The idea for this trip had germinated a couple of years before we actually got going. It was probably during a break in the action at a Broncos game that Rodger turned to me and asked if I'd ever been down to Durango. No, I hadn't. Well, he said, you should probably go. It can be really beautiful down there in the fall when the leaves are turning. He mentioned that he'd made it a habit to head down there in the fall for many years...
Thus was the idea planted for a fall trip. Unfortunately, I'd been too busy to get away often. I'd heard about the beauty of Zion and Bryce National Parks, and thought I'd like to take them in also.
The trip really didn't take shape until the summer of 2002 when I traded in an unreliable Italian Sports Touring Motorcycle for a brand new Yamaha FJR1300. I was also finishing up a big project at work as summer drew to a close, so the fall seemed like a great time to finally take the trip!
Rodger posted a request for ride suggestions to a couple of Ducati motorcycle mailing lists (Ducati.net and Bevelheads) that we both read (one of us more regularly than the other). He got a great number of replies and recommendations for roads to ride and sights to see in the area. He planned out a first cut at a route, and we decided the trip was on!
There was one slight hiccup. The last round of the World Superbike Races was on the Sunday after we were planning to leave. Since the point leaders Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards were only separated by one point in the standings, both Rodger and I agreed we'd have to wait until after the race to head out on the trip. After all, there are priorities...
I've now got a decent size townhouse with a guest bedroom (instead of a cramped single bedroom apartment). Rodger decided to ride down and spend the night at my place, and we'd leave from my place bright and early Monday morning. Rodger wisely expected to grab breakfast on the road, knowing that I'm a bachelor and correctly surmising there'd be no food in my refridgerator.
Rodger arrived Sunday afternoon on his Honda ST1100. We went over to Paul Moore's place to watch the races on Sunday night with a few other motorcycle racing fans (you know who you are!). We also wolfed down a few pieces of pizza, then headed back to my house for a good night's sleep.
In case you're wondering if it's a good idea to have pizza for supper the night before a long ride, let me point out that it takes a Fair Length of Time to pass through your system. 'Nuff said.
We started out on Monday morning, ready for a nice ride and glorious fall Colorado scenery. A short ride through Colorado Springs in morning rush hour traffic, then south out of town on highway 115 heading to Canon City. It was the last rush hour traffic we'd see until the end of the week! My kidneys quickly complained about the cold air and the vibration, and we made a quick pit stop in Penrose (about half an hour into the ride). One of the eternal issues with riding - no matter how many time you go before you leave, once the cold air and vibration hit, you'll need to go within an hour of setting out. Maybe other people don't have this problem...
From Penrose we headed west along highway 50 through the lovely Arkansas river valley. A great fall day, and a little more water in the river from the rains last week. We'd planned to stop at Texas Creek for breakfast, but the only restaurant in town was closed on Mondays. On to Salida. We found a good restaurant in Salida with humongous breakfast burritos. The waitress recommended we only get the half order unless we were really hungry - a good tip on her part! From Salida we kept heading west over Monarch Pass. The fall colors were definitely out over the pass, and the temperature dropped a bit now that we were out of the river valley.
We passed through Gunnison and on towards Montrose. The Blue Mesa reservoir west of Gunnison had pretty much dried out from the summer drought. In most places, it no longer looked like a reservoir - just a small stream with really wide banks... We waited for a little bit of construction near Cimmaron, and I snapped a couple of pictures of the hillsides.
At Montrose we headed south on highway 550 towards Ouray. Rodger had warned me this was a pretty nice section of highway, and the country near here was popular with the movie stars. Telluride is just over the Hills. We got a few more pictures of the town of Ouray, and the mines on the way up to Silverton.
We had a cup of coffee and some peach cobbler at a small bar in Silverton called Handlebars. It was one of those Colorado mining town bars that has been around for over a century, and has collected memorabilia from all time eras it's lived through - hunting and fishing trophies, miner's equipment, relics from both world wars, etc. A place I need to go back to and spend more time!
I also sighted the only other FJR1300 I saw on the entire trip - parked along the main street in Silverton (yes, it HAS more than one street!).
