Here we are (not the royal we, but Toto ‘n me) in San Francisco, and it’s been a long haul from Yellowstone. Out of the park and over the amazing Beartooth Pass.

It is one of those iconic routes that you start hearing about when you start meeting people on the road. It is an astonishing feat of road engineering besides giving spectacular views of mountains and valleys. It peaks at 10 947ft (that’s about 3 000m). Little wonder that it is closed from mid-October until late May (because of snow). And as you go higher and higher the trees thin out and there are stunning crystal lakes, right out of picture books.

Higher up there are patches of snow and the road levels out in the lake area, beautiful under a clear, icy sky. Then the road starts snaking, backwards, forwards, up and up and up. The mountain-top lakes drop away, distant patches of water, and the road finally breaches the top.

The drop going down is quicker and more dramatic (from a rider’s point of view – "bends s’ sharp yer c’n see yer ass comin’". No chance to check that, I just had to trust that my ass would catch up with the rest of me at the bottom.

Then a long dry run through Montana (think Free State summer temperatures and dry winter-veld conditions). Fire a real hazard.

Then just short of the Canadian border and a run through Glacier National Park, breathtakingly beautiful, just hit it at a bad time – Labour Day weekend and really the last breath of summer. Lot of traffic, but people are cool, pull over to let you pass, or visa versa, plenty of places to pull over if someone wants to get pass.

But Glacier, like Yellowstone, is a place to walk. Did some short walks (a mile or so) to catch some of the waterfalls and viewpoints.

Then on down Flathead Lake, largest non-man made lake west of the Mississippi.

What is amazing is how this whole continent has been shaped by glaciers and the continental divide. They literally changed the shape of the earth, even changed the directions of rivers.

From Triple Peak in Glacier, three rivers set off in different directions, to Hudson Bay, to the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

America’s wealth really lies in the amount of water that it has. Coming from a dry southern continent it is pretty astonishing.

So from Montana, through Idaho into Washington state to gaze on the volcano, Mount St Helens, somnulent for the mo, then west to arrive at the Pacific coast at Astoria, in north west Oregan, very pretty road down the west coast – but cold. Start of winter. Icy winds and a lot of fog. Really can’t wait to escape the Pacific.

Then into northern California and the Redwood forests. What can you say? Just beautiful, and amazing. And they have been around there for the past 10 000 years. How old do they get? Some say 2 000 years, ranger guide says we don’t know. They having an amazing capacity to regenerate, so if the parent tree is damaged or dies, its offspring take over, utilising its very shallow but far-reaching roots. These criss-cross with other trees, and according to scientists they share nutrients between them. Just amazing. Had a very informative talk from a ranger in Redwood National Forest, but he was keen to draw our attention to the much larger ecosystem of which the Redwoods are just a part. Anyway, in the pantomime of life, the Redwoods are the leading actors. One of the trees I saw was dated at 1 500 years old, was 350 ft high (but the top had been knocked off, and it was sprouting from the break.

Now in San Francisco, done the guided tour. Problem with a bike, there’s no co-pilot, no map reader, and you have got to keep your eyes on the road and signboards, which are generally very good. And there’s no one to scream at when it all goes wrong. That’s probably why people marry.

Spending tomorrow (Monday 11th) here, then heading to Yosemite and Sequoia National Park.