about the trip
Shown above - Danny, Mike, Don, and Ray
This was a 9 day trip to Utah that began Friday, May 21, 2010 and ended Saturday afternoon, May 29, 2010.
the trip was 3,461 total miles.
average miles traveled per day 384.0
longest day ride was 509 (the first day)
total gallons of fuel consumed was - 75.7 gallons (Don's bike)
average miles per gallon - 46.6 miles per gallon (Don's bike)
29 stops for fuel with numerous other stops to stretch, view the scenery, and take photographs
Route is shown below with the route indicated in order A ... B....C...etc.NATIONAL PARKS VISITED
Grand Canyon National Park
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Capital Reef National Park
Arches National ParkOTHER IMPORTANT AREAS VISITED
Monument Valley
Glen Canyon National Recreational Area
Day 2 - Saturday, May 22
This day will turn out to be a very rough day for riding as we encounter very high winds out of the south - southeast between Amarillo & Gallup, especially west of Albuquerque. Winds are reported at 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. This makes for difficult riding on Interstate 40. We learn later that I-40 slightly west of our location was closed due to high winds.
We meet a group of riders from France who have rented Harley Davidson motorcycles in Chicago to ride old Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angles, CA. We later see them again on Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico
Day 3 - Sunday, May 23
We hope for better riding conditions today.... but we will be denied. Winds between Gallup, NM and Tuba City, Arizona are much, much worse that we experienced on Saturday. We encounter extremely high winds with gusts of 60 mph AND blowing sand that challenges our ability to continue. Finally we turn north at Tuba City and have the wind to our back as we continue to Page, AZ. I had hoped to visit Antelope Canyon but the tours had been discontinued due to the high winds.
Photos below are taken at Keams Corner, AZ - we have found the "middle of nowhere" it is definitely on highway 264 between Gallup, NM and Page, AZ. Note the reddish glow in the horizon ... little did we know of the severity of the winds and the blowing sand that awaited us. Frankly, the riding was so bad and so miserable that we have trouble finding words that truly discribe the conditions that we encountered between Keams Canyon and the turn off to Page, AZ.
Day 4 - Monday, May 24
Today we are hoping for better weather as we head for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. In route we stop at a scenic pull off with such high winds that we can hardly control the bikes. In the canyon areas, the wind is a funnel... it feels like a vortex. As we get closer to the Grand Canyon it begins to get cold.... we begin to meet cars with snow on the hoods and roofs... we wonder now what are we getting into. By the time we reach Jacob Lake Inn at the turn off the the North Rim we are COLD...COLD. It's 33 degrees. We are scrambling to find all the warm weather gear we have with us..
At this gas stop we meet a group of 17 Harley Davidson riders with 3 support vehicles that were all from Germany. They were from all parts of Germany and did not all know each other before they signed up for this tour. The tour group met in London and flew together to Los Angeles where they rented their Harley Davidson Motorcycloes.
We continue on to Zion National Park in southwest Utah. Photographs below are from Zion. At every turn we encounter such beautiful scenery and majestic views.
Today, we're in for a big surprise... it turns out to be one of the best days of riding we've ever experienced. The scenery was absolutely stunning. There was such a variety of landscape that it is simply impossible to describe. First we ride the over the mountain just east of Cedar City Utah, the summit is about 9000 feet. From there we go to Bryce Canyon National Park then northwest to Escalante where we encounter an incredible variety of landscape impossibe to imagine or describe. It was absolutely stunning. Every turn was jaw dropping beautiful. We go over another mountain in the Dixie National Forest with a summit of 9200 feet. We arrive Capital Reef National Park at precisely the perfect time as the sun is low and illuminates the view of Capital Reef National Park in a truly spectacular way. We ended the day with a late evening arrival in Hanksville, UT.
We begin the morning with a ride into Kolob Canyons which is a part of Zion located in the northwest corner of Zion National Park.
We leave the very small town of Hanksville and head down highway 95 through the desert and the White Canyon. All the beautiful desert flowers are in bloom and make a beautiful sight as we pass by. We also pass through the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area and the north end of the massive Lake Powell area. Our destination today is to reach Mexican Hat and the Monument Valley area. First we must descend the plateau via the very steep "Moki Dugway" which is a gravel road with a few paved sections in the very tight corners. The view is fabulous but riding down this steep one lane road in gravel, on a motorcylce requires our full attention.
On to Bluff, Blanding, Monticello, and Finally Moab, Utah. We find this restaurant in Bluff that has a lot of other bikers already there. The food is great and the break from the road and the heat and sand of Monument Valley was a relief.
We leave Arches National Park, head north and jump on I-70 east to Grand Junction, Colorado. We pickup highway 50 at Grand Junction, then to Montrose and Gunnison to cross the Rockies at Monarch Pass. We continue along and pickup the Arkansas River headwaters near Salida, Colorado. We ride along the beatiful river canyon, past Cotopaxi, Colorado to arrive Canon City, Colorado, home of the Royal Gorge.
From Canon CIty, Colorado it now a matter of getting home the fastest, shortest way. The weather has turned warm but we still have one more cool mountain pass to ride - Rotan Pass, just south of Trinidad, Colorado. Following Raton Pass it's on to Raton, Clayton, Dalhart, Dumas. Not much to see on that stretch of lonely highway. We arrive Childress about 5:00 pm and decide that this is far enough for the day.
The end of the trip is at hand. There are no more photo stops. All that's left are stops to stretch, buy fuel, and eat. As we ride to Texarkana we reflect on the vastness and the variety of the amazing landscapes we've seen through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
We are home safely and we haven't had a single mechanical problem! Thanks be to God!