Day 15

this is one of the hog backs we rode down

thats the Colorado river

Day 15 (June 24) was probably the best day of the trip so far.  We had built the plan for this father/son excursion around the idea that we wanted to ride the White Rim Trail and today we completed the rather epic trip!

We started the day by trying to eat a good breakfast...carb loading with pancakes, oatmeal and some cereal.  We filled our camelbacks with ice water and brought two extra small water bottles each.  We even filled up on gatorade prior to leaving camp.  We had the GPS, a pretty robust first aid kit and some tools in case we had mechanical trouble.  Thankfully we didn't need any of it except the water.

The ride from our campground to the start of the WRT was 21 miles of asphalt driving through some very nice scenery on the road to Canyonlands NP.  The first 4 miles of the trail is actually Shafer Road which was built in the 1950's to haul uranium ore out of the canyon bottoms.  Fairly good road, but it edged along a 1,500 foot dropoff so we hugged the right side and were very wary of any vehicles coming up the other way.  The switchbacks in the road as it dropped to the white rim (literally a whitish rock layer that the trail follows around the whole park) are dramatic and we took them slow of course.  A great introduction to the rest of the day.

The trail then alternated between kind of fun trail riding on a packed dual track "road" and rather tense movement around the very edge of canyons dropping of 200-500 feet right next to the road. 

 Just when we'd get some speed up, we'd come around a curve and be right on the edge of some abyss!  We constantly had to keep our concentration.  We saw some great scenery including several arches...you can see Ben on top of the Mussleman Arch.

  We met a couple of guys who were driving a Land Rover around the trail and twice we saw them with their hood up adding coolant...they were friendly, but seemed like they should be heading to a Green Day concert rather than nursing their SUV through some of the most rugged terrain we've ever seen.  Flip flops, board shorts and a Justin Timberlake-like floppy hat must be the expedition wear this year.

We had to climb out on Horsethief Trail which was almost as dramatic as how we first started the trail.  By the time we hit pavement again (103 miles) we were pretty wiped out.  We rode back to camp, cleaned up and then went in to Moab for a well deserved pizza.  Great, great day of adventure. 

Day 14

Day 14 (June 23) was a slow, recovery day.  We woke up after a tough sleeping night.  Too many birds chirping too early.  We spent some time cleaning and organizing the van and then headed out for some riding. 

     Gemini Bridges Road connects Hwy 191 (out of Moab) to Hwy 313 (entrance road to Canyonlands NP) but is actually a pretty aggressive jeep trail past a couple of nice arches.  Good riding and desert scenery. 

 We connected to 313 and went in to Canyonlands. 

 We started down the Shafer Road to get a feel for tomorrow's White Rim Trail ride, but immediately were in for a surprise.  It's an old mining road that gets a lot of traffic, but it literally runs along the rim of a 1,500' canyon.  Very dicey, particularly when we turned around to head back up and had to ride on the outside edge!

   We checked in at the Visitors Center to get info on the White Rim trail and to get set for the ride.  After some nice "twisties" on the paved highway back to our campground, we ate a big dinner and then went for ride out toward Arches NP which is just behind our campground.  Pretty slow day, but we rested for the big ride tomorrow.

 

Day 13

Day 13 (June 22) we left Kanab and all the Model T'ers after buying a bit more food and water and to fill up with gas.  We expected to be out in the boonies of SE Utah and needed to ensure we had topped off.

    We stopped near Buckskin Gulch and Wire Pass, two slot canyons in the Paria River drainage, but didn't want to drive ~8 miles down a narrow dirt road to get to them.  Instead we pressed on towards Page, AZ and came across several interesting slots just of US 89 outside of Big Water, UT.  We could see Lake Powell in the distance so decided to pull of and do some hiking.  The first canyon we entered turned out to be the most interesting.  

After dropping down a couple of 4-6 foot drops we ran into a 15 foot drop and had to go back to the car for some climbing gear.  We cleared that drop only to find a 25' drop just around the next corner.  

This little canyon was apparently a locals' favorite as there was a knotted rope already in place.  Ben went down first and the old man was able to follow, though at the time I was pretty sure I'd be hiking out and around rather than coming back up the same way.  The canyon then widened as it got near the main river, but there was an interesting side slot that we chimneyed across to a nice little hidden box canyon.  

