backroads | ADVENTURE & OVERLAND MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL

PA Grand Canyon – Great place to ride your Adventure Motorycle

by WorldCrosser Admin | Sep 30, 2016 | Destinations, Dual Sport, Explore, Pennsylvania, Roads, Routes

Great Ride. Great Views.

The PA Grand Canyon is an incredible location to ride your motorcycle– no matter what type of bike you ride. On a nice day riders are everywhere, because the roads, trails and scenery in this area of Pennsylvania are awesome for motorcycles. Whether a dual sport, big adventure bikes or even sport bikes and cruisers. I recently rode a ADV bike up there. It was a full day of riding to get there from my house in New Jersey and when I arrived you could hardly find a spot in either of the two relatively large designated motorcycle parking areas. Both areas were packed full of bikes– all types. There must have been 75 bikes there if not more. The majority were cruisers but there were also adventure motorcycles, dual sports and the one that really caught my eye was a cool traveling scooter with traveling soft bags and the whole package. Looked like they were doing some serious cross country travel on the scooter. It is called the PA Grand Canyon by all and the souvenirs and shirts, all tout “PA Grand Canyon” as well, but technically it is the Pine Creek Gorge. And it is beautiful. There are two sides to the Gorge and each is a separate Pennsylvania State Park and, if you are into hiking like I am, the Turkey Trail connects the two parks together. Please note, if hiking the Turkey trail, you will need to cross the Pine creek to hike the whole Turkey trail from one side/park to the other, there is not a bridge and depending on the water table it can be an obstacle.

One side of the gorge is the Leonard Harrison State Park and the other is the Colton Point State Park. The Leonard Harrison side is more popular, as it has a visitor center, food truck, camping, bathhouse, ranger station, running water, and some other signs of a popular destination. The Colton Point side is much more subdued, it offers primitive camping and much more remote, although amenities do include pit toilets. ; ) So it depends on what you are after in your visit to the Pine Creek Gorge.

ADV Motorcycle Camping in Pennsylvania.

I camped on the Leonard Harrison side and it was a great spot, nice trees to hang my hammock tent, and only about a quarter mile from the trail entrance, lookout point and visitor center into the Gorge, campsites were clean and spacious, and the staff was so nice and friendly, for that matter so was everyone up there, visitors I met, as well as a local neighbor who sold me some wood for great price. It was a clear night and the stars were amazing up there, so bright and so many, I forgot how unbelievable the night sky can look when you are nowhere near a city and up in that higher altitude. There is cool phone app called Skyview that lets you identify stars, galaxies and constellations. See Skyview App.

The roads are amazing, twisty, and some steep hills that were like roller coasters on the bike. I advise planning a few days there, one for hiking, one for dual sporting and one for riding the wild PA Grand Canyon roads!

There are so many great roads and trails , but one great road in PA Route 6, also 414, and a cool water crossing at (41.573041, -77.335406), and there are just tons of great dual sport dirt roads and trails to ride around all day on. In short, the great roads and awesome tracks all around the area, make it an overall awesome adventure/dual sport location that you should put on your list to ride.

Awesome Photo courtesy of

Montanus Photography

Awesome Photo courtesy of

Montanus Photography

Awesome Photo courtesy of

Montanus Photography

I forgot to take picture of the onslaught of bikes parked up there at the PA Grand Canyon overlook, so if anyone happens to have a pic of all the bikes that are there on a nice day, please be so kind as to send one along for me to post. (feedback)

Thanks for reading and, as always, ride safe and have fun!

TAT – Trans-America Trail – ADV Ride Across the USA

by WorldCrosser Admin | Aug 31, 2015 | Destinations, Explore, Other Adventures, Roads, Routes

The Trans-America Trail, or TAT for short, is a American dual sport dream ADV ride across the US of A! It is a mix of dirt roads, farm roads, back roads, trails, and forest roads that go from southeast Tennessee and ends in southwest Oregon. And just like the TCAT, Trans-Canada Highway or many other long routes it can be broken down into sections or parts for shorter expeditions. As many of us don’t have a month or so to explore all that is offered on the TAT trail.

TAT or Trans-America Trail – An Adventure Motorcycle Ride Across the back roads and trails of the USA!

The TAT was originally mapped out by Sam Correro and he runs the website – http://www.transamtrail.com/ where you can get maps/gps files of the Trans-America Trail. Now Sam Correro, is respected as the father of the TAT trail, but many other passionate Adventure riders have extended the TAT and have improved the trail system even further by offering routes for different class adventure bikes. See ADV bike classes. And have also mapped out a complete coast to coast route as Sam’s route didn’t quite reach the east coast. So it is safe to say the TAT is a living growing trail system that many are now involved in making an amazing trans American route.

If you are interested in riding the TAT, another site that offers the maps and gps files for the TAT is gpsKEvin, see here. There is some controversy as to the ethics of gpsKevin’s offering these routes, many if not all gps files, after Sam has done so much of the leg work. gpsKevin’s initial take was “open-source” view where the trail and gps route is free to ride, but many feel it is a slight to the father of the TAT– now I believe the gps files are no longer free but he is charging for a MicroSD card for your GPS which obviously include his tracks. There is some concern that gpsKevin’s route may take riders across private land, where the land owner’s are not happy about the trespassing.

Another source for TAT route is TATtracks which takes Kevin’s route, but rerouted around all the private property, blocked roads, and closed gas stations. and best of all it’s free.

I’ll let you do your own due diligence and decide your own viewpoint on this one, but it is safe to say riding across America on an adventure bike will give you a taste of America from a real roots level.

And also check out the Big Dog who has rode many parts of the TAT and has a lot of great stuff on his site. http://www.bigdogadventures.com/

So get out there and Ride the TAT and explore the true America the ultimate way– on a motorcycle!

WorldCrosser has uniquely USA themed Trans-America Trail (TAT) stickers in stock.
Show off with a cool USA themed TAT sticker today.