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AZ - UT, or what I did on my summer vacation

Texas T

LD Rider
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Location
Sun Lakes & Show Low, Arizona
First Name
Brian
Vacation Ride Report - Arizona and Utah - June 24/30, 2010

Use the map controls to see the whole route



I'm going to break this into several postings as I don't know the forum limitations on a single post with photos. I'll input all the text first and then follow up with the photos. If you want to jump ahead and just look at photos with captions I have put 200 (of the 1500+ to choose from) on Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethorn/sets/72157624276754827/

This was the first multi-day, multi-state trip that Brenda and I have been on and we were joined by some friends from Southwest Rides (www.swrides.com): Mike and his wife Mary, and our mutual friend Sabine.

Lessons learned and general observations:
Pack the bike days in advance to make sure everything fits - don't assume that the laptop will fit in the side saddlebag just because you think it looks like it would and then find out the day you're supposed to leave that it won't and you have to juggle everything around again. And don't assume that the spousal unit also packed everything in the test. It's not fun to have packed saddlebags only to discover that now she needs to add just a "few" more things.

Once you get everything packed, get rid of about half of it because you're not going to need it or you can find alternatives on the road. For example, we each took a pair of sneakers but never once used them. The bathing suit stayed in the trunk as did most of the t-shirts. The jeans and flip-flops came out once but the shorts never did.

A netbook is now on the wish list for these trips. A full size notebook is not needed for the basic email and photo storage needs of a road trip.

LD Comfort "undergarments" rock! I wore the shorts one day but I wore the tights the remaining days along with the turtleneck long-sleeved shirt. No monkey-butt at all. I'll be buying another pair of tights and another long-sleeved shirt for me and Brenda. One of the great things about this product is that you can wear it all day, wash it out in the tub or the shower that night, roll it up in a towel to help get most of the moisture out and then hang it up to dry that night. In most cases it will be ready to go the next morning. If not, and if you have a spare pair to wear, just bungee net the damp clothes to the bike and they will be perfectly dry in short order. Since we were riding in dry climates, the slight amount of dampness I had in the hems dried out very quickly after putting them on.

Look very closely at your intended route (unless you're a "just go for it" rider). On our ride from Bryce Canyon to Torrey we went through the mountains, cresting at 9600 feet while wearing mesh gear. The temp dropped from 77 to 51 in a matter of minutes. Brrrrrr...

Use Sunscreen EVERY day, no matter how cool the temps are or how cloudy it is or how geared up you are. Slather up the back of your neck and don't forget to do your face even if you have a tinted shield.
Write your ride report EVERY night, or at a minimum write some notes about the day.

When resetting your trip meter, make sure it's the A meter for your gas mileage and not the B meter that was tracking your entire miles for the trip.

When the road sign says "Open Range", believe that you're going to run into horses/cattle until you have reason not to believe it.

When you stop in a pouring rainstorm and get off your bike to put on your rain gear, be sure to protect the sheepskin cover so that when you sit back down you're not sitting on a wet wool blanket.

When you're going to make arrangements to meet other riders at some point on the journey, be very specific as to when and where.

If you're going to share cell phone numbers to stay in contacts with other riders, make sure your phone carrier has coverage in the areas where you're going to be.

If your cell phone carrier doesn't provide coverage in areas where you are going to be, your phone will go into "search" mode (which really chews up the battery) and you will find out that you have a dead phone when you least expect it.

Be proud of yourself for buying the National Parks Annual Pass last year because that $80 really pays off in spades when you hit multiple parks and monuments in a week's time.

Even if you haven't been sick in two years Murphy's Law dictates that you will come down with a cold the day of your departure and you will find that all the convenience stores in all the podunk towns in the country will not carry any cough syrup, so carry Nyquil and Dayquil gel tabs with you even if you are feeling fine to begin with. I discovered that carrying Imodium was another good thing.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Drink water. Lots of it. And keep drinking it. Especially in this dry part of the country. Even if that causes you to stop more often to offload some of those fluids, it will be better for your muscles and your overall comfort. If you're getting cramps in your legs you probably don't have enough fluid in you.

Alieve is your friend. Two tablets before leaving in the morning would leave me pain-free for many hours.

A back brace / lumbar support is also very beneficial if you're in my age bracket. The pain I develop after many hours of riding is more up by my shoulder blades instead of being in my lower back.

Buying the Wing was the best decision I could have made. When I think about doing this kind of mileage on the Connie, I am so glad I took the plunge.