From Silverton, we headed over the Molas divide and down in to Durango, and grabbed a motel at the edge of town. The idea in Durango was to get supper and watch the Broncos game on Monday night football. If we'd known ahead of time, we certainly would have skipped the game - one of the worst embarrassments I ever expect to see broadcast on National Television!
Tuesday morning we woke early to frost on the bikes. Another breakfast burrito at the local restaurant (Mexican food is definitely my favorite local food in Colorado!) and we headed west on Highway 160. We soon arrived at Mesa Verde National Park - the first of many on this trip. Mesa Verde is a plateau that rises high above the surrounding valleys, and provides some spectacular views, but the most important historical point about it is the cliff dwellings that the Anasazi people built and then abandoned in the 1200s. We spent some time looking around in the park, and saw where the forest fires from earlier this summer had razed some of the Mesa. One of the burn areas we rode through was from a few summers before...
Like many places we visited on this trip, Mesa Verde really needs a few days to be properly appreciated. Unfortunately, I don't get all that much vacation, and I have to spread it out carefully! So we headed on.
As we were leaving Mesa Verde, a rainstorm was blowing in across the Mesa. We rode through rain coming out of the park for about an hour. I also got to check out how the reserve fuel gauge works on my new FJR. It's sort of cool - when you get down to only one gallon of gas left, it starts flashing reserve, and the tripmeter switches over to read how far you've traveled on reserve. We pulled into the gas station at Cortez with only 30 miles reading on reserve. I'm sure I had another 15 to 20 miles before I hit fumes!
From Cortez we headed southwest on 160 toward Four Corners. This was definitely new territory for me. As we headed along it became obvious there wasn't a beautification project along this highway - it seemed like there was at least two or three empty bottles per foot in the ditch. As we traveled along, we left the rain behind, but the wind began to pick up.
The next stop was at Four Corners. I can't say I recommend it as a tourist destination - there's a whole lot of nothing in that part of the country.
The actual Four Corners Monument (?) is about a half mile off the highway. The Navajos have recently set up a toll booth along the road to the site, and are charging 3 dollars a head for admission. We paid the price, and went in. I have to admit the situation had a certain element of absurdity to it. If you've ever seen the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, you may remember the scene where the sheriff sets up a toll booth in the middle of the desert. The Navajo toll booth reminded me a lot of that particular scene...
Our original plans were to then head north back into Utah and head through Mexican Hat and the Monument Valley. However, by this time it was mid afternoon, and we'd used a fair bit of the day at Mesa Verde. Another problem was rearing it's head - we were riding through a sandstorm! The wind was blowing at least 30 knots with some gusting, making for fun keeping the bikes going in a straight line. There was drifting sand blowing across the road, at times obscuring the surface. It reminded me a lot of drifting snow blowing across the roads in Northern Canada...
Rodger reminded me that we weren't really riding in the United States at that time, since we were on Navajo land. With that in mind, I kept a closer watch on the speed. A good thing - we passed about three patrol cars on the route from Four Corners to Kayenta. The desolation of Northern Arizona and perfectly straight roads seem to me like an ideal place to have a Montana style speed limit like I remember from my youth, "Reasonable and Prudent". However, we weren't in a hurry, so we behaved.
We kept heading west, and finally pulled off the highway at Kayenta to discuss our plans. We decided, on account of the windstorm, to find a motel and stay there for the night, and make a side trip up the highway into Monument Valley, and go as far as seemed reasonable in the sandstorm. Rodger had seen the valley before, but I hadn't.
While we were talking inside the restaurant, we were watching a couple of local dogs out in the parking lot. The dogs would move around the lot looking for a calm spot in the wind shadow behind a vehicle. As vehicles left, they'd wander over to the next closest vehicle left in the parking lot to find some more shade from the wind. By the time we'd talked over and re-arranged our plans, our bikes were the only two vehicles left in the lot, and the dogs were using them for shade. The dogs looked sad to see us leave...
We grabbed a hotel for the night (the most expensive place of the entire trip!) and dropped off the saddlebags. We then headed north into Monument Valley. We didn't go too far, just enough to get a few pictures, and then we decided to turn around and head back to get the bikes out of the sandstorm, as it was picking up.
