Day 17 – White Rim Trail
After breakfast, we took what we had intended to only be a couple of hour ride. The ride lengthened out to 6 hours, 144 miles with about 60 miles being dirt, sand, and gravel. We rode up Moki Dugway, the mountain that has 3.3 miles of 10% grade, 5 mph hairpin turns, and only one lane most of the way. I had been looking on our Adventure Atlas for more roads to ride. Found one called White Rim Trail which was at the top of Moki Dugway. It was approximately 5 miles of nothing but dirt and sand that led us to a beautiful, huge canyon. A lot of the white boulders on top had large, round divots in them to hold water, and we found a crevice that had a large amount of water in it and tadpoles! Kevin got a little spooked at that point thinking that it was a great waterhole for animals (like Mountain Lions), thus the spookiness.
We soaked up Mother Nature’s beauty there for a while, photographed lizards, and we left in hopes to find the Natural Bridges National Monument. We were riding down a nice 2 lane nice road when we noticed a group of 4 motorcyclist bearing down on us. They passed us, not giving us the time of day, except for the last guy. How can I say this nicely? Kevin helped me in that saying they looked like Biker Gang material. I noticed that none of them had luggage or anything on their bikes except for the last guy, who was loaded down with what was probably all of the other 3 guy's stuff, thus, in theory, making him a Pledge. About 10 minutes later along comes another group of 9 "Gang" looking guys. They caught up with the other 4 and went on their merry way. Oh, the last group acknowledged us as they passed us. There is a "code" with most motorcyclists. When you see another fellow rider, you acknowledge him/her with the left hand out as in a wave. We always do a "V" when passing another rider.
We found the Monument. Unfortunately it was closed due to Covid-19 so we were unable to pay for the privilege to ride the open driving tour loop (dang! LOL). We explored parts of the first stop which was a large canyon with great echoing! Kevin did a Tarzan imitation which made him go into a cough episode.
Back on the bikes to the next stop, which was the actual arches. We could have hiked to the bottom of the canyon to get up close and personal with the arches, but we had already spent our energy hiking the other sites. I told Kevin that these type of facilities needed to let you know up front you could walk/hike to something, thus saving all your energy for the main attraction, but maybe they really don't want you to so they don't give you advance notice........................(you get to think a lot when riding a motorcycle).
At this point we've been riding at least 4 hours and were another couple hours back to camp (going the short way which would take us back up and over and down Moki Dugway - 3 hours going the long way). We opted for Moki Dugway. It seemed shorter doing down than up, but was a lot scarier going down. Kevin and I both hope to post our videos of us going up the mountain. Both our camera batteries had died by the time we went down it. Feel free to fast forward through the boring paved riding. The videos are straight from the cameras, no editing done on our part. Sorry!
Tomorrow we leave for our next destination which is Capital Reef National Park. It is supposed to be Utah's "hidden jewel". Until then!
Link for video. Moki Dugway
After breakfast, we took what we had intended to only be a couple of hour ride. The ride lengthened out to 6 hours, 144 miles with about 60 miles being dirt, sand, and gravel. We rode up Moki Dugway, the mountain that has 3.3 miles of 10% grade, 5 mph hairpin turns, and only one lane most of the way. I had been looking on our Adventure Atlas for more roads to ride. Found one called White Rim Trail which was at the top of Moki Dugway. It was approximately 5 miles of nothing but dirt and sand that led us to a beautiful, huge canyon. A lot of the white boulders on top had large, round divots in them to hold water, and we found a crevice that had a large amount of water in it and tadpoles! Kevin got a little spooked at that point thinking that it was a great waterhole for animals (like Mountain Lions), thus the spookiness.
We soaked up Mother Nature’s beauty there for a while, photographed lizards, and we left in hopes to find the Natural Bridges National Monument. We were riding down a nice 2 lane nice road when we noticed a group of 4 motorcyclist bearing down on us. They passed us, not giving us the time of day, except for the last guy. How can I say this nicely? Kevin helped me in that saying they looked like Biker Gang material. I noticed that none of them had luggage or anything on their bikes except for the last guy, who was loaded down with what was probably all of the other 3 guy's stuff, thus, in theory, making him a Pledge. About 10 minutes later along comes another group of 9 "Gang" looking guys. They caught up with the other 4 and went on their merry way. Oh, the last group acknowledged us as they passed us. There is a "code" with most motorcyclists. When you see another fellow rider, you acknowledge him/her with the left hand out as in a wave. We always do a "V" when passing another rider.
We found the Monument. Unfortunately it was closed due to Covid-19 so we were unable to pay for the privilege to ride the open driving tour loop (dang! LOL). We explored parts of the first stop which was a large canyon with great echoing! Kevin did a Tarzan imitation which made him go into a cough episode.
Back on the bikes to the next stop, which was the actual arches. We could have hiked to the bottom of the canyon to get up close and personal with the arches, but we had already spent our energy hiking the other sites. I told Kevin that these type of facilities needed to let you know up front you could walk/hike to something, thus saving all your energy for the main attraction, but maybe they really don't want you to so they don't give you advance notice........................(you get to think a lot when riding a motorcycle).
At this point we've been riding at least 4 hours and were another couple hours back to camp (going the short way which would take us back up and over and down Moki Dugway - 3 hours going the long way). We opted for Moki Dugway. It seemed shorter doing down than up, but was a lot scarier going down. Kevin and I both hope to post our videos of us going up the mountain. Both our camera batteries had died by the time we went down it. Feel free to fast forward through the boring paved riding. The videos are straight from the cameras, no editing done on our part. Sorry!
Tomorrow we leave for our next destination which is Capital Reef National Park. It is supposed to be Utah's "hidden jewel". Until then!
Link for video. Moki Dugway
Part 2. Part 2
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