Ride report: Utah, California (Death Valley), Monument Valley etc.
Did an 8000 mile tour last summer out to CA- meant to put up a trip report last Fall but got busy! Anyway....I always like seeing where other fellas go to give me perspective on where to go next so.....
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I have done the Pacific Coast Highway before, so the goal was to ride the inland mountain ranges and hit some places in UT and the like I meant to cross off the list.
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Started off blasting to Moab, UT. Bought the National Parks pass which gets you into any park for free, so, I hit as many as I could.
Arches is the big one to hit, and it was cool, but I liked the overlook at Canyonlands quite a bit. The valley was so vast....if you look closely you can see a road on the floor of the valley. Pretty cool.
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Monument Valley is a big area to hit for any of us. I recall a discussion (argument) on this forum last year about riding a bike thru the park, one fella said you could, one said you couldn't. Well, the definitive answer is - you can in a car but not on a motorcycle (this is directly from the mouth of the entrance booth). Regardless, got a few good pics. Ride down from Moab was pretty cool, Mexican Hat would be nice place to spend a night. Not much actually around Monument Valley to do - the 'visitors bureau' building is kinda vacant, guess I expected more....
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Dont buy a lot of souvenirs anymore (esp t-shirts) but a local booth used to fly this flag by the Valley, they sold it to me for $5. I thought it was a cool souvenir.
- Moki Dugway. Some jackwagon was driving a big 4x4 pulling a huge camper and got stuck midway down and had to turn around (I was coming the other way). Unclear why people do things like that. Road is clearly marked to avoid if towing something like that as there's no room for it.
Anyway, interesting ride....
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Probably the road I most enjoyed, and rode kinda by accident....Bicentennial Scenic Highway. Super cool road, huge sweepers and you could ride the entire road in 4th or 5h gear at speed. Nice comfortable ride. Loved it. Very vacant and scenic valley.
- Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument - pretty cool road, takes you along a mountain top so def have your game on when riding it. Far more scenic pics then what I took, but the road required attention so not many pics taken there.
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A blast down to the Grand Canyon for a day. I wasn't going to, but that pass I bought would get me in for free so...!
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Yosemite National Park. Note the foggy pictures- that is smoke due to the wildfires in CA last summer. As time went on I realized how many roads and detours had been closed due to fires. Yosemite itself closed a few weeks after I was there.
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Far side of Yosemite on Tioga Pass. It has an interesting history.
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Zion National Park. Ride thru it was cool, but the far end was touristy, lots of people and shops, not a fan of big crowds on a tour, so after enjoying the ride thru I headed on.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Death+Valley+National+Park/@36.4777615,-118.1708063,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xccc9f07c7bf2b054!8m2!3d36.5053891!4d-117.0794078 This was a bucket list ride. I started fresh after staying in a local hotel. The valley was def hot, 124 that day, then heat pushing up off the bike...rode on Badwater Road (the lowest point in the US), felt like a huge hairdryer blowing air on me all the day.
Still a pretty cool and interesting ride.
On the way out I started to feel a bit nauseous so did stop in Stovepipe Wells for an hour to just drink ice water, I think heat-stroke was setting in. I am usually pretty tolerant of heat or cold but in an area like this, even when chugging water and gatorade, it gets hot.
I like the vacancy of the region, the lack of people, crowds. I try to imagine centuries ago when people would head West, what they did when they encountered this. Pretty cool.
Ran across this by mistake, but it was pretty cool, and a super nice day so I enjoyed it. In Northern CA. That pass I bought got me in here free too. And glad it did, there was no detour once you headed that direction.
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After getting up to Redding, CA, the fires were getting bad and many roads/detours I was going to take were closed. Hwy 36 out to the coast for example. It had a bridge out and the Carr Fire had everything north of that closed So, as I'd been to the coast before I headed back towards NV and one more bucket list item.
Plus it was hot, hot hot and I wanted to get back into the mountains.
US 50 in Nevada- Americas Loneliest Road. This was a bucket list item. I meant to hit it years ago on a different West Coast trip but it didn't fit, so, this was the day. yes, kinda boring but it felt historical.
Heading back home, I decided to hit some roads in CO, ones I had hit before but some years ago. It was kinda a bonus. Also it was much, much cooler then CA and the coast so it was refreshing.
, they've completely redone this road since I rode it last. Used to be a small mountain pass, not anymore.
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Peaches in Palisades. One couple at a local bar by Grand Junction wouldn't stop talking about them, so when in Rome... They weren't cheap though! Prob wouldn't do that again.
01-13-2019, 06:52 PM
Ride report: Utah, California (Death Valley), Monument Valley etc.
So, as I'd been to the coast before I headed back towards NV and one more bucket list item.