When we'd returned to the hotel, we found a couple of other bikes parked beside our spot - a new 1800 Goldwing and an old CX650 Honda twin that I'd guess was about 20 years old. The windscreen on the CX650 had badly yellowed and looked to be sandblasted... The next morning we talked briefly with the owners. The guy on the CX650 was heading back to Seattle, although he said he wasn't in a hurry since he was retired from the Navy.
Our plans for that day were to head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and on from there. However, there was a choice between two roads - South through Tuba City and North through Page. The rider on the CX650 said he'd done the southern road before, and it was pretty desolate. Rodger had also done it, and agreed. So, having nothing to lose, we decided to take the northern road through Page. This turned out to be a good choice - the scenery included some nice buttes similar to Monument Valley, although not as many, and not as impressive. However, it was much better than the endless desert of the previous afternoon.
We stopped about half an hour out of Kayenta where the northern route junction was (Highway 98) and I plugged in my electric vest (the first time this trip I'd been plugged in).
We headed south out of Page and saw a dense rain cloud headed in from the west. Sure enough, we hit a downpour about 15 minutes later, and made our way down out of Antelope pass into the gorge in the pouring rain. We didn't stop as we crossed the Colorado river gorge, due to the rain, but we were stopped for construction anyways about 15 miles later. Luckily the rain had tapered off a bit by that time.
We continued west past the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and began climbing out of the broad valley up toward Jacobs Lake. As we got closer to Jacobs Lake, it began raining again, and got still colder. After my experience with the reserve part of my tank the day before, we decided to get gas at Jacobs Lake.
While parked at the gas station at Jacobs Lake, we saw a couple of other bikes. There weren't that many on the road for some reason. We also got hit up by a girl carrying a baby working an old tourist scam - "My boyfriend just beat me up and threw me out and I've got no place to go, etc...".
We got back on the bikes and started heading south toward the Canyon. As we rode we noticed the rain getting a bit thicker. Within five minutes it was painfully obvious that it was no longer rain, but snow...
I pulled off and checked with Rodger, and we agreed to keep going as long as it wasn't building up on the road or turning to ice. Thank The Lords of Motorcycling for Electrics Vests! It seemed like a long ride to the Canyon, although it was only about 40 miles. I was wiping snow and condensation off my visor about every 15 seconds through parts of the ride.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon about 1 pm. I really can't describe it, I won't try, and pictures DON'T do it justice - it definitely has to be seen to be believed! When we got there, we couldn't see all the way across the canyon due to the snow - it wasn't too heavy, but that canyon is BIG. We wandered around, and grabbed a sandwich in the cafeteria while we gulped coffee to warm up. Then back on the bikes...
The road back seemed to have more snow than before. I was having more trouble keeping my helmet visor clear. In desperation, I tried raising the windscreen - the FJR has a windscreen that can be raised or lowered by an electric motor. It seemed like a miracle! Before this I'd always thought it was just a gimmick, but it sure made a difference here!! Now I could see through my visor, although the snow was beginning to build up on the windscreen. Still, not so cold as to freeze or build up on the road...
We continued north and headed down off the Mesa, and as we went lower the snow gradually turned to rain. By the time we reached Fredonia, the rain had almost quit, and it was actually turning into a half decent day - if you were bundled up in an Aerostitch suit with an electric vest running!
We continued on to the northwest, and rode into Zion National Park a couple of hours before sunset. Zion is a fantastically beautiful park, and again, needed much more time than we had available. Rodger and I drove slowly through the park stopping often for pictures. As a side note for Sport Bikers, the park is patrolled by Park Rangers with radar in the car. We passed three of them in the time we spent in the park - luckily, we were obeying the speed limit... However, the roads in the park are really neat and twisty!
We rolled out of Zion about sunset, and decided to ride on up to Panguitch to spend the night, and then get up and see Bryce Canyon first thing in the morning. We headed north up highway 89 as dusk set in, and began climbing. As we rode, it began raining again - lightly at first, and then it began getting heavier. It got darker and colder as we continued. As we continued climbing, sure enough the rain began to turn to snow. We kept going, but it was definitely getting colder, and the snow was once again building up on the windscreen. I thanked whatever gods or designers had seen fit to put that electric screen on my motorcycle as we rode on...