Make sure the settings on your GoPro are for Video, not for individual images every two seconds or you will have wasted a lot of battery life and digital space.

GoPro really needs a kit so that you can wire the camera to the bike for constant power, and they need a remote control so that you don't have to stop to turn the camera on/off.

When pulling photos and videos off the SD cards to store them on the portable hard drive, don't remove the folders or you'll wind up renaming a lot of files because they were duplicate names of the previous day's efforts.

When making motel reservations in advance, ensure you get a ground floor room. Carrying lots of stuff up stairs at the end of a long riding day is not fun, plus you don't have the bike right outside your door in case someone decides to mess with it.

The exchange rate between the Dollar and the Euro must be pretty good as we saw/heard lots of Germans, some French, and a smattering of tourists from various other countries.

Check the forecast the day of your trip as the one you looked at a week prior may have changed by quite a bit.

A side benefit of having full saddlebags is that when your spouse finds some great Indian artwork or pottery on the trip all you have to say is "we don't have room".
 
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Temp variations: 104 when leaving on Thursday night (9 pm), 37 in Hatch UT on Sunday morning, and 104 again when we got home at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon.
Elevation variations: 1500' - 9600'
Daily mileage variations: less than 100 to over 400


Day 1
We both had to work this day and Brenda didn't get home until about 7 pm so we didn't hit the road until 8. In retrospect that was a good thing because the temps had "dropped" by then to 104. Today's ride was only to get us out of town and we stayed in Anthem on the north side of Phoenix. Mileage for the day was 80 miles. At the hotel in Anthem we saw a couple on a BMW GS from Ohio. They had been in Taos that morning when it was 26 degrees and had gotten into Phoenix that afternoon when it was 111. Quite a change for them. Hotel was the Hampton and it was as good as always.

Day 2
We were on the road before 6 am and headed for Flagstaff. It was slightly overcast and we ran into some small showers here and there but nothing that really required the rain gear. It was a bit chilly so I stopped for Brenda to put in her liner and I did kick on the grips for a while. At least the light rain helped in keeping down the smoke from the fires in the Flagstaff area.
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A stop for food and fuel in Flagstaff at 7:30 and then back on the road at 8 am, destination: the AZ / UT border north of Page, AZ. On SWR.com we play a game of tag in which one rider will take a photo of their bike at a certain location and in order for the next rider to post a photo of their bike at a new location they have to ride to the old location and get a photo there first. The current location was on the border at the "Arizona" sign looking back into AZ. This was my first trip to the Page area and the ride of the side of the canyon was spectacular. We stopped at an overlook that allowed you to see the Grand Canyon to the west and the Vermillion Cliffs that we would see on our ride to Jacob Lake.
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After snagging the tag we headed back south, crossing the Glen Canyon Dam and grabbing a Historical roadside marker photo there (another challenge on the site).
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On into Page we rode for fuel and then another trip through the canyon and soon we were westbound headed to Jacob Lake just north of the Grand Canyon. We passed by the Vermillion Cliffs and grabbed another Historical roadside marker before beginning the climb towards the Jacob Lake Inn.
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Tight hairpin as we begin the climb from the desert floor.
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Looking back on the Vermillion Cliffs.
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Soon enough we got to Jacob Lake and got checked in to our cabin. Although the food in the restaurant was good, I can't say much for the accommodations. Granted, it's about the only game in town since the Lodge at the North Rim was booked but I think I would look for something further away next time if the Lodge is booked, or at least not stay in one of the cabins.
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After unpacking a little we headed for the Rim. After a short ride on the 45 mile trip we had to stop and put on the rain gear, and wouldn't ya know it... as soon as the gear was on and we moved about a mile down the road the rain stopped and the sun came out! But we kept the gear on and it's a good thing we did. As we approached the Rim the rain began to come down in buckets during the last couple of miles and while we were parking and walking to the lodge. We were lucky though, another couple we talked to had arrived just a little before us and they had gotten hailed on just before reaching the Lodge. We had dinner at the Lodge (2 thumbs up) while looking out into the Canyon and watching the lightning strike on various places on the other side of the Rim.

We're about to get dumped on...
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Small herd of deer in the left center just in front of the trees...
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A couple of shots from the north rim shortly after it stopped pouring rain...
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After dinner there were a few more photos of the Canyon from the Lodge and then we headed back to our cabin. I had originally intended to stay and get photos during the sunset, but with the existing cloud cover, and as tired as I was I thought that heading home was the wisest decision. Although the few deer we had seen on the way to Rim had been far from the roadside, I had been warned that the deer in that area swarm all over after sunset. I turned the GoPro on and headed back north.

