Western Express-TransAm, Van

The primary impetus for mapping the Western Express was to create a more direct and centrally positioned route for riding across the U.S. Moreover, the Western Express explores some of the most spectacular terrain on Earth, including the red-rock country of southern Utah and the San Juan Range of southwestern Colorado. Linking it with the eastern half of the TransAmerica Trail creates a cross-country route almost 500 miles shorter than the TransAm in its entirety.

From the City by the Bay, we’ll pedal eastward through lush agricultural valleys and over the lofty Sierra Nevada. We’ll take the “Loneliest Road in America” across Nevada, then visit several of the heralded national monuments and parks of southern Utah, pedal over the spine of the Rockies, and continue through the mountains to Pueblo, gateway to the Great Plains. There we’ll meet up with the TransAm Trail, which will take us through the wheat-growing country of Kansas, over the roller-coastering hills of southern Missouri, and on into southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia.