2025 Overland Motorcycle Calendar

Every October, Chantil and I look forward to pouring through the thousands of photographs from the last year of travel and painstakingly whittle them to the ‘best-of-the-best’ that make it to our yearly calendar. These photographs were chosen from our travels from October 2023 to September 2024 and each has the magical ability of pulling us back into the moment.

This is one of the reasons we look forward to publishing a calendar – We get to relive the experiences and memories of the last year of travel. However, the primary reason we put together these yearly calendars is to share the memories and hopefully inspire you to visit some of these places for yourself.

Without further ado, here are the 13 photographs that were choses for 2025 Overland Motorcycle Calendar:

Cover Photograph – The Alvord Desert, Oregon:

There is something quite awesome about riding a motorcycle on a dry lake bed! The hard packed dirt feels like you’re riding on pavement and the sense of openness is unreal – You can actually ride with your eyes closed for an entire minute or more! Surreal! 

January – Backcountry Discovery Route, Idaho

Riding the 1,250-mile length of the Backcountry Discovery Route in Idaho was an awesome experience – especially the southern part where we were able to ride quickly through the wide expanse of prairie that stretches from horizon to horizon. The sunsets here are quite spectacular with the golden light saturating the landscape in a beautiful orange color that made it perfect for snapping some lovely silhouette shots. 

February – Alvord Desert, Oregon Tuscany, Italy

At the beginning of the year, we bought a drone camera – The DJI Mini 3. This is a wonderful piece of electronics where we can capture some stunning video shots and a perspective that just wouldn’t be possible with a standard camera. This shot was taken a bit before sunset, and we had to position Chantil and the drone in the right spot to capture the shadow perfectly. Drones are pretty amazing!

March – Backcountry Discovery Route, Utah

Utah is a wonderful state for exploring the backcountry with so much diverse terrain! From the red-rock geology of the southern deserts to the evergreen pine forests of the mountains all throughout the state – Utah has so much to offer. We ended up riding the Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR) in two sections: In June we rode the southern portions and then returned in August to complete the BDR in the north.

April – Backcountry Discovery Route, Utah

When we decided to ride the BDR through Utah we were aware of the stunning desert scenery and layered red cliffs of the southern region. What we didn’t expect was to be riding through forests of Aspen trees while in the area south of Moab, but Bears Ears National Forest surprised us. Even on Memorial Day weekend, there was plenty of camping spots to enjoy a relaxing and quiet evening of camping in the wild. 

May – Fremont County, Wyoming

2024 was not the year that we thought we would be adding a couple of mini motorcycles to our stable, but when we passed through Moscow, Idaho we decided to stop at the Honda dealer to see if they had any Trail 125s in stock. Sure enough, they did! It was a yellow one and Chantil immediately fell in love with it. We bought it that day and then arranged for us to pick it up in a few weeks. Now that Chantil had a really cool retro bike, I wanted one as well! But finding a used Trail 125 can be pretty hard – Especially in the red color that I wanted. 

Thankfully we were able to find a used red one with only 17 miles on it in Denver. We arrived at the dealer with cash in hand and were soon the owners of another Honda Trail 125. Such fun! The only problem was getting the little red Honda back to Idaho where we planned to store it for when we visit Boise. We decided that the most cost-effective way was to ride it and then get a plane ticket back to Denver from Boise. So that’s what I did! I rode that little 125cc moto the 900 miles from Colorado to Idaho over a four-day period with one rest day. It was actually A LOT of fun and perhaps we’ll be riding these little bikes around the United States in the future trip!

June – Backcountry Discovery Route, Utah

Our personal journey of the Utah BDR started in June and we had hoped that we would be able to cross over the mountain passes that have winter snow on them well into July. Unfortunately, we weren’t – Any pass over 10,000 feet had blankets of snow still on the dirt roads, especially in the shadowed valley areas. We ended up having to bail on the BDR halfway through with the hopes that we could return later in the season to finish it. Thankfully the riding wasn’t over though! We were able to relish in some freshly opened lower mountain passes chocked full of spring flowers, mountain views, and plenty of blue skies. Lovely! 

July – Castle Valley Overlook, Utah

This area of the BDR was some of our favorite because it offered solitude from the insane Memorial Day weekend crowds of Moab. Most of the day was spent casually riding through the desert landscape and enjoying the perfect 65-degree temperatures. When we reached the Castle Valley Overlook we maneuvered my KLR650 precariously near the cliff edge to capture this shot. Was it worth it? Oh yeah!

August – Backcountry Discovery Route, Utah

By now you’ve noticed a lot of photographs of Utah! This is because Utah has so much stunning scenery that it’s pretty easy to frame a shot of an adventure motorcycle rolling through the diverse and beautiful landscapes. You may have also noticed that we are riding on a pair of Kawasaki KLR650s. We chose these bikes because they are relatively inexpensive, have a record of being exceptionally reliable and durable, and the engine size is adequate for loading them up for overland travel and camping. This last year we put on over 15,000 miles on these ‘mules’ and they have proven themselves ready for the next part of our overland travels through Central and South America. 

September – Backcountry Discovery Route, Idaho

The Idaho BDR has been on our bucket-list ever since we started riding ADV motorcycles, but completing the entire route can be challenging to schedule – The mountain regions are only passable in the summer and early fall months,  and the southern plain regions are much too hot to ride comfortably in the summer. Our solution was to ride Idaho in two sections at different times of the year. We rode the northern portion from the Canada border to Idaho City in the summer, and then waited for the fall to ride the southern portion from the Nevada border back to Idaho City. Our favorite section was riding the route where Lewis and Clark traveled through Idaho with the help of the Nez Perce Native Americans. We experienced challenging and beautiful terrain while getting a history lesson from the many historic plaques along the route. 

October – Backcountry Discovery Route, Colorado

Without a doubt one of the most beautiful places we rode through this year was Colorado. The 680 miles of the BDR took us through so many Aspen forests that we couldn’t imagine it getting any prettier, but each day continued to get increasingly magnificent. The grand finale was the last day in the section north of Steamboat Springs just before the Wyoming border, where we snapped this photograph of Chantil riding through this autumn wonderland! Her smile says it all – Doesn’t it?

November – Backcountry Discovery Route, Utah

Drone photography has come along way since it was introduced to the public over a decade ago. Every time we unfold and fly the DJI Mini 3 we’re mesmerized by the unique perspectives that you can capture from just a collection of electronics and plastic that together weigh only a half-pound. Take, for instance, this overhead view of an Aspen Forest in Bears Ears National Forest – Stunning! 

December – Nine Mile Canyon, Utah

This was one of those days that didn’t start well but ended well, thanks to this wonderful section of pavement called the Nine Mile Canyon. We started much further north where we woke to muddy dirt roads caused by the long night of rainstorms. One steep climbing section was so muddy and slippery that we decided to skip this off-road section and return to pavement, with the hopes that the roads would be dryer to the south. Turns out they were! Not only were the roads wonderful, but we saw a lot of interesting Native American petroglyphs. Nine Mile Canyon was one of our favorite memories of the Utah BDR.

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