miles at 60 mph, took us to Furnace Creek and the wonderful inn where we hit the pool to escape the 108 degree heat. We found the pool to be 80-90 degrees, but the beer was cold. The Club's "bar car" arrived for our cocktail hour where we met with others of our group from Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.

            In the evening, we had an outside dinner served on the lawn next to the pool with the moon glowing over the palm trees. It was a beautiful romantic night with good friends, food and wine.

            Saturday is a rest day with the option to explore some of the extraordinary geology of the desert within the park. Some points of interest are: Artist's Drive, Artist's Palette, Badwater Basin, Ballarat, Dante's View, Devil's Cornfield, Devil's Golf Course, Mesquite Flat Dunes, Racetrack Playa Rhyolite, Scotty's Castle, Ubehebe Crater, Wildrose Charcoal Kilns and Zabriskie Point to name a few. You could also take a magnifying glass and walk into the desert anywhere and look closely at the ground and find all kinds of living things. All this can't be done in a day.

            Late afternoon on Saturday, cocktails were again served before we sat down for a great evening of introducing ourselves and telling our riding experiences during the past two days. Most were very animated and quite funny. After a great buffet dinner in a lower dining area of the inn we inducted two new members, one active and the other a non-resident from LA. Then we were off to bed to rest for the long ride home in the morning.

            There were several different departures for home on Sunday morning. A few left at 5 a.m. to go up 395 and over one of the Sierra passes, and another group left at 6 a.m. to go the fastest way to beat the heat. Then a few left at 7 a.m. to ride back to the cool coast and Cambria, and rise at 7 a.m. on Monday for a ride up Highway One to the Big Sur Inn for breakfast and arrival back to the Bay Area.

            Have a safe ride out there.