Glenn Canyon and Capital Reef (and more).

OK, before you read this, you should smother your credit cards in bacon and feed them to your dog. You will get them back (might need the vet..) but it will give you a couple days to settle down. If I was sitting home, thinking about work tomorrow, and started reading about riding a motorcycle across Utah, I'd quit my job, buy a bike and head west. Today has to have been the most beautiful riding I have seen, ever, period.

I left Farmington, NM around 8am and got pleasantly lost, but soon picked up Rt 64 west to Shiprock and then cross into Arizona to Teec Nos Pos (cottonwoods in a circle, I just knew that really(not)). 

It became quickly apparent that cell service was going to iffy so no cellular, no GPS Maps, no problem. I pulled over and scribbled all the turns (there were a lot) on a hotel receipt and stuck it in the gas cap. Dad would be proud.

It was actually kinda flat and moderately interesting riding but there was almost no traffic and the temperature was perfect. I at one point thought I would skip Capital Reef and just go north to Moab and ride those nice canyons up there and maybe catch Canyonlands, but I decided I could make it through Glen Canyon and Capital Reef and loop north to the interstate 70 and put some miles in toward Colorado.

Deb and I did Rt 95 in a cage (motorcycle term for car) and it was beautiful. An old Utah guy told us it was the most beautiful road in Utah and he was right.

 Glenn canyon is like Grand Canyon, but you can ride through it. There are no towns to speak of anywhere so you need to watch your gas. I got 95 octane at one point, but the Beemer laughs at low octane gas and ran fine. I had one cup of coffee all day as there really was not much other than gas station stores (aka bad coffee dispensaries) but no shakes tonight.

I must have stopped 20 times (poor starter) for pictures and I'll include a few here. It started as a really peaceful morning and I was just getting settled into not being at work and relaxing when all this damn beauty starting popping up. Roads were in good shape, except that section with those little tar worms that sealed the cracks and causes you to slide around a bit. The guys got a little carried away and I saw at least one set of tar line initials and one tar rainbow. Bet that was not DOT approved.

 Stopping and taking pics got kinda stupid because every time I thought I had the most amazing picture, I went a few miles down the road, and a better vista inevitably popped up.
Once I left Glenn Canyon, I headed right into Capital Reef, which is, in my opinion, not as nice, but it is very different. Lots of white rock and then grey sandstone, followed by deep red rock with dark streaks in it.
After Capital Reef you drop down into a valley that God must have decided should have plenty of water, and suddenly, everyone was growing hay and a little corn, and there were cattle and sheep and, yes indeed, llamas? Lots of irrigation rigs running and canals beside the road with water running in them.

 At the other end of this valley I had to turn north on Rt 72 to head up over a bald mountain range with grass growing and animals grazing. The temp dropped quite a bit and then going down the other side, the rock formation started up, as beautiful as before. I just couldn't take much more beauty so I headed to the interstate (Rt 70) to start back east, and damn it if that wasn't drop dead gorgeous as well. I guess I have never been on this section of Rt 70 or I would have remembered it. This section has almost no towns as well so I rode all the way to Green River.

The interstate speed limit is 80 by the way, but I puttered along at 65, not wanting to push the old girl too hard (out here with no BMW shop for 400 miles). Found a motel and a nice little local Mexican place, where I was entertained by the waitresses 2 daughter who were just starting pre-school and kindergarten. We spent a good amount of time discussing mixing different colors of Play-Dough and had some differences of opinion on the resulting colors. I forgot how many questions these age kids can ask and I assured heir mom I rather enjoyed the conversation as she tried to keep them from bugging me. Very cute and they were switching from Spanish to English easily. I asked what language their teacher used in class and she had to think about it. I don't think they even think of the two as different languages since they just speak whichever works. Cute.



I chatted up a couple bikers from Denver who both had 650 VStroms and of course loved them. I must say, some of those back roads the park service now makes available would be pretty enticing..

I stopped for tomorrows gum ration and the checkout guy told me all about his KTM and how he rides all the back roads.
I'm beat and will figure tomorrow out in the morning.
P.S. in case you have not noticed, I do not check grammar or spelling or anything, but just blister this together at the end of the day so, I really do know how to spell, but am just too damn tired. I'll fix it later. Good night!!