Getting out was a lot of work, but we managed and decided that was about the coolest hiking either of us had ever done.

   We continued on in to Page very hot and sweaty and decided to take a dip in Lake Powell.  We found a public access just up river from the Glen Canyon Dam.  We found a place with 8-20 foot cliffs and had a blast jumping/diving in to the lake.  A great way to cool off!

   We decided to head straight to Moab rather than split the trip in two parts.  We did see some of Monument Valley before it got too dark.  We arrived at our campground at about midnight and pitched our tent in the dark.  It really was a fun, productive day and we were able to reposition to Moab for the final few days.

Day 12

Day 12 (June 21) and we're off to Zion NP.  We had to drive for about 3 hours after breaking camp in Escalante.  The rain had turned our campsite in to a lot of mud, so we had to dry everything out and clean off the tent bottom.  Took longer than we expected, so we ended up getting in to the main canyon in Zion about 1:00 pm.  We did make a short detour to Bryce NP on the way.  We both agreed that it looks awesome, but didn't fire us up to go hiking.

When we finally cleared the tunnels leading into Zion from the East Entrance, we immediately caught the shuttle bus for The Grotto stop which is the trailhead to Angels' Landing.  Coincidently, its also the stop for the Emerald Pools which we hiked with Opa and Bee six years ago.  We started up the hike at about 2:45 and it was advertised as a 5 mile, 4 hour hike with 1,500 ft elevation change.  Little did we realize it was nearly 2.5 miles STRAIGHT UP!

The trail itself is really cool with switchbacks built into the mountain and a path that went right alongside several 1,000 ft dropoffs.  In some places it was about eight feet wide and the dropoffs were on both sides!  Pretty exciting and several people we passed were really having trouble with their fear of heights (good thing Grandpa Marty wasn't there or he wouldn't have let Ben complete it!).

Amazing views in both directions both down and up the valley as you can see (though the pictures don't give justice to the majesty of the place).

We rode the shuttle through the rest of the park then returned to our car for the drive to Kanab, UT.  On the way we stopped at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park because we had planned to stay there earlier in the trip.  It was a great place to ride dune buggies and ATVs but we would have struggled with our motorcycles in all that sand.

We're spending the night in Kanab with about 200 Model T owners who are in town for some kind of Model T enthusiasts' gathering.  Lots of vintage cars and vintage people here!  Tomorrow we're planning to explore the slot canyons of the Paria River to the west of here and then make our way around Lake Powell to Monument Valley and Blanding, UT.  

  

Day 11

Day 11 (June 20) brought drizzly rain and gloomy skies.  We'd rode hard yesterday, so we took the morning off.  Went into Escalante and had some breakfast sandwiches and found a laundry which was timely as our riding clothes were showing the dirt from all the dust and crashes!  Amazing that this little town in central Utah, in the middle of mountains and nowhere has wi-fi connections at just about every commercial establishment.  When we asked about cell coverage, the lady at the Phillips 66 station said, "Go out to the cemetery south of town, go around to the back side of it and get up next to the large rock, people sometimes get coverage there.  Or go to the Broken Bow RV park and back in next to the dumpsters, that works sometimes, too."  Wi-fi everywhere, but essentially no cell coverage...not only do we avoid face-to-face contact, now even the internet has priority over electronic voice communication (unless you don't mind roaming charges)!

After doing the laundry and loitering about town until about noon, we came back to camp and had a nap.  Quiet campground, cool weather and light raindrops falling conspired to make us sleepy.  That and the handful of Ibuprofin I'd taken hadn't kicked in yet!  We woke up to blue skies and went out looking for a canyon to hike.  We found one deep in the Aquarius range.  Lots of good scrambling (for about 4 miles roundtrip and 1,000 ft of elevation change) and incredible views.  A thunderstorm was developing south of us and headed our way so we hightailed it out of there worried about flash flooding in a box canyon. 

Ben has been noticing wildflowers during our trip and he saw this one on the hike.

