We ll try to put up a kind of roadbook and try to remember which parts had a good shoulder, were gravel or pavement etc. of course we dont guarantee that it stays like that or maybe you’ll like parts a lot that we hated or the otherway round.
Yukon:
Klondike Highway> Dawson City to Whithehorse: narrow, no shoulder but little traffic, rough pavement, hilly okay
Alaska Highway: Whitehorse to Watson Lake: good shoulder, good pavement, less hills, good
British Colmbia:
Stewart-Cassiar HW: Watson Lake till Meziadin Juction: No shoulder, good pavement, till dease lake some potholes, relativly flat, not much traffic, easy and nice ride, good
Stewart-Cassiar HW: Meziadin Juction, Stewart, Stewart-Kitwanga: No shoulder, good pavement, more traffic, also logging trucks , but okay (Salmon Glacier, gravel , quite steep)
Kitwanga Hazelton> closed road with washout, steep but nice gravel, washout doable, if your allone you might have to carry panniers and then the bike but only for 200m
Hazelton to Quesnel: we hitchiked, but it looked quite busy, shoulder
Quesnel Wells, no shoulder , hilly , busy, once a week theres a shuttlebus,
Wells to Mc Leese Lake via Backroad: Super hilly, road grated in 2014 ( ther it was really bad ) from Caribou river for 40km, otherwise nice landscape no traffic, if you like backroads its a good ride.
Mc Leese Lake, via Williams Lake, Dog Creek, Pavillion on Backroads: road surface okay gravel, around dog creek super hilly, steep, but beautiful desert like landscape.
Pavillion Lilloet: small shoulder, traffic, but almost only downhill, okay
Duffi Lake road: Superhilly, traffic, partly no shoulder, be careful!
Pemperton via Whislter till Horseshoebay: Main highway, Shoulder okay, a lot of traffic , great landscape , but noisy
Twawassen Ferry till Hope:
Twawassen Ferry till Hope: Hw 7, flat, partly no shulder, but okay
Kettle Valley Trail: Choquihalla HW from Hope north: KVR doesnt exist in parts you have to go on HW wich is 3 lanes, no shoulder, but friendly Canadians, steep al together very bad! THen KVR first part with washouts (carry bike) then very deep gravel, then partly okay to princeton (very bumpy), to summerland we took the road instead of KVR, wich was fine, HW Summerland to Penticton busy but shoulder, KVR Beautiful for 15 km, then deep shity gravel, we took gravel road, wich was very steep but onky 5 instead of 20 km, then okay trail, at hte bridges and tunnels very beautiful. After that shity again , but nice dirt road next to it, than we went on HW 33 wih was pretty shoulde rnot much traffic very gentle downhill
HW 3 east (Crowsnest HW): Traffic, but okay, Shoulder, beautiful landscape , some passes but in generel not super hilly,
USA
HW 6 / US 89: beautiful hilly medium traffic till browning then HW 2 and Interstate 15 to Great falls which was both with nice shoulder
US 89 to Livingston: hilly but very pretty, not a lot of traffic , only partly shoulder further into Yellowstone, there no shoulder relativly busy, but no other way!
Yellowstone in Late September/Okt.: still busy, roads super narrow but not as bad as we feared unfortunalty some roads were already closed, long detours, very hilly! And partly not very interesting, dense forest
Grand TEtons: Great bike path till Jackson!
Jackson to south of Saltlake City Hitchhiking, didnt look interesting lot of Suburb area, very busy HWs
Utah: Price to Moab 191,I 15, 191: great, with shoulder, I 15 uphill, 191 to Moab ok, very busy narrow shoulder (way back super dangerous because no shoulder and lots of semi trucks)
In Arches and Canyonlands, hilly, no shoulder, but friendly traffic
BAck to Green River, then on 24 ( no water till Hanksville): shoulder relativly flat
We didnt take the 12, but 62 wich was pretty , not spectacular, but no traffic, then 22 to bryce canyon, good as well.
89, 9 to Zion, good, traffic, shoulder, in Zion big downhill:) to st George
St GEorge to Mesquite on old HW not Interstate wich was super hilly and exhausting but no traffic
I 15 to Las Vegas: great, good shoulder, silent pavement
California
160 to death Valley, shoulder an dlittle traffic, hills!
Panamint Valley, rel. flat, no traffic
178 to Bakersfiel, beginning little traffic, hill, pretty, from the Hot springs on super narrow lot of traffic , windy (get a ride!)
65 North to Exeter, ugly, but shoulder, 198 into Sequia NP, narrow but little traffic, pretty again
Road was already closed because of snow, we just went up into NP to the big trees and back down, super beautiful!
Central Valley, small roads via fresno onto 33 north : disgusting! Ugly landscape, smog ( pesticides) from orange orchards, lot of agressive big dogs like pit bulls, not leashed, coming after you, flat
152 west, beginning with shoulder, gets friendlier again but then
PAtchego Pass: Very Dangerous , 3 lanes NO SHOULDER and californian drivers are NOT friendly, dont give you space, we ushed the bikes up. Find someone to take you or a bus to go around somehow, before you start, we tried to hitchhike and no one picked us up!
after san juan bautista, stay on 101 for a little take first exit, go right and you ll find a nice road and street signsthat take you to one of the villages on the coast, hilly
HW 1 very beautiful but narrow and lots of traffic, mostly no seperate bike path
L.A. we got terribly lost, San diego is easy to avoid traffic with a little planning we took 94 to Tecate, hilly, little trafic
MExico
TEcate to MExicali (2): On pay road, space on shoulder, hard to find sleeping spot, very freindly semi trucks and genereal traffic, up hill for half of distance then the most beautiful downhillride we had so far! (WE are very happy not to have passed tijuana, heard lots of bad traffic stories)
Mex 5 via San Felipe: Mostly very wide, shoulder little traffic, beautiful landscape, in the south about 40 km gravel, not easy to ride but amazing landscape! Hilly
Mex 1 South, narrow, mostly no shoulder, but also little traffic, very firendly drivers only 1 time dangerous in genereal much better than US!
La Paz to Ferry in Pichilingue: Lot of traffic , little dangerou s, hilly but only 25 km
Los Mochis to San juan Bautista: BUS because we where in a hurry for christmas
Kangaroos on tour 