I Walked Too Far....

At the end of this day, my body ached, not used to the distance I walked.

I drank a huge amount of water.

I forgot to put sun tan lotion on my nose. I now have a wrinkled red nose.

Despite those things, I had a great day!

Today was all about arches and canyons, for I saw many of both. I rode 152 miles today which doesn’t sound that far and it isn’t. Today was all about riding a short distance, parking the bike, walking to go see an arch or a canyon, walking back to the bike and riding a short distance again before repeating the cycle. I did this maybe 30 times and by the end of the day, my body was beginning to complain!

I started with riding along the Colorado River where not only the river, but the road as well, runs along the canyon. This is the canyon wall....

Look again at the picture above though. See that little blob in the bottom left hand corner? That is my bike and I took this picture to illustrate how tall the canyon walls are along this road – they tower above you! The road is Utah 279 to the west of Moab and it is pretty spectacular with sheers cliffs that are so vertical and cracked, they looked as if they might fall onto the road at any point.

Here is the it flows around one of its huge bends....

The area is obviously a favourite with people that like outdoor activities. Rock climbing, off-road motorbiking, camping, walking, cycling and running were all happening a great deal. Oddly though, this was a Saturday and I didn’t see many motorbikes on the road.

My research had showed me that some way along Utah 279 there was a large natural rock arch – Corona Arch - and I decided to try to find it. I arrived at a car park displaying directions of how to walk to the arch. I saw a few people who clearly take their walking seriously, with camel-backs, proper walking boots, terrain maps, walking poles and other gear setting out to walk the trail. The directions told me walkers had to register in a book, but didn’t say how far the arch was. This looked too serious for me. I got back on the bike and rode on.

After about 5 minutes of riding and thinking, I told myself I was a wimp and I turned around and went straight back to that car park. Of course I should walk to the arch. I hadn’t come all this way to chicken out of a walk and miss photographing something as good as this!

I grabbed my water and camera, left my leather jacket behind and started up the trail. It wasn’t an easy walk but it was fun. A couple of times I had to stop after walking / climbing up steep parts to catch my breath. It wasn’t a really hot day, but I was glad I took the water, which I drank most of during the walk. The other walkers had lightweight walking clothes on which were no doubt much more comfortable than my thick, Kevlar-lined, riding jeans. At one of my rest stops I saw and liked this scene....

At times the walk was so steep, there were safety ropes to assist you and even a ladder! My guess for the distance of the walk was a round trip of about 4 miles. It was probably less, but it felt like more. It was worth it though and I was rewarded with a first sight of the Corona Arch....

The arch is very elegant and is very tall, maybe 100 feet. It seems to spring out of the main cliff wall it sits next to and I can only guess that it was formed by water a long time before the rest of the canyon below it was formed. I waited until the other people there moved away so I could take my pictures....

Next to the arch is another formation in the rock. It looks like another arch is slowly forming as the weather wears away the rock forming a large hole. Whether this will turn into a full arch I don’t know, but my guess is yes....

Corona Arch was certainly worth the walk.

I then went to see Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Covering 527 square miles, this is an area largely unaffected by people. Apart from a few paved roads that us tourists use, its roads are mainly unpaved and little used. It is a remote place that remains truly wild. I was lucky enough to see what I later learnt was a Coyote which was an unexpected joy, but alas I wasn’t quick enough to get my camera out.

Access into Canyonlands is from the south east or the north. The entrances lead to different places in the park are a long way apart and this meant I only had time to do one of these and I chose the north. The paved roads are mostly at the original plateau level and take you to a series of overlooks where you look down into the valley that has been formed and carved by the free-flowing rivers over millions of years. Some of the views are breathtaking. This was the first I saw, called the Shafer Canyon Overlook...

From the Shafer Canyon overlook you also get a great view of the canyon wall and perhaps one of the most spectacular off-road tracks you will ever see. This is the Shafer Trail and I saw a lot of 4x4 off road vehicles and off-road bikes on the road. I was very tempted to try it on my Road King, but I watched some of the other vehicles on the trail and saw it was very bumpy. I didn’t want to risk dropping my bike on the rocks!

