If you’re inspired by scenery in the great outdoors, consider these bike routes, and countless others that meander throughout the continent.
By Emily Fagan, F547779
November/December 2024
Cruising around North America in an RV provides a wonderful opportunity to ride a bicycle in a variety of scenic locations. We’ve been blessed to have sampled dozens of glorious bike paths, backcountry roads, and mountain biking trails, savoring magnificent views with every pedal stroke. Here are seven of our favorites.
UTAH: RED CANYON TO BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
Bryce Canyon National Park is one of America’s most majestic national parks, and it boasts an extensive paved multiuse trail system that begins outside the park in Red Canyon. Many people zip through Red Canyon on their way to Bryce Canyon and are caught off guard by the spectacular red rock formations as they zoom past. This special canyon is well worth stopping to explore and is also the beginning of a 17-mile-long paved bike trail system that takes you right into the heart of Bryce Canyon’s best views.
Starting as Red Canyon Trail in Red Canyon, the path weaves and winds its way past fabulous red rock vistas, traverses a bridge, and heads into Bryce Canyon City, where it briefly becomes a bike lane on the village’s main road. After passing the small cluster of hotels and restaurants, the trail transforms back into a paved path called the Bryce Canyon Shared-Use Path inside the national park. It takes you to each of the major viewpoints, culminating at Inspiration Point. We love doing this bike trail in sections, riding through the Red Canyon area one day and the Bryce Canyon portion on another day. E-bike rentals are available, and the high elevation makes the motorized assistance very handy.
Bicyclists have access to the sugary sand of Florida’s Emerald Coast.
FLORIDA: PENSACOLA BEACH TO NAVARRE BEACH BIKE PATH
There is nothing like riding a bike alongside the gorgeous sugar-sand beaches and vibrant turquoise water of Florida’s Emerald Coast. At Pensacola Beach, we headed east on a paved bike path that parallels the shoreline. After riding this path through town and willing ourselves not to stop at a resort hotel’s open-air beachside bar for a freshly blended margarita, we found ourselves passing happy sunbathers stretched out on the sand. Soon, the beach-goers gave way to a massive expanse of deserted white sand beach as we pedaled through a section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Seagulls and terns circled overhead while sandpipers darted in and out of the waves. After 17 miles of exhilarating cycling, we turned around at Navarre Beach to head back. On our return, we stopped for a quick dip in the ocean, immersed in the joy of feeling like we were on a tropical vacation. With wet hair and huge grins, we topped off the afternoon with one of those tasty margaritas at the beach bar!
Unforgettable mountain views thrill riders in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
WYOMING: GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK
Grand Teton National Park is a top-flight “must see” destination, and one of the best ways to enjoy it is from the seat of a bicycle. A 20-mile-or-so paved bike trail system, the Grand Teton Pathway, goes from the town of Jackson north to Jenny Lake, running parallel to scenic U.S. 89 for much of the way. The most dramatic section of the bike path leaves U.S. 89 at Moose Junction and goes alongside the base of the eye-popping Teton Mountain Range for 7 miles to the shores of Jenny Lake, passing many of the park’s most spectacular overlooks, historic buildings, and picnic areas along the way. The Jenny Lake Loop trail is for hikers only, but the views of the mountains reflected in the lake on this trail are so dazzling that it is well worth parking the bike for a spell and walking at least a short distance on this trail. Continuing on, cycling is allowed on the shoulder of the Teton Park Road up to Jackson Lake. However, turning around at this point and slowly riding the path back to Moose Junction while savoring the breathtaking vistas is our favorite way to go.
A paved bike path along Mississippi’s Natchez Trace is closed to commercial traffic.
MISSISSIPPI: NATCHEZ TRACE
For a step back in time, a bike ride along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi takes you through 10,000 years of history, back to the earliest days of the fur trappers and even further back to relics from the ancient Indians of past millennia. Originally carved by buffalo and other migrating animals, this 444-mile scenic drive between Natchez, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, is closed to commercial traffic and has a speed limit of 50 mph for its entire length. It is often ridden by touring cyclists as a multiday adventure ride. We combined towing our trailer and staying in campgrounds on the Trace with riding our bikes out and back for short sections.
In the 1700s, European traders would bring furs and other goods down the Mississippi by boat, sell them in Natchez (and even sell their boats there for lumber), and then walk back to Nashville and other points north to do it again. On our trip we saw unusual Indian burial mounds dating back 4,000 years and travelers’ “stands,” or inns, that were built just over 150 years ago. We loved the peacefulness of cycling along this beautiful winding road and were fascinated by the layers of history.
Hundreds of mountain biking trails crisscross the land around Sedona, Arizona.
ARIZONA: SEDONA MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS
Sedona, Arizona, is a small town nestled between towering red rock formations that are as exotic as they are beautiful. Best of all, it is home to over 400 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails. Regardless of your skill level, there is an awe-inspiring trail for you. For beginners, a ride on the Bell Rock Trail is one you will never forget. Traveling mostly over crushed rock with a few sections that traverse very grippy, easy-to-ride, flat and wide sandstone slabs, the hardest part of this ride is keeping an eye on where you’re going, because the views in every direction are so sensational. You will feel like you’re riding through a vacation brochure!
More experienced riders will appreciate the advanced trails in Sedona that range from medium difficulty to nearly impossible with stair steps up and down, jumps, narrow ledges, tight turns, and more. Although my husband, Mark, loves to challenge himself on the harder trails, I never tire of riding the easy Bell Rock Trail, and I feel totally fulfilled doing it again and again each time we visit Sedona.
In Alberta, riders take in the glacial peaks of Waterton Lakes National Park.
ALBERTA, CANADA: WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK
Waterton Lakes is the Canadian portion of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which straddles the border between Montana (Glacier National Park) and Alberta (Waterton Lakes National Park). This park is a little-known jewel that is truly a slice of heaven. Surrounded by the soaring Rocky Mountains, the heart of the park is along the northwestern banks of Upper Waterton Lake, where a small village and the Townsite Campground hug the shore.
The Kootenai Brown Trail is a paved multiuse road that offers unparalleled views of the mountains and lake as well as easy cycling. The area boasts several mountain biking trails as well; of those, the Crandell Trail is the most difficult. We loved riding our bikes in the crisp mountain air and stopping for an ice cream cone at the Big Scoop Ice Cream Parlour in the middle of the village on our way back.
The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in Idaho follows a former railroad line.
IDAHO: TRAIL OF THE COEUR D’ALENES
No list of bike trails would be complete without a Rails-to-Trails route, and one of the finest in North America is the 73-mile-long Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in Idaho. This mostly flat, paved path follows an old east-west Union Pacific railway route across the Idaho panhandle between the towns of Plummer and Mullan, going almost from border to border (Washington to Montana). The trail passes pretty lakes, streams, farmlands, and small towns, and we pedaled over old train bridges and the expansive Chatcolet Bridge as well. We rode the trail in 10-mile-long out-and-back sections each day for a week, loading our bikes into our pickup to access each trailhead. Our companions on the trail ranged from families and couples on their bikes to muddy moose tracks on the pavement! Most of the time, we were alone on the trail. From the historic Silver Valley, where silver was intensively mined in the 1800s, to vast Lake Coeur D’Alene to the Palouse Prairie, this is a family-friendly trail not to be missed.
Of course, dozens of other picturesque bike trails all across North America could probably rival these, but that’s the beauty of the RV lifestyle: You can have an unforgettable bicycling adventure in every corner of the land. Just load up your bikes, travel to somewhere scenic, and have a great ride!