My brother Kirk and I set out on Saturday morning for a 3 day trip through southern Utah and a smidgen of Arizona. We did our best to avoid freeways so as to maximize the motorcycle riding enjoyment.
Day 1, Destination: Boulder Utah. We started out on I-15, I know I said avoid freeways but we had to do this section, got off in Nephi and took Hwy 28 down to Hwy 89 and Dixie Nat'l Forest. At one point 89 disappeared, it literally disintegrated into a dirt road and disappeared and we had to get on I-70 to find 89 again, we took I-70 a little further into Fish lake Nat'l Forest than we anticipated. We made a U-turn and got off in Sevier and back on 89. We cruised through some nice mountainous country and saw Big Rock Candy Mountain. An odd yellow section of the mountain devoid of trees. It did sort of look like candy. We continued on to Marysvale where we got some lunch at the only place in town, The Prospector Cafe, at least I think that's the name of the place. The outside of the building advertised that they had the best burgers on Hwy. 89 so I figured that would be a good lunch. If those are the best burgers on 89 then I have pity for the poor folks along that 150 mile stretch of road. Lunch = terrible. Kirk and I were also pretty chilly at this point and found the cafe to be even colder than it was outside. We bundled up and rode on to Panguich where we decided that the dark clouds over Dixie Nat'l Forest looked like a bit much to deal with when we were already pretty cold, so we turned toward Bryce Canyon Nat'l Forest. Kirk had never been here before and we didn't have a lot of time to check out everything so we went to Inspiration Point and snapped some pictures, well Kirk did anyway, the batteries in my camera had died, good work on the pre-ride check on things Ryan. After we had a good look around at Bryce Canyon, which has some excellent motorcycle roads, we headed to Boulder for dinner and hotel. The Burr Trail lodge provided some tasty steaks which really hit the spot after a long day of riding and a less than adequate lunch. We stayed the night at Pole's Place Motel. Decent room though we only got 4 channels on the TV. So we had our choice between some Hallmark Channel type movie, a flickering NBA playoff game(the flickering made me nauseas), a soccer game, or some boring talk show.
Day 2, Destination: Kayenta Arizona. We started the day with some tasty breakfast and a waitress that had her eye on Kirk. We suited up in our rain gear when we saw the dark clouds over Boulder Mountain. Good thing too as we hit rain pretty quick and eventually got some snow, though it was pretty minimal. Despite the wet and cold conditions Boulder Mountain lived up to my memory of being one of the best stretches of motorcycle roads in Utah, maybe the country. We stopped in Torrey at the bottom of the mountain to warm up and had some company with a lot of other motorcyclists. While standing around I heard air suddenly escape from somewhere and was rather dismayed to look at my rear tire and see it go flat in a matter of seconds. For the non-motorcyclists you should understand that I can't carry a spare tire with me so this was a rather big deal, especially since my tires have tubes and it's a little more complicated than putting a plug in the tire or fixing the tube on a bicycle tire. We checked the tire for nails and didn't see anything so we rolled it over to the air hose and filled it up. It held air so we sat and had a snack to make sure it was going to keep holding air. After about 20 min. it looked good so we set off hoping for the best. We rode for a couple of hours to Hanksville where we had some lunch. This time lunch = great. We got back out to the bikes and my tire was still full of air so we gassed up and went on to what would be the best stretch of road on the trip, Glen Canyon and White Canyon, the former a little more than the latter. We got about 50 miles from Mexican Hat, the next real town we would hit and nature called so we stopped by the side of the road to take care of business. When I walked back to the bike and checked the tire it was clear that it was losing air quickly and within a minute it was totally flat. This was a little more distressing than the first time it happened because this time we were literally 50 miles from any sort of town and on a little traveled road. We flagged down about a dozen cars until we found one that had an air compressor. Again the tire held air so we high-tailed it to Blanding instead of Mexican Hat, figuring that we'd have a better chance of buying an air compressor and possible getting my tire fixed. We found the only store in town that was open over the weekend and bought their last air compressor along with some electrical connectors to rig it up to work from my battery since I don't have a power source. While standing in line I saw an older guy that looked like he may ride a motorcycle or atv. I asked him if there was a motorcycle shop in town and he laughed and said the closest one was in Moab about an hour and a half away. Then he told me he had a little auto shop at his house and he'd be happy to see if he could fix it. I was a little skeptical at first until we pulled up to his garage and I saw that he had made a Bonneville salt flats streamliner by hand. We got to work figuring out how to remove the rear wheel and after about 2 hours we had the tube patched and found the tiny nail that caused the problem. He declined any sort of payment so I wished him some good karma and headed down the road for some dinner. After a Subway sandwich Kirk and I headed out of town trying to take advantage of the last bit of sunlight as we hurried to Kayenta. We rode through Monument Valley and the Navajo reservation in the dark. This was a little dangerous because the reservation is all open range so the possibility of running into a cow is a real possibility. I like my steak tender, I just don't want to personally tenderize it with my head. We got to our hotel in Kayenta at about 10 o'clock. Rested quite well and got up early so we could have plenty of time to make it home on our third day.
