A long-awaited trip to Joshua Tree National Park finally realized.

I fell in love with the desert in the summer of 2024 when a group of us drove through a section of the Mojave Desert while in California. At the time, we were heading home to Alberta after spending the previous week riding the legendary Pacific Coast Highway on our motorcycles. The original plan had been to spend an afternoon exploring the desert landscape of Joshua Tree National Park, part of which is located within the Mojave Desert. But as we left Los Angeles the temperature started to rise, and as we neared Joshua Tree, the gauges on our bikes read around 45 C. 

The heat was overwhelming. For our safety, and that of our bikes, we choose to postpone our exploring and instead drove straight to the air-conditioned hotel room we had booked earlier that day. Not being able to stop longer at the park was a disappointment, but I had seen enough to know the desert’s beauty was undeniable and that I wanted to return to see more.

SPRING TRIP PLANNED

I didn’t have to wait long. At the beginning of 2025, my partner, Spencer, and I were planning our motorcycle trips for the year and decided we needed to visit the desert again. This time we chose to try and avoid the summertime heat and visit in the spring — April to be exact. We set about creating a route that would take us through Las Vegas, Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park. 

As anyone in Canada knows, springtime weather can be unpredictable, especially here in Calgary, where we call home. This is something we had to take into consideration when planning our trip. To keep things safe and simple, we decided to trailer my 2018 V7 Moto Guzzi and Spencer’s 2023 Harley-Davidson Road Glide ST to Las Vegas and set off from there. We would travel south through Montana, Idaho, Utah and Nevada — all states we had previously travelled through on our motorcycles, so it was familiar terrain. 

We knew what roads we wanted to take and our favourite places to stop. When the date finally rolled around, we were ready. We left Calgary at dawn on April 18, with the motorcycles in tow. Beautiful weather with clear roads meant the drive went off without a hitch, and in only two days, we arrived in Las Vegas, tired but excited.

FIRST RIDING DAY

We woke early, eager to unload the bikes and get on the road. To start the day, we headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to drive Red Rock Canyon Road. The road resembles a horseshoe, dipping into the canyons before ending up back in the city. Although not especially curvy, it was scenic, with towering ridges of red-coloured rocks lining the horizon. The ridges, although smaller…