Yesterday I think I must have been blessed. After the blustery, dusty, grit in the teeth ride of the day before, it was nigh on perfect. After a late departure from Kanab, I went through Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef National Parks and still covered about 300 miles. Today I continued through the Canyonlands NP, with even more spectacular scenery, but sadly, the wind had returned. What should have been a cloudless, blue sky was a murky brown due to the dust. The last two days was true sensory overload, and it reminded me of the folly of dragging out the superlatives too early. Sure I enjoyed the ride along the Rio Grande in Texas, and yes its worth doing. I imagine I am yet to see some even more spectacular country on this trip, but it will be a hard act to follow after yesterday and today. We all seem to overuse superlatives these days. Even a sandwich can be described as "Awesome", so its a bit hard to find the right words to describe the south of Utah. I'm glad I bought the $80 pass to the National Parks at the Grand Canyon, it paid for itself already yesterday. And yet again, I rattled off umpteen photos, and again they simply fail to capture the totality of what the eyes can see. But I'll tack a few in here anyway.
Zion NP is more than just a few rocks, you get to weave in close amongst these massive, vertical slabs of rock, looking at the coloured layers and observing the lifting, faulting, the erosion and then more of the same over and over. How long all these processes took to produce the forms we see today just plays with your head.
Bryce is different, with lots of sandstone eroded into weird shapes, on a very large scale, and many splendid vistas.
Capitol Reef NP as seen from State 24 was awesome, with mile after mile of massive red cliffs towering above the road, and a lot of evidence that every so often, really big bits break off !
But my favourite was Canyonlands NP. The sheer scale of these spectacular, isolated and rugged formations along both sides of the road was just astounding. Along State 95, I only had a mere glimpse of the hundreds of miles of red rock escarpment, containing Lake Powell. These were taken near Hite. The only thing missing was a coyote and a road runner!
The little white blob on the river is the town of Hite.
The big loop I am taking through this region is one of the Bear's rides from ARR magazine, and again he has nailed it. Quite apart from the sheer splendour of the Parks, its a damn fine bike ride as well, following the State 12 from Bryce thru Escalante and Boulder. After the first 2 parks, it was getting on a bit and I still had 170 miles to get to my hotel, so I had to hustle. The road between Boulder and Torrey took me up over a mountain range cresting at about 8000 ft and down the other side. There was very little wind and not much traffic, and lucky for me, no cops. I really do like the F650 when you wring its neck in the mid range, and the way it fires you out of the corners, it a very willing machine, and has a great soundtrack. Altho with all that gear on the back, I had to watch it a bit. One thing I have noticed around here is the habit of sealing cracks in the road by pouring in liquid bitumen. It leaves a smooth, convex line in the road, at all sorts of weird angles. All Road Authorities do it, but I think its a bit overdone here. Apart from the psychedelic effect on the eyes, its slippery, especially in the corners. While you try to keep away from it as much as possible its inevitable, and the number of times I felt the front wheel slip off this stuff, on a dry road, is unsettling. Perhaps if those goddam biker idiots stuck to the speed limit, there wouldn't be a problem. Guilty as charged, Your Honour. But its still some of the best riding I've ever had.
Zion NP is more than just a few rocks, you get to weave in close amongst these massive, vertical slabs of rock, looking at the coloured layers and observing the lifting, faulting, the erosion and then more of the same over and over. How long all these processes took to produce the forms we see today just plays with your head.
Bryce is different, with lots of sandstone eroded into weird shapes, on a very large scale, and many splendid vistas.
Capitol Reef NP as seen from State 24 was awesome, with mile after mile of massive red cliffs towering above the road, and a lot of evidence that every so often, really big bits break off !
But my favourite was Canyonlands NP. The sheer scale of these spectacular, isolated and rugged formations along both sides of the road was just astounding. Along State 95, I only had a mere glimpse of the hundreds of miles of red rock escarpment, containing Lake Powell. These were taken near Hite. The only thing missing was a coyote and a road runner!
The big loop I am taking through this region is one of the Bear's rides from ARR magazine, and again he has nailed it. Quite apart from the sheer splendour of the Parks, its a damn fine bike ride as well, following the State 12 from Bryce thru Escalante and Boulder. After the first 2 parks, it was getting on a bit and I still had 170 miles to get to my hotel, so I had to hustle. The road between Boulder and Torrey took me up over a mountain range cresting at about 8000 ft and down the other side. There was very little wind and not much traffic, and lucky for me, no cops. I really do like the F650 when you wring its neck in the mid range, and the way it fires you out of the corners, it a very willing machine, and has a great soundtrack. Altho with all that gear on the back, I had to watch it a bit. One thing I have noticed around here is the habit of sealing cracks in the road by pouring in liquid bitumen. It leaves a smooth, convex line in the road, at all sorts of weird angles. All Road Authorities do it, but I think its a bit overdone here. Apart from the psychedelic effect on the eyes, its slippery, especially in the corners. While you try to keep away from it as much as possible its inevitable, and the number of times I felt the front wheel slip off this stuff, on a dry road, is unsettling. Perhaps if those goddam biker idiots stuck to the speed limit, there wouldn't be a problem. Guilty as charged, Your Honour. But its still some of the best riding I've ever had.
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