Anyone with an off-road bike (or a Ural) who is in the area must try this road. Dom – this means you!!!

This is looking down on the road....

Another two pictures looking down on the trail....

The paved roads in the park are good to ride as well. Don’t these curves just look so inviting....

One of the main overlook points not only has a fantastic view of the canyon below, but has the added benefit of a rock arch structure. This is Mesa Arch....

The main view point in the northern section of the park is called Grand View Point Overlook and the views are remarkable....

They even make the barriers look interesting....

Still within Canyonlands, this is the Green River Overlook....

And the Holeman Spring Canyon Overlook....

I liked the shape of this dead tree....

Towards the end of the day, I left Canyonlands and went to see the nearby Dead Horse State Park. The brochure I was handed as I entered the park says of the name “According to legend, Dead Horse Point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush, creating a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs. Cowboys then chosen the horses they wanted and for some reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below”.

I was there in the late afternoon which is not the best time to visit as you are looking in the same direction as the sun when looking at the main views....

I did see this terrific looking van, to which Austin Powers would have said “Groovy Baby!”

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Grand Junction Harley-Davidson

My front tyre was in need of replacing, and the Leading Ladies needed to be serviced(!) so day 115 saw me divert to Grand Junction in Colorado and the H-D dealer there. I had called just two days earlier and they were able to do the tyre and the service first thing in the morning. That meant leaving Moab early and riding the 117 miles in the chilly morning temperatures. By the time I got there I was cold.

The dealership is big....

This is Ryan, the technician working on my bike....

I have to say, they were very good. The bike felt much better after the work than before. They had even cured a rattle that I couldn’t find the source of. Good job guys!

On the return journey, now in the warm, I crossed the 17,000 miles point of my tour. Hear is the ‘000 mile photo, taken on US 191 heading south towards Moab....

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Goosenecks, Moki Dugway and A Bridge For Helen

Now if that isn’t a strange title to this post, then I don’t know what is.

About a year ago I saw a photo of the Colorado River in Goosenecks State Park. It showed the meandering river and how it had cut into the soft rock to form an amazing curving canyon, called Goosenecks. I knew I wanted to see it for myself. When I saw the picture, I realised the shot was taken with a fisheye and this was the inspiration for me to go out and buy one of these lenses for myself.

Being quite near to Goosenecks, I knew I would get there early in the morning and it was going to be a sunny day. On the way, I just knew the photos I took wouldn’t be good because of the sun making such intense shadows and I was right. The picture below is over exposed just to get some detail in the shadows....

It doesn’t look far with the view through the fisheye lens, but the rock outcrop in front of me was quite a long way away and I know I should have walked there to take the photo, but to be honest, I didn’t have the energy to do this as I knew the resultant photo would still not be very good. I resigned myself to sticking with what I had got!

Instead I walked along the ridge to get another shot of one of the bends....

In the car park at Goosenecks, I did meet a German couple who had shipped their own camper van over and were on a year’s road trip of the USA. I got a shot of the back of their van as they were driving away....

Very close by is a road called Moli Dugway. I have no idea why it is called that, but I will look it up. I had heard about this on a motorcycle forum I used to read and I had learnt it was a steep gravel road, but I didn’t know much more about it. This sign was the first indication I was near it....

The road rises up a steep cliff. As you ride up the cliff along the flat ground you cannot see any indication of the road and as I got nearer to the bottom of the cliff I wondered if the road did in fact climb the cliff at all as all I could see was a sheer cliff in front of me. I had mounted a video camera on the bike, so I will let the video tell some of the story of riding this road....




That was quite a road. I am getting somewhat used to riding on gravel roads now so I wasn’t too worried about this one. As long as I take it slow and brake only very gently, I feel relatively safe. Here are some photos I stooped and took....

This is the best overall shot of the road I took....

The road as it rises ....

I said it was steep!....

I love this bend....

This is a road that you really don’t want to fall off!....

Looking down at where I had just ridden....

The view from the top is stunning....

