Final Day

On Friday, Dave and I headed back to Denver to turn the bikes in. Just a simple run down I-70, nothing spectacular but I-70 is still pretty beautiful. We got a lot of miles done pretty fast and had some time to climb up Mt. Evans just west of Denver. Check out this view from 14,420 feet at the summit!

Mt. Evans is the highest paved road in North America, and the drive is easy for any car but VERY intimidating with sheer drops down the side of the mountain and lots of tight curves. Take it slow.

After Mt. Evans we grabbed a BBQ lunch in Denver and returned the bikes. I highly recommend Colorado Tourbikes, great place to rent any type of motorcycle.


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Well that's pretty much the end for this adventure.

Total trip miles: 2,027

Dirt Day

On Thursday, Dave and I decided we wantd to tackle a local dirt trail. This trail goes from Grand Junction, through Denver National Monument, through some back country desert, to Moab, UT. The paved section through the national park is pretty nice, I recommend it. No pics because we were on our way to the dirt section.

We followed DS Road. The cross streets had odd names, this one is 11 1/2, near 5 7/10 street the road turned to gravel.

This sign says "Colorado Utah Border"

 We headed towards the Sand Flats, hoping that we could get to Sand Flat Road into Moab.

 Dave is posing by a rockslide that was blocking the road, it would have stopped any four-wheel vehicle, and was quite challenge even for us.

 Another shot of the rock slide.

 I thought this tree had been struck by lightning, but we soon saw a whole grove of burned trees. Must have been a wildfire a few (3-5) years ago.

Right after these trees, we came to a place where we were supposed to cross the Dolores river. We were only about 1 mile from reaching pavement, but the river had washed the crossing totally away, and it was totally impossible to cross. After coming about 30 miles down treacherous gravel, dirt, mud, hills, rocks, and sand we had to turn around and do it all over again. Thank goodness we had enough water and gas. No pics of this river crossing because I was too heart-broken.

Dave and I both had some trouble but we were able to make it back to base alive.

Upon reaching the cabin, some deer were hanging out near our parking spot:

This map doesn't have the route in it because the road isn't on Google Maps of course. But I plotted it out using satellite view. The point "K" is where we had to turn back because we couldn't cross the river.

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Trip miles to date: 1,690

Black Canyon

Wednesday we had a nice french toast breakfast and took off down Grand Mesa for Black Canyon National Park. This canyon is the greatest combination of depth and steepness (is that a word?). It's incredibly beautiful and I can't wait to come camp here for a night.

I gave the "Panorama" tool a real work-out for these.

I practiced my one-handed-cliff-riding technique to take some video of everyone else coming down the canyon.

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Trip miles to date: 1,465

Durango and back

Tuesday we took a day trip down to Durango and back. On the way South we took 550. This road has some great views, fun curves, and the road is in tip-top condition. The only drawback is the heavy traffic which took away a lot of the fun. But it was still a good experience. No pics of this part due to road rage.

<imagine photo of amazing scenery and heavy traffic>

On the way back up North we took 145. This road was fairly nice as well, but we got DUMPED on by a thunderstorm. Not only did this slow us down to a crawl, but we also had to cross a few rivers of bright red mud that were washing over the road. No pics of this section due to heavy rain.

<imagine photo of 20 feet wide, 8 inches of red mud covering highway>

To celebrate getting back to the cabin we put on some dry clothes, had some fried fish from what we caught yesterday, and did nothing. And it was great.


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Trip miles to date: 1,303

Leaving Moab

Monday morning we got on the road early to take the LONG way back to the cabin. We drove up into the La Sal mountains and then back north to follow the Colorado river up to I-70.

View of Colorado River valley coming down from La Sal mountains.

When we got back to the cabin we headed out to the lake for some trout fishing. We were able to catch rainbow and brown trout. Definitely got enough to feed everyone for dinner.

Dave pulling in a keeper.

Raider Red is not a good fisherman, luckily I did pretty well.
The evening brought out some wonderful stars. At 10,500 feet, and 50 miles to the nearest city, the night sky at the cabin is incredible.

Bike in the foreground of the night sky.

Here you can see the silhouette of the trees in front of the cabin.


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Trip miles to date: 910

!MOAB!

Sunday we decided to start the day by riding out to some canyon overlooks in Canyonlands National Park. First we went to Dead Horse State Park. With a very narrow pass, and sheer cliff walls on all other sides, this was the perfect place for cowboys to corral wild horses. They would drive herds of horses out onto this point, and then build a fence across the narrow strip of land to keep them in. Legend has it that a herd of horses died of thirst within view of the Colorado river, 2,000 feet below.

My parents came along with us for a few days.

Raider Red is my traveling buddy. No, I do not need to him to sleep.

After Dead Horse we headed to Canyonlands. Here, my parents took off on a tour of this amazing national park, while Dave and I headed off the beaten path. We took a dirt trail from the top of the canyon rim down to the bottom. It was a 30 mile trip that took us back into town, with a LOT of demanding trails, but with views that more than made up for it.

Dirt road with 1,000 cliff drops!

Dave on the edge!

This is the gravel road we took down from the rim to the base of the canyon. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little intimidated.

Desolate.

Amazing rock formations.

This is my "WTF?" look.

Another view of the steepest part of the trail.

Overlooking the Colorado River, about halfway down the 2,000 foot canyon.

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Trip miles to date: 715

To Utah

After a bacon and egg breakfast, we headed to Land's End at the top of Grand Mesa.

The ground squirrels and chipmunks are almost tame, and love to eat peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Then it was west towards Moab, UT. First stop was Arches National Park. It was HOT but it was great. The scenery and the rock formations are insanely gorgeous. Can you see any faces in the rocks?

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Trip miles to date: 620