Finally, about 8 pm by my dash clock, we rode into a small village - Hatch, Utah, as it turned out. There were a couple of motels there, and we pulled in at the first vacancy sign, and stumbled off the bikes. Luckily, they had rooms available (not a LOT of tourist business in Hatch, Utah in October, apparently). We asked the lady at the combination motel desk/ convenience store/ gas station if there was a restaurant in town. Why, yes, there was, and they were open for another hour!!!
We pulled the seats off the bikes (so they might stay a bit dry for the next day) and brought the saddle bags into the room, cleaned up, and walked down the road to the restaurant. We got there around 8:30, only to find they'd just shut down because there was no business that night... So, back to the motel.
The motel desk/convenience store had a few convenience store sandwiches, and a microwave. Since my only other alternative was a couple of powerbars that had lived in the front pocket of my Aerostitch suit for a couple of years, the sandwiches tasted pretty good.
We had been cold for a lot of time the previous day, and I think that had tired us out. In any case, we slept in until about 8:30 or so. We woke up to find an inch of fresh snow on the bikes. We weren't in a big hurry to leave the warm motel room as we discussed what to do that day!
The lady at the front desk had been replaced by a man this morning. According to what the lady had told us last night, the snow was supposed to let up this morning. The road was still damp, but no snow was falling although the clouds were pretty low overhead. In any case, there wasn't any point in staying where we were. We loaded up the bikes again, got gas, and set off north for Bryce Canyon. The Bryce turnoff was just a few miles north. As we headed east toward the park, the snow began to come down again. By the time we reached the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park, it was definitely snowing, and getting cold. We traded in the receipts for the last national parks we'd visited, added some cash, and ended up with an annual National Park pass. I'm sure the park Ranger thought we were nuts to be out in this weather...
The ranger told us that the road to Rainbow Point was closed on account of snow, and we'd only be able to go as far as Bryce Point. No matter, I was here to see the canyon!
As we road on, I noticed that slush was starting to build up on the road in a few places. I tried very hard to ignore it, and we shortly ended up at the parking lot. For the first time on the trip, Rodger and I felt like we were dressed for the occasion. Some of the tourists were dressed in shorts and light shirts - most of them got out of the car, felt the temperature and wind,and immediately got back in their car. Rodger and I walked to the view point and snapped some pictures. The walk along the rim of the canyon can only be described as cold and windy. We didn't bother to take our helmets off, since they were a big help in keeping us warm!
We headed east from Bryce Canyon after the short visit. As we went east, we were dropping altitude and heading into a valley. After about half an hour, the snow had stopped, the road was getting dry, and the temperature had gotten warmer. Not warm enough to turn off the vest, but at least my feet thawed out...
Highway 12 heading east from Bryce Canyon goes through some beautiful valleys and scenery, and over some fantastic passes - twisty roads, with lots of elevation changes. Highly recommended! We stopped at the village of Escalante since they had a Wells Fargo bank prominently visible as we rolled into town, and we needed a cash machine. As we passed through the Anasazi reservation town, it was about noon and some of the school kids waved at us as we passed by. We finally passed out of the last of the snow around 1 pm, and stopped to take some pictures of the valley down below - our first view of part of Capital Reef National Park, as it turned out. We stopped for a lunch of hot soup in Torrey.
We talked it over at lunch and decided to head east through Capital Reef park, and then head north to the interstate to make a beeline for Grand Junction in Colorado. The last weather forecast we'd heard made it sound like we'd just had one cold front pass over us, and another one would be rolling through in another day or so. It looked like we might have to get back to Denver by the weekend to avoid getting caught in more snow! So, we scrubbed the plans for spending the night in Moab and catching Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
So, on through Capital Reef Park, with more stops for pictures, and then up highway 24 toward Green River, Utah. It had to be the most desolate section of highway we rode during the trip. If you look at the road on the map, it looks like a straight line. The map doesn't lie.
We rolled into Grand Junction after a couple of hours on I-70. We got in a little after 6 pm and grabbed another motel for the night.
We woke up Friday Morning to partly cloudy skies, but not completely overcast - some blue was visible to the south. We decided to head south, but skip highway 141 (one of my favorite Colorado roads!) and head over McClure Pass. As we headed down highway 50, we could see a snowstorm on the top of Grand Mesa to the east. Neither of us had thought seriously about taking that route anyway!