Day 3, Destination: Home. We altered our day 3 plan a bit. We originally planned to go to 4 corners an head home from there. Since we rode through Monument Valley in the dark we decided to come back the way we came and check out the cool rock formations in the valley. We stopped a few times for pictures but the wind was pretty cold so we didn't hang around too long. We had to head back toward Hanksville but decided to take a different road that was marked as scenic on the map. The road headed right for a giant mesa and I figured there must be a road around or through a canyon. We soon found ourselves on a dirt road riding switchbacks on the edge of the mesa. At one point I stopped and had a look over the edge and we were a good thousand feet up. We ended up on top of the mesa and road through some nice juniper forest as we headed down to the valley floor on the other side, this time on a paved road. We went back through White Canyon and Glen Canyon for some awesome riding then had lunch in Hanksville again. From Hanksville we had to take some fairly strait highways and a little freeway to get to Price so I loaded up my iPod with some Led Zeppelin and set out down the road. We had a nice tailwind so we ate up a lot of miles pretty quickly an without much effort. We stopped in to Price, gassed up and had a snack while we got the feeling back in our backsides. By the time we got back on our bikes it had started to rain so we geared up and headed for the canyon and our last leg of the ride. The rain started coming down pretty hard so we took it easy. As we went up in altitude the temperature dropped and the rain started turning into small snow flakes. No big deal, I thought. Then it really started to snow and I was having a hard time keeping my helmet's face shield clear of snow. Just when I was really getting worried I spotted an OLD gas station, I tried to get Kirk's attention but his loud exhaust pipes drowned out my horn. I turned off because I didn't want to speed up to chase him down and I figured he'd see I wasn't behind him and turn around. I was pulling some gear out of my bag when he came back up the road, I still need to ask him how he managed to make a u-turn in that mess. The old guy in the gas station seemed happy to have some company. I doubt he sees more than one or two people a week during the winter. While we waited out the storm he told us all about the area. The building we were in was built in 1880 and was the last remaining building of the town of Colton UT. Apparently there had been a hotel, houses and some stores at one point. I'm not sure what happened to the other buildings, perhaps the highway that now went in front of the gas station took them all out. He showed us pictures of his grandpa with the Sundance Kid, they had a ranch in Circleville UT. He also had a picture of another grandpa with Jack Dempsey the heavyweight boxer. We watched the storm outside go from bad to worse and just as I was contemplating calling Jen to come and get us the storm started to mellow. After about an hour the storm passed and we headed out so we at least make it to a lower elevation so we didn't hit snow again. We got back to Orem where I found Jen happy to have me back and Bryn and Keira quite mad at me for being gone. It took some persuading to get a hug and a kiss out of them, but they came around. All in all we had a great time and it was a lot of fun going on this adventure with Kirk, our first real adventure together since we were kids.