As we rounded one left hander we came upon a deer standing in the other lane. We slowed dramatically as we couldn't tell it's intentions. It made a couple of stutter steps into our lane as we got closer and I stayed on the brakes while looking for any companions on the side of the road. It then turned and bolted in the direction from where it had come and we continued on our way. Another couple of miles later we encountered a fox in my lane just watching me coming down the road. I laid on the horn and the fox took off like a scalded cat. This was the first time in my life I had seen a wild fox so that ranks up there on the Cool Factor scale. Soon we were back at our cabin and grabbing 40 winks. Mileage for the day was 431 miles = trip total of 511.
 
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Day 3
We got up early and into the cafe for breakfast at about 0630. Good food and a decent value but the service is a bit slow (yesterday's lunch too). They have great homemade bread and their herb mayonnaise on their BLTs is very good. Then fueled the bike and headed for the AZ/UT border, except this one was on the NW side of the state. This took us through Colorado City, home of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS. As we pulled to the side to get a photo of the city sign I explained to Brenda that what she sees in the HBO series Big Love has a lot of basis in this community. As we reached the end of the city we hit the Utah state line so I turned around and grabbed the new "tag" shot of this Arizona sign looking back into the state. One of our riders is heading for Alaska in a couple of weeks so if he doesn't grab it then I'll post a replacement photo that's a little closer in for someone to get.
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From Colorado City it was on into Hurricane, La Verkin, and then Virgin.

Here is a sign that I found to be funny because I work for WM. We save you money and they save your soul. :mrgreen:
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I had purposely picked this route into Zion because of all the road construction on the east entrance side and I wanted to ride Kolob Terrace that runs north out of Virgin. Unfortunately I was down to half a tank at that point and I wasn't sure what time it was in Utah and we were supposed to meet our fellow riders at the Visitor's Center at noon Utah time. We rode a couple of miles up the road, coming to a complete stop at one point when confronted by a frisky young bull. He was in the other lane, but his entire attention was on my bike so I stayed still under a shade tree and waited to see what he would do. He pawed the ground a little but never charged. If he had, I'm not sure what I would have done anyhow. A couple of cages passed me and he moved off the side of the road a little bit, but continued to keep his eyes on me. When a fourth car came along I just gave it the gas as they passed me and we scooted past the bull before he had time to react. We continued on another couple of miles but then turned around and headed for Springdale. On the way back to the main highway we saw the rancher trying to capture the young bull who was not standing on a small ridge up away from the road and keeping his distance from the rancher.
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Heading into Springdale with Zion looming in the background...
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We entered Zion from the west side and the ranger at the gate was good enough to warn us about the rough road conditions leaving the park on the other side. We were already aware of it, but it was still a good thing that they recognized we were on bikes and wanted to make sure we knew what lay ahead of us. We finally found a parking spot in the RV parking lot (they always recommend to park in Springdale and then take the free shuttle to the park) and headed to the Center to find our friends.

We were running about 5 minutes late so I thought I'd check my phone for any messages. This is when I discovered that my phone was dead. Fortunately I had the charger on the bike and I found an empty plug inside the center that I was able to use for about 20 minutes until I was found out by a park employee and told I couldn't use their plugs. Even so, I found that I didn't have any service so I couldn't access my voicemail or make any calls.

