From Denver to San Francisco Via Yellowstone, Oregon and pacific coast.

[bebert100]

Hi; I'm from France and i'd like to cross the northern part of the US starting my trip from Chicago with the aim to reach SF in about 2 months.
I think i'll start it at the begining of August.
My questions are the following; which road do you advise me? (i'd like to cross Wyoming which seems to be great).
Is that possible (and allowed) to sleep in a tent next to the road or in forest?
Can you advise me a nice cycling road guide or map thatt it is possible to buy on the net (amazon for instance)?
Do you advise me to do a totally different travel which could be much greater? (actually i just need to reach San francisco; don't really care of my starting point; just need an international airport).

Thanks for all; do not hesitate to give me other nice informations.

[raybo]

When you say you want to "cross Wyoming" does that mean "all the way across" or just "ride a bit" in Wyoming?

If you want to see Wyoming, why not fly into Wyoming, ride around there, ride to the Oregon Coast and then down the Pacific Coast to San Francisco?  The US Pacific Coast is a world class bike ride and would be much preferred to riding through Nevada's deserts to get to San Francisco (the Western Express Trail).

Another idea is to fly into Montana (north of Wyoming), do a loop into/around Wyoming, and then back to the TransAmerica Trail to Eugene, Oregon, then the coast and down to San Francisco.

In July, 2009, I rode from Portland, Oregon to Jackson, WY (just south of Yellowstone), about half on the TransAm and the rest on my own route.  You can read my tour journal here.

Good luck and have a great ride.

Ray

[valygrl]

Fly to Denver, ride Great Parks North to Jasper Canada, make your way across British Columbia to Vancouver, ride down the coast to SF.

That would take a little more than 2 months, so you could stop in Oregon - maybe Portland - or you could keep riding till you run out of time and then rent a car or take a bus to where ever you are flying out of.

This would be good to start any time between mid-June and end of July.

[bebert100]

Thanks a lot for your answers.

I think i will do what raybo advises me.

I just have to check how to reach Wyoming by plane? and how many days will i need to do this.

I will bring with me my little tent.
Do you know if it is possible to sleep in a tent in forests? (Actually it is not allowed in France but i never had any problem doing this.)

Thanks.

[bebert100]

I think i'll do a mix of what you both said.

I'll flight to Denver then do a small part of the great divide in order to reach the TransAmerica trail.
Then i'll reach Portland (OR) and then Along the pacific coast til San Francisco.
 Does someone have an idea of how many miles or Km is it?
Do you know if during summer, TransAmerica is crowded or not?
Is that easy to sleep on that route?

Thanks from France.

[DU]

From the Silverthorne area on the transam, which is about 70 miles west of Denver, it is a little over 1800 miles to Florence, Oregon where the transam reaches the Pacific Ocean if you ride straight to the ocean from Eugene, Oregon. A lot of west bound riders take this option. It would then be about another 650 miles south to San Francisco.

There is a lot of free camping in city parks on the transam. I believe you can camp anywhere on National Forest land but other could address this and stealth camping better than I can.

[bebert100]

Thanks a lot, it sounds great and cheaper that what i was expected.
If someone is interested about doing the same kind of trip in Europe, he can ask me some advises.

I hope i'll make a lot of funny meetings.