I have pictures of all of this that I'll post later. I suspect Kirk and I will go on some more motorcycle adventures, we'll probably just do it in July when we don't have to worry about freezing to death in a snowstorm again.
Day 1, Destination: Boulder Utah. We started out on I-15, I know I said avoid freeways but we had to do this section, got off in Nephi and took Hwy 28 down to Hwy 89 and Dixie Nat'l Forest. At one point 89 disappeared, it literally disintegrated into a dirt road and disappeared and we had to get on I-70 to find 89 again, we took I-70 a little further into Fish lake Nat'l Forest than we anticipated. We made a U-turn and got off in Sevier and back on 89. We cruised through some nice mountainous country and saw Big Rock Candy Mountain. An odd yellow section of the mountain devoid of trees. It did sort of look like candy. We continued on to Marysvale where we got some lunch at the only place in town, The Prospector Cafe, at least I think that's the name of the place. The outside of the building advertised that they had the best burgers on Hwy. 89 so I figured that would be a good lunch. If those are the best burgers on 89 then I have pity for the poor folks along that 150 mile stretch of road. Lunch = terrible. Kirk and I were also pretty chilly at this point and found the cafe to be even colder than it was outside. We bundled up and rode on to Panguich where we decided that the dark clouds over Dixie Nat'l Forest looked like a bit much to deal with when we were already pretty cold, so we turned toward Bryce Canyon Nat'l Forest. Kirk had never been here before and we didn't have a lot of time to check out everything so we went to Inspiration Point and snapped some pictures, well Kirk did anyway, the batteries in my camera had died, good work on the pre-ride check on things Ryan. After we had a good look around at Bryce Canyon, which has some excellent motorcycle roads, we headed to Boulder for dinner and hotel. The Burr Trail lodge provided some tasty steaks which really hit the spot after a long day of riding and a less than adequate lunch. We stayed the night at Pole's Place Motel. Decent room though we only got 4 channels on the TV. So we had our choice between some Hallmark Channel type movie, a flickering NBA playoff game(the flickering made me nauseas), a soccer game, or some boring talk show.
Day 2, Destination: Kayenta Arizona. We started the day with some tasty breakfast and a waitress that had her eye on Kirk. We suited up in our rain gear when we saw the dark clouds over Boulder Mountain. Good thing too as we hit rain pretty quick and eventually got some snow, though it was pretty minimal. Despite the wet and cold conditions Boulder Mountain lived up to my memory of being one of the best stretches of motorcycle roads in Utah, maybe the country. We stopped in Torrey at the bottom of the mountain to warm up and had some company with a lot of other motorcyclists. While standing around I heard air suddenly escape from somewhere and was rather dismayed to look at my rear tire and see it go flat in a matter of seconds. For the non-motorcyclists you should understand that I can't carry a spare tire with me so this was a rather big deal, especially since my tires have tubes and it's a little more complicated than putting a plug in the tire or fixing the tube on a bicycle tire. We checked the tire for nails and didn't see anything so we rolled it over to the air hose and filled it up. It held air so we sat and had a snack to make sure it was going to keep holding air. After about 20 min. it looked good so we set off hoping for the best. We rode for a couple of hours to Hanksville where we had some lunch. This time lunch = great. We got back out to the bikes and my tire was still full of air so we gassed up and went on to what would be the best stretch of road on the trip, Glen Canyon and White Canyon, the former a little more than the latter. We got about 50 miles from Mexican Hat, the next real town we would hit and nature called so we stopped by the side of the road to take care of business. When I walked back to the bike and checked the tire it was clear that it was losing air quickly and within a minute it was totally flat. This was a little more distressing than the first time it happened because this time we were literally 50 miles from any sort of town and on a little traveled road. We flagged down about a dozen cars until we found one that had an air compressor. Again the tire held air so we high-tailed it to Blanding instead of Mexican Hat, figuring that we'd have a better chance of buying an air compressor and possible getting my tire fixed. We found the only store in town that was open over the weekend and bought their last air compressor along with some electrical connectors to rig it up to work from my battery since I don't have a power source. While standing in line I saw an older guy that looked like he may ride a motorcycle or atv. I asked him if there was a motorcycle shop in town and he laughed and said the closest one was in Moab about an hour and a half away. Then he told me he had a little auto shop at his house and he'd be happy to see if he could fix it. I was a little skeptical at first until we pulled up to his garage and I saw that he had made a Bonneville salt flats streamliner by hand. We got to work figuring out how to remove the rear wheel and after about 2 hours we had the tube patched and found the tiny nail that caused the problem. He declined any sort of payment so I wished him some good karma and headed down the road for some dinner. After a Subway sandwich Kirk and I headed out of town trying to take advantage of the last bit of sunlight as we hurried to Kayenta. We rode through Monument Valley and the Navajo reservation in the dark. This was a little dangerous because the reservation is all open range so the possibility of running into a cow is a real possibility. I like my steak tender, I just don't want to personally tenderize it with my head. We got to our hotel in Kayenta at about 10 o'clock. Rested quite well and got up early so we could have plenty of time to make it home on our third day.