We made a side trip to stop in Crawford to have breakfast at Joe Cocker's Mad Dog Cafe. As usual, excellent food and service. There were only two other people in the place besides us and the waitress. Rodger hadn't been to the cafe before.
After breakfast we headed east toward McClure Pass. The Paonia reservoir on the way up to McClure pass was almost empty. The drought in Colorado really took a toll on the reservoirs this year!
We stopped near the top of the pass to take a few more pictures of the leaves in the valley. At one stop, a driver in a Jeep pulled up behind me shortly after I'd parked my bike. Apparently we'd passed him, and he'd seen my bike, and wanted to stop and talk about it. He told me it was the first FJR he'd seen on the road.
We rode down off McClure Pass into Carbondale. The clouds didn't look too bad, there'd been no snow or rain today and the sky looked a bit more inviting to the south, so we decided to head over Independence Pass. For those that don't know Colorado, this means a trip through Aspen, Colorado, widely viewed as part of California (AKA Hollywood) rather than Colorado. It's not a decision to be taken lightly.
Another consideration to the Independence Pass route is that the pass tops out at 12,095 feet, and is often as not snow and gravel covered at the top, especially in October. On many maps, it also reads "Closed November through May". However, the road is REALLY nice and twisty!
We made another side trip at Aspen to head up to Maroon Bells Park. I'd never seen the place before but I'll definitely be back. There were still a fair number of people there despite it being midday Friday.
From here, on over Independence Pass! The road was as empty as I've ever seen it, and in pretty good shape, except that there was a fair amount of gravel in the corners above the 11,000 foot level. Other than the gravel, the road was clear and dry, although it was overcast.
We headed down into Buena Vista from the pass, electing to avoid Leadville and any more mountain passes. It would be a chance to warm up. For the first time in three days, I turned off the electric vest as we headed south along the Arkansas river. At Salida, we retraced our route from earlier in the week, and headed east along highway 50. It was just a short couple of hours back to Colorado Springs, and I was almost feeling warm when we hit Canon City. As we rode back into the Springs, we passed one of the few State Patrol cars we'd seen all week - on highway 115, of course, for those of you that ride in Colorado.
When I arrived home on Friday night it was around 6 pm. Rodger had headed straight north on the freeway instead of stopping at my place. There was a very ominous cloud front obscuring Pike's Peak and rolling in from the northwest - it looked like trouble and Rodger decided to try to run home ahead of it. I talked to him on the phone about an hour later, after he got home. He didn't hit bad weather, although the sky sure looked bad.
Rodger reported that the GPS unit he'd ordered for the trip had arrived a couple of days after we left. I had a message on my answering machine that my saddle bag liners were in - but not the handgrip warmers I'd ordered at the beginning of August. Who needs handgrip warmers unless it's cold enough to snow outside?
The final trip meter reading when I rolled into my garage was 1796 miles - not a lot for a five day ride, averaging only about 360 miles a day. However, we rode near the speed limit and stopped fairly often to take pictures and warm up. In summary, I definitely recommend the route, but I suggest riding it a little earlier in the year - like summer!
Rodger described a great idea to me at breakfast one morning while we were trying to figure out what the weather was going to be doing that day. We'd turned on the TV earlier to get the Weather Channel.
Now, note that the Weather Channel is not always available on your motel TV, especially if you're in a small town in Utah with a population less than 500 people. The Weather channel (and also CNN) that morning was full of the "weather news" - Hurricane Lili, and the devastation it had caused in Louisiana. Important information, to be sure, but we REALLY wanted to know if we might be riding into more snow that day, and where we might go to avoid it.
So, ask at the motel front desk. Local weather??
"We wait for the paper to be delivered from Flagstaff - it usually comes in sometime after 10."
We had hoped to be on the road a couple of hours before that. But look! We've got the local weather right here! Someone at the motel had printed out a web page from weather dot com for the local weather, and had it mounted in a plastic frame right there at the front desk!
Too bad it was from Saturday, about 4 days ago. Yesterday's USA Today had more current weather information.
So, if the American Motorcyclist Association were to set up a 1-800 number that members could call to get the latest weather forecast for a local area, I think most motorcyclists would be in a lot better position to plan daily trips. Don't most riders carry a cell phone on their rides now? But, that, like air fences, would be too useful.