While the phone was charging a German tourist sat down and started a moto conversation. He rides a V-Rod in Germany and had lots of questions about touring in the US. He and his family were in a rented RV that they had picked up in Los Angeles and then went to Las Vegas and then to Zion. Salt Lake City was next on their agenda, then to San Francisco, and then down the PCH back to L.A. It was a real pleasure to speak with him. After waiting an additional hour for our friends we said "what the heck" and hopped on the free bus to tour the park. What more can I say about Zion? If you've already been there you know more than what I can explain in words. If you haven't been there yet than hopefully some of our photos will convince you to go. What a great place to visit!
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After the tour and still not seeing any sign of our friends, and with no way to contact them we decided to leave the park and head for our motel in Hatch. The ranger at the front gate was not kidding... the road was R-O-U-G-H.
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But the payoff was going through the tunnel at the end. I had not told Brenda about this, so it was a huge surprise to her to see the "windows" in the wall of the tunnel. I would have liked to talk with her about it on the intercom but the five Harleys in front of me all adhered to the "Loud Pipes Save Lives" mantra and it was absolutely deafening inside the tunnel. No wonder so many cage drivers take a dim view of all motorcyclists.
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A short tunnel on the east end...
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Just as we reached the end of the tunnel we found our friends in the line leading into the tunnel. Mike was in the middle of fiddling with his GoPro and didn't see me, and Sabine saw me but had not seen me on the Wing before and wasn't sure who it was that was wagging their finger at her. We parked for a few minutes to let the Wing cool down (it gets hot in slow, climbing traffic) and to see if they were going to turn around. After deciding that they were going to continue on to the park we headed for our evening rest spot, the Mountain Ridge RV Park and Motel. (I highly recommend this place. Clean, comfortable, remodeled three years ago, and a good price)

Shortly after leaving the park we came across a herd of buffalo. Some of them were running across the meadow and it was just like something you would see in the movies with a big cloud of dust rising into the air as they moved en masse.
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En route to the motel we passed a large fenced meadow with a dozen or more elk just lounging about. I don't know if they jumped the fence and were just enjoying the green grass or if someone was actually raising them. We should have stopped and gotten some photos, but I was anxious to get to my bed.

Soon enough we were at the Mountain Ridge and unpacked for the night. Here's a shot of a homemade RV parked out front...
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We grabbed dinner at the place across the street (so-so service but good food) and then started to turn in for the night but our friends showed up about an hour later. We shared stories and then I headed for bed as I was really under the weather at this point. Mileage for the day was 169 = trip total of 680.

Represent!!!
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Day 4
We awoke to a chilly morning. 37 degrees to begin with, but with a cloud-free sunny day it didn't take long to warm up, plus we didn't have far to go. It was only 43 miles to the bottom of Bryce Canyon. Unlike Zion, the shuttles at Bryce are optional so we rode from the visitor center to a great viewpoint, then we jumped back on for the trip to the Lodge where we had a good breakfast buffet. Built in the 1920's, this is the place to stay if you're going to be spending some time at the park. Very nice.

Then it was back to the vistor center, hop on the bikes, and travel to the end of the road and take in various other viewpoints along the way. There are some fantastic views at this park and we only stopped at about six of them. This was also the only time that we saw antelope on the trip and there were lots of them.
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Mike, Sabine, Mary, and myself admiring the view...
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A hiking trail that cuts under one of the ridges...
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Our riding companions Mike and Mary...
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And Sabine...
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The mighty steeds in formation...
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Yours truly...
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A natural bridge...
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As we were leaving the park and coming into Bryce Canyon City we encountered our only adventure of the trip. Sabine's bike decided to lose the shifter pivot point bolt and she was stuck in 3rd gear. Forturnately this happened a quarter mile from a well-equipped repair shop just across the street from the Ruby Inn. It was Sunday and the mechanics weren't there but one of the guys working at the gas station / convenience store stepped up and found a bolt of sufficient size, and between that, a bunch of washers, and some locktite, she was back on the road within the hour. Now THAT is great customer service.

Walking the bike in...
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There is a big smile inside that helmet 45 minutes later...
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Next stop... the Tropic Ditch...
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When it's really hot outside and you're dressed in full gear, take advantage of the fact that you're dressed in LD Comfort undergear and just soak yourself in the cold (C O L D) water of the stream. Here I am about to lay belly down in the water. Ohhh, it was cold but it sure was better than the alternative...
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From there we headed to Torrey and the Sandstone Inn. On the map it looks like a nice ride, but here is where I failed to do my homework. Yes, it has a lot of twisties, but this is also the mountain range that took us up to 9600 feet, plus it threw in some rain while we were in our mesh jackets, plus cattle on the road, plus deer on the side. In a matter of a couple of miles the temps went from 77 to 51. It was a chilly ride.
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What would have been a very enjoyable spirited ride in the middle of the day turned into a very sedate and careful meandering through the woods in the late afternoon. When approaching the cattle, most would get off the road with a toot of the horn, but one cow and her two calves stood their ground and wouldn't budge. We had a stand-off for several minutes until momma decided to take her young ones with her to the grass on the other side.
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All of the deer that we encountered stayed off to the side of the road and fled upon our arrival once they noticed we were even there. One thing I've noticed about the Wing is that it is so quiet that I'm able to sneak up on a lot of these critters. That's good if I want to get some good photos, but not good in the sense that they don't hear me coming earlier and scatter before I'm even on the scene.