Day 3, Destination: Home. We altered our day 3 plan a bit. We originally planned to go to 4 corners an head home from there. Since we rode through Monument Valley in the dark we decided to come back the way we came and check out the cool rock formations in the valley. We stopped a few times for pictures but the wind was pretty cold so we didn't hang around too long. We had to head back toward Hanksville but decided to take a different road that was marked as scenic on the map. The road headed right for a giant mesa and I figured there must be a road around or through a canyon. We soon found ourselves on a dirt road riding switchbacks on the edge of the mesa. At one point I stopped and had a look over the edge and we were a good thousand feet up. We ended up on top of the mesa and road through some nice juniper forest as we headed down to the valley floor on the other side, this time on a paved road. We went back through White Canyon and Glen Canyon for some awesome riding then had lunch in Hanksville again. From Hanksville we had to take some fairly strait highways and a little freeway to get to Price so I loaded up my iPod with some Led Zeppelin and set out down the road. We had a nice tailwind so we ate up a lot of miles pretty quickly an without much effort. We stopped in to Price, gassed up and had a snack while we got the feeling back in our backsides. By the time we got back on our bikes it had started to rain so we geared up and headed for the canyon and our last leg of the ride. The rain started coming down pretty hard so we took it easy. As we went up in altitude the temperature dropped and the rain started turning into small snow flakes. No big deal, I thought. Then it really started to snow and I was having a hard time keeping my helmet's face shield clear of snow. Just when I was really getting worried I spotted an OLD gas station, I tried to get Kirk's attention but his loud exhaust pipes drowned out my horn. I turned off because I didn't want to speed up to chase him down and I figured he'd see I wasn't behind him and turn around. I was pulling some gear out of my bag when he came back up the road, I still need to ask him how he managed to make a u-turn in that mess. The old guy in the gas station seemed happy to have some company. I doubt he sees more than one or two people a week during the winter. While we waited out the storm he told us all about the area. The building we were in was built in 1880 and was the last remaining building of the town of Colton UT. Apparently there had been a hotel, houses and some stores at one point. I'm not sure what happened to the other buildings, perhaps the highway that now went in front of the gas station took them all out. He showed us pictures of his grandpa with the Sundance Kid, they had a ranch in Circleville UT. He also had a picture of another grandpa with Jack Dempsey the heavyweight boxer. We watched the storm outside go from bad to worse and just as I was contemplating calling Jen to come and get us the storm started to mellow. After about an hour the storm passed and we headed out so we at least make it to a lower elevation so we didn't hit snow again. We got back to Orem where I found Jen happy to have me back and Bryn and Keira quite mad at me for being gone. It took some persuading to get a hug and a kiss out of them, but they came around. All in all we had a great time and it was a lot of fun going on this adventure with Kirk, our first real adventure together since we were kids.
I have pictures of all of this that I'll post later. I suspect Kirk and I will go on some more motorcycle adventures, we'll probably just do it in July when we don't have to worry about freezing to death in a snowstorm again.