When I was at the top admiring the view, I met David and Lei Nani (a Hawaiian name). They are from Farmington, in North Western New Mexico. We chatted for sometime abou my trip, Lei Nanis ancestors and guns....

They were a really interesting couple. He had driven a huge rig on the Moki Dugway road about 20 years previously and he wanted to show Lei Nani where he had been. It was tough getting such a big vehicle around the bends, so he had to sleep here overnight before continuing his journey. She told me about her Mormon family that had travelled across the area in the 1880’s when her Great Grand-Father was a settler looking for somewhere to live. Times were very hard back then and I learned a little about how the settlers had to use ropes to raise and lower their wagons and supplies in order to cross the canyons that are prevalent in the area.

We talked about guns and David went and retrieved his from their truck to show me...

Coming from a country where it is illegal to have a gun, it seems strange that people feel a need to carry one. David told me he felt safer having one. I thought about this as I continued my journey and I suspect that if I lived in the US, I too would probably carry a gun, especially in particular areas such as near the Mexico border. I have watched some recent news items about the trouble the Mexico border states have with “illegals” and drug runners. I wouldn’t want to carry a gun, but so many people have told me they feel they need to, that I would probably feel the same way if I lived there....

I spoke on the telephone with my cousin’s long-term partner, Helen. I wanted to congratulate her for some terrific good news she had about a health issue she had been battling with for many years. Great news Helen!

When we were on the ‘phone, Helen told me of her love of bridges and just how much she had enjoyed seeing all of the photos of the bridges I had posted on my blog. Obviously encouraging me to include more, I thought today was an ideal opportunity to meet her wish, but not with the usual type of bridge! On day 114 I was to go see the Natural Bridges National Monument in southern Utah.

Located in White Canyon, there are three natural bridges. The most impressive of these (and thankfully the easiest to walk to down into the canyon and back up again) is Owachomo. This has a 180 foot span, is 106 feet high, is 27 feet wide and 9 feet thick. Made of sandstone, the desert stream would occasionally wear away at the rock and form a bridge structure. As the river bed got deeper, the bridge got higher. Today, the stream runs nearby and no longer runs underneath the bridge span. The natural bridge is spectacular and I hope Helen likes it.... I photographed it from both sides....

I walked down to where the desert stream runs today and the power of its waters became immediately obvious. It was not flowing, but it became clear that it had been just a day or so ago because there was water in parts of the river bed and undisturbed mud / sand patterns....

This is a wider shot of the stream bed....

If the water could move sand and mud into these patterns, then it must have been flowing quite fast. I can see how this would erode the weak sandstone rock over a long time.

After moving on from the Natural Bridges National Park, I headed west on Highway 95 and was intrigued to see the road run up a huge cliff. This is known as Comb Ridge and not only did it rise along the face of the cliff, when it nears the top, a whole section of the cliff has been removed to allow the road to pass through it. You can see the gap in the cliff in the photo below....

This is riding along the rising road just before it turns left and goes through where the cliff used to be! There were signs saying no stopping or parking because it was clear that many rocks had fallen in this area and no doubt many more would do in the future. The cliff was heavily cracked and huge (and I do mean HUGE) sections of the rock face looked as if they could fall at any minute. I didn’t hang around!....

I had to look twice when I saw this sign. Surely that should say Cottonwood?....

I checked the sign facing in the opposite direction....

Yep, Cottnowood was mis-spelt. Now, that’s not something you see every day!

As I rode north towards Moab, my stop for the night,, I passed Church Rock. Does it look like a church? I don’t think so....

Then I passed Wilson Arch, named after Joe Wilson, a local pioneer....

I then reached what must be one of the most over-the-top and inappropriate signs I have seen anywhere. What person in their right mind would paint this on a cliff, just to advertise a shop? This is commerciaslism gone mad....

If you look closely on the left of the sign, there is also a huge lizard sculpture fixed to the rock. This is a close up. Actually I like this, but I still didn’t go into the shop on principle as they had defaced the cliff....

I hope Helen liked the bridge!

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