Good thing we moved fast because as we were clearing the canyon a light rain started that rapidly turned in to heavy rain and small hail.  But, before that weather hit we were just getting back near the car, climbing out of riverbed when I heard a rattle.  Turned out Ben had just passed a two foot rattlesnake and I was just about to get in its personal space.  Ben turned quickly and hit it with a rock, then stepped on its head.  He cut off its head and we brought the body back to camp.  While he was skinning it, the snake's headless body kept moving and freaking him out.  He's got the rattle (five fully developed rattles) and the skin drying.  We were going to fry up a bit of rattlesnake for dinner but couldn't figure out where the edible meat was.

We came back to camp and hiked the one mile loop from our campground to the Escalante Petrified Forest (you can see the campground from the hike in the picture below).  LOTS of petrified wood scattered around and some logs laying in pieces.  Very interesting and a nice cap to what could have been kind of a bummer of a day.  Off to Zion National Park to hike Angels' Landing tomorrow!

Day 10

Day 10 (June 19) was a killer adventure!  Almost literally as we turned bikes upside down, crashed into each other and nearly lost Ben when he inadvertently went off-road going too fast into a curve.

We started the day by breaking camp at Otter Creek.  This was a great family state park with a nice reservoir, friendly staff, and access to riding trails right from the campground.  We headed south on Highway 12 (a designated Scenic Byway that REALLY earns the name) towards Escalante.  We took the Widtsoe road which looked like it went over the mountains and would save us about 45 miles of driving.  About 5 miles along the road we passed a film crew setting up for some kind of shoot and as we passed we saw the Little People from the TLC show, Little People/Big World getting ready to ride ATVs and horses out in the wilderness.  Just points out the fact that real life is better than reality TV...or at least that's what we told ourselves!

The road did go over the mountains and we had great views on both sides of the range.  Once at the top we could see ~50 miles out in to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and got a view of the Straight Cliffs which run ~70 miles out to Lake Powell.  We found our next camping site at the Escalante Petrified Forest SP and made quick work of setting up our camp.  The weather was awesome and the forecast called for thunderstorms tomorrow, so we mounted up and headed for the Hole In The Rock road.  57 miles from trailhead to Lake Powell  along the Straight Cliffs following an old Mormon trail.  We started at 3:00 p.m., and had great riding for the first 12 miles, but we missed the turn off to Devil's Garden and when I went to turn around, Ben had missed my hand signal and came barreling in to T-bone me.  Luckily he tucked and rolled over both bikes, but I got pinned under the Honda when it got knocked down.  Ben popped up like a trooper, but I had a big "dent" in my shin, several scrapes on my calf and a wrist I initially thought was broken.  The bikes took the worst of it, but when we got them upright they both started up though the hand guard on the Kawasaki was broken off and the left side of the handlebar was bent, and the left mirror on the Honda was smashed.  We went in to the Devil's Garden and assessed our wounds and the bikes' serviceability and decided to press on.  Good decision as the road went in to and out of canyons and dry washes, went over slickrock, and the whole length went through the most incredible scenery the entire distance.  At the Dance Hall Rock (where the Mormons used a natural amphitheater to play music and dance), Ben found a mini-slot canyon that looked real, though small scale.

The actual Hole In The Rock is a natural cleft in the cliff facing the then Colorado River (now Lake Powell) that a group of Mormons widened using dynamite in 1880.  They used the route to get their people and supplies down to the river to then cross and establish a community in the San Juan valley.  Ben climbed all the way down to Lake Powell (surprisingly warm) and I enjoyed the view!

We rode back with urgency since we had ~60 miles to go and it was already 7:15.  While hurrying along I chose the wrong track through a section of the road that had hardened after earlier rains.  There were big ruts in the road and I went over the handlebars when the bike slide into one of the troughs and the front wheel went sideways.  Ben said I did a nice barrel roll, and I didn't get hurt (physically anyway).  We pressed on a got back to town about 9:30.  My old body was aching everywhere so we decided to cap off the great day with a steak at the Cowboy Blues restaurant.  We were very late getting back to the camp and took quick showers and off to bed.  Great day!

Ben chillin' at our campsite before the big ride

Good view of the Hole In The Rock road and some of the switchbacks
Slot canyon 1/64th scale
Lake Powell view through the Hole In The Rock

Can you imagine lowering fully loaded wagons down this draw?  They did it in 1880.