The Sandstone Inn was a pleasant place to stay and the food was decent. Unfortunately, since we didn't arrive for dinner until after 8 pm there weren't a lot of choices left on the menu for some of us but I would recommend the place to anyone needing lodging in that area. Remember that couple on the BMW GS I mentioned on Day 1? They were at the Inn as well, but I didn't get a chance to see them and they left out early the next morning. Mileage for the day was 173 = trip total of 853.
 
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Day 5
Daybreak brought us more sunshine and a quick ride to the Capitol Reef Vistor Center. From there we took the Scenic Drive down to the end of the paved section and it just reinforced to me how valuable a DS would be when exploring these parts of AZ and UT. On the way back out of the park we stopped at the Gifford House for a look at how the early Mormon settlers lived their lives. After a short break we headed east to Hanksville and then south toward the Natural Bridges National Monument.
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Snuck up on this little guy and got a quick photo before he took off...
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It was at the NBNM that we said goodbye to Sabine, as she needed to be in Flagstaff that evening and we still had time left to kill.
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Before we reached Lake Powell we encountered mile after mile of Tar Snake Canyon. We had to tip-toe through these curves at a reduced rate because the tail-end of the bikes were just dancing all over the place. This was NOT a fun 10-20 mile section...
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It sure would have been nice to get off the bikes and take a dunk in the water...
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More riders enduring the heat...
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One of the Natural Bridges...
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Can you say "helmet hair"?
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A nice flower shot that Brenda took...
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After touring the monument (9 mile, self-guided loop) we got back to the visitor center, doused ourselves with the free well water spigot on site and headed for Mexican Hat, our lodging destination for the day. This is where the LD Comfort shirt really came in handy. I soaked it well, body and sleeves, and in the ensuring ride through 95+ temps I was actually chilled a little too much but it was certainly better than being too hot.


We opted out of taking 261 down to Mexican Hat. Although the unpaved section is only 2.5 miles, being two-up on a heavy Wing made me think that discretion is the better part of valor so we took the long way around. Soon enough we reached out lodging for the night at the Hat Rock Inn. It was nice enough but nothing great. I'd stay there again but some of the gravel in the parking lot is rather deep and that front wheel will push if you're not careful. Here's a shot from our room looking back into the river...
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The San Juan River runs directly behind the motel which provides for some good photos ops as well as lots of mosquito/gnat swatting. We had dinner down the street at the San Juan Inn Cafe. Don't expect much but the food was okay. It was fun to watch the German tourists look at the Mexican food that they had ordered and try to figure out what is in it before they starting eating. Mileage for the day was 251 = trip total of 1104.
 
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Day 6
The dawn again brought us clear, sunny skies and we were soon loaded and on our way to Monument Valley. This was my first time approaching from the north so I had Brenda (official moto photographer on our rides) prepared to start shooting as soon as we crested the last ridge and headed down into the valley.
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It has been 31 years since my last trip to this area and it sure has changed. There is a four mile paved road (nice road) to the View Hotel and Visitor Center which is fairly new. It costs $5/person to get into there, but for me it was worth it. You can also drive yourself on a 17 mile loop through the valley. When I was there in the past you weren't allowed into the valley without a Native guide so that too is a big change. You can still hire a guide/jeep to get into the more remote areas if you like. The loop road looked pretty well hard-packed and there were numerous cars making the trip. While we were there we had breakfast at the hotel with a great view of the Mittens from our table. After the obligatory photos with the buttes in the background we once again set off on our journey. Many of the photos didn't come out all that well because we had the rising sun behind them but oh well, what are you going to do when all you have to work with is a point & shoot?

