Dan here....A couple hours of windy riding out of Zion, we finally made it to Bryce Canyon NP. I think the bike was only heeled over at a 20 degree angle instead of the 30 degrees it was in northern AZ, so that was good. I'd always wanted to see Bryce, because the pictures of the weird spires were fascinating to me. We went straight to the main attraction of the park, the Bryce Amphitheater:
This was a short hike, with blue skies and good temps.
Not only was the Amphitheater amazing, but the views to the southwest went on forever!
Painters were a common site along this trail...can't imagine why...
Sarah down at the bottom.
The spires, sometimes called hoodoos, are an amazing example of erosion in progress. The only other place I've seen them this pronounced is up at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and never this many. The stone was so soft and flaky you could easily see how the forces of nature could carve them out.
Hi!
We had a long way still to go on our trip, so we decided to stay in a motel a bit past the park, in the tiny town of Tropic, UT, in which everything appeared to be owned by one Mormon family. They had free Books of Mormon at the one restaurant in town. However, the general store did carry this beer...from a brewery near Salt Lake, no less!
This one's for you, Dad!
The next day we headed through part of the Grand-Staircase National Monument, and through the town of Escalante. The Grand Staircase is a series of cliffs going down from central Utah though northern Arizona. The Mogollon (pronounced Mo-gi-yon) Rim and Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona are part of it, as are the Pink and White Cliffs in Utah. Past Escalante, Route 12 climbed up over some 9,000 ft passes, with great views of the Waterpocket Fold feature of Capitol Reef NP.
We based a lot of our route on the Butler Motorcycle Map for Utah, which rated the best roads for your two wheeled contraption. We found the recommendations to be spot on, with lots of smooth windy roads and elevation changes. With the bike loaded up and more heavy winds, it was slow going, but the journey was the destination on this trip.
Looking down into Capitol Reef.
When we made it to Capitol Reef, all the campsites in the park were full. We pitched our tent just outside the park in BLM land, and went back. We found that the only paved road in the park ended after just a couple miles, and that most of the park was only accessible by dirt road. No problem for the Strom if it was just one person with a bag, but two up and near the weight limit, we didn't want to try it. We did get a hero shot of Vendela the V-Strom in front of the cliffs.
After an hour or two in the park, we returned to our tent to find it full of sand. This area of Utah is all high desert, which, combined with the high winds that were the bane of our trip, means sand everywhere. We decided to bag camping for the night, and found a room at a HoJo. After some careful consideration, we realized that all future camping on this trip would be in similar conditions. The temps had also started to creep into the mid 90's, so we decided to bag the camping for the remainder of the trip, and mail our tent and other camping gear home to lighten up the bike a bit.
Astro and I are hearty campers, willing to rough it with the best of them (see last year's Colorado blog), but we are more inclined towards woods and high tundra camping. Desert camping brings its own set of challenges that we just didn't want to deal with after a day of getting blown around on a bike. We booked rooms in Moab and outside Canyonlands for the remainder of our trip, and posted our gear home the next day. The 60 pounds made a real difference in the ride, as well. There will be much more camping in our future, but not in the desert.
Highway 24 north of Hankville....the "Lost Highway" according to our motorcycle map.
Up next, Moab...