Phoenix to Colorado

Stephanie,
You do not state where you are from and that you have only been to Seattle. Wow, do you have a treat in store for yourself!

First lets get the bad out of the way: The USA is a big country and if you toss in travel to our wonderful neighbors to the north, Canada is the second largest country in the world! So if you have the impression that you can get from,say, Phoenix to Denver is a few days you need to rethink distances. In 2006 I traveled solo from Belfast, Maine on the Atlantic north of Boston to Bellingham, Washington, north of Seattle and it took me 76 days start to finish with 12 days off the bike. Distance traveled 4000+ miles or6466 km.

Often the only means of transport from one town/city to the next is your bike or by automobile. Trains and buses are rare and only available between major cities. The USA and Canada are strictly auto centric. Long distances can be traveled by airlines and there is a skeleton route structure of passenger rail (Amtrak) and some commuter rail into larger cities. Amtrak does have some bike carriage capabilities but not universal. There also is some long distance bus transport and it can be possible to transport bicycles on the bus.

Major highway users (trucks and autos) seem to think that bicyclists should ride on bike trails or in parks. Bicycles are legal on all roads except the interstate highway system (often called freeways). Best travels are on local and country roads.
Suggest you investigate the following on the internet: Adventure Cycling Association. This organization promotes bicycle touring and published excellent maps covering over 40 thousand route miles in the USA and Canada.

Once one accepts the challenge of the highway and stays vigilant cycle touring in the USA is a great way to see the country and get to know the people. You will be pleasantly surprised at helpfulness and openness of people in small town America. Traveling country roads one can cycle for hours and only encounter a vehicle once or twice per hour.

Camping can be done "wild" in woods but technically one needs to get permission from land owners prior to use. Camp grounds and "RV" parks (Recreational Vehicles,Caravan Parks in the UK)can be great places to stay but most do not have European "on-site" restaurants.

During my cross country tour in 2006 while in North Dakota a elderly gentleman asked me if I would like to see his farm tractor collection. He explained that they had sold their farm and moved to town but he could not get agricultural tractors out of his "blood'. i followed him to his home and found that his engire garage had been enlarged so to fit 3 autos but was filled with miniature (collector's items) tractors still in the box they were sold in. There must have been 2000+ items. It looked like a store but was his collection.

Yes mountain passes and high altitude places will be cool to cold in April so suggest not heading too far north until May.

Questions? Please contact me and i will try to answer.

Enjoy and good luck.

C2Cin2006