My sweetie...
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The view from our breakfast table...
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Yummy breakfast...
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Gratuitous bike / background shot...
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Our next stop was Goulding's Lodge and Trading Post. This is where I had stayed 3 decades ago and I wanted to see if it looked like I remembered. They had added a new row of motel rooms and the cabin I had stayed in was gone entirely. So much for that sentimental journey. At least the runway was now paved.
Heading back to the main road from Gouldings...
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Coming out of Kayenta we ran into road work. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I broke out the TWT banner and had the sign guy hold one end and I had the other but the wind caught it just as Brenda snapped the shot...
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Miles and miles and miles and miles of this. We were hearing the ping of gravel against the bodywork for a full day after this...
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Leaving Monument Valley we set our sights on Canyon de Chelley; another place I haven't been to in over 30 years. The last time I was there we did the tour through the interior of the valleys and this time we just rode the rim. We started on the north side and then moved to a couple of spots on the south rim before we realized that with the rain clouds in the distance and with the miles yet to ride that we better get ourselves in gear.
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Use the pickup truck for perspective when looking at the size of the ruins on the valley floor...
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The clouds are threatening, the roads are inviting, it's time to leave...
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This was the beginning of three bouts of good luck. As we were heading out of the park we were slightly over the limit. An oncoming officer winked his red and blues at us; we gave him a wave, hit the brakes and slowed down for the rest of the trip out to the main road. Then about twenty miles later we had a DPS trooper coming around a curve going the other way behind two other cars that most likely didn't have enough time to get a radar lock on us and soon after we come up upon a Navajo Nation police officer rolling in the same direction as us. If he had been a slicktop I would have flown right on past him, but I was able to recognize the small lightbar on top of the vehicle before I made that mistake and we rode behind him for miles and miles and miles at 9 over the limit. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Navajo Nation police officer...
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We finally reached an intersection and sure enough, he turned in the direction in which we were going. Oh joy. But a few more miles down the road he turned off and as we kept a close watch he continued on his way while we wicked it up a bit. Those three encounters were the ONLY rolling police cars I observed on the way home and they were all within a 50 mile stretch. On our way north I encountered one DPS trooper up by Cameron going in the opposite direction and also at the tail end of a line of cars. I wasn't much over the limit so he probably figured I wasn't worth the time to make the U-turn and chase me down. And there was one Park Ranger on the trip back up from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that was rolling with radar but I was taking it easy on that road, more so from the fear of a close encounter with a deer than with a member of the LE community.

Hours later we rolled into Lakeside and using our Riders Rewards (sign up through Harley-Davidson) and AARP card we got a very nice room at the local Best Western at a good price. Mileage for the day was 365 = trip total of 1469.

For the benefit of Maverick on TWT. This is one of the Maverick Fuels trucks out of Flagstaff during a fuel stop in Show Low...
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Day 7
Breakfast in the morning was scrumptious and my mom got to drive over to join us for a little while before we left. A fuel stop in Globe, a quick stop at the DQ in Superior (they weren't open yet and I didn't feel like waiting the extra 15 min), a goodbye to our riding companions Mike and Mary, and 45 minutes later we rolled into our driveway in 100+ degree temps. Mileage for the day was 180 = trip total of 1649.

The filthy steed put away in the garage...
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So what's on the agenda for next year? I'm thinking either southern Colorado or northern New Mexico, or maybe a little of both. Wanna come along?
 
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Looks like a you two had a great trip! The pictures were very nice, they took me right back there. Its funny how much of our trip routes overlapped.

Lookes like you didn't do a whole lot better then us getting up that road out of Virgin. Maybe next time right.

The camera setting or lighting on one or two of the pictures seemed a bit off. Made you appear to have some gray in your beard. :lol2:

Maybe our paths will cross sometime on one of these rides. :clap:
 
The camera setting or lighting on one or two of the pictures seemed a bit off. Made you appear to have some gray in your beard. :lol2:
As someone else has in their sig line... that's not gray, that's chrome! :sun:

Maybe our paths will cross sometime on one of these rides. :clap:
I look forward to it.
 
Fantastic pictures. I was in that area around June 13 or 14 this last month. Had never been to the Grand Canyon before but had done most all of Utah and Colorado. Very much the eye opener as was the several cliff dweller locations me and bandit visited. Thanks for refreshing the memories.
 
Wow great pictures, and good memories of some of my favorite places on earth. I love the Grand Canyon north rim. Can't wait for my September trip to the Rockies (in a Jeep).

You may have said somewhere in your text (I skimmed a lot). What kind of camera(s) were you using?

-- Blessings. Tim in Arlington
 
You may have said somewhere in your text (I skimmed a lot). What kind of camera(s) were you using?
A Nikon point and shoot... S550

I took maybe 10 of the 1500+ photos. Brenda sits on the back and takes photos of whatever she likes plus the occasional direction from me (like the long road into Monument Valley), and then I download them to the laptop each night. She has even gotten to the point where she can change out the dead batteries while we are on the move.

I loaded 230 to Flickr and the rest are still sitting on the hard drive.
 
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