La Sal Loop and Castle Valley

Yesterday took the La Sal loop. Its about a 65 mile loop that starts or ends at Moab, UT.
The first 17 miles follows the Colorado River north. Turn right and in a few miles your in Castle Valley.
I came in at the far end of the valley, if you click on the picture you might be able to see where it got its name. Jennifer, I was here when you called. What a view. There was a little haze in the sky from dust.

The road continues on the valley floor then starts to climb quickly. I think I got up to near 8000'. It was COLD on the bike. One of the best motorcycle roads I have been on.


Once over the La Sal mountain range, Moab and Spanish Valley came in view.
Besides all the other things to do in Moab, I would recommend the drive, but start in Moab and drive it backwards from what I did. Much better views.

Arches

Went to Arches today. It's a great motorcycle road. Again I was just impressed about how large every thing is. There are quite a few hikes back to some arches. Many can be seen from the road but the other many features of the park are just as impressive like the slot canyons and rocks magically balancing. Here is a link to more pictures.
But, the best part of the day was Laurens and Atie had Bob and myself over for a homemade dinner. It just does not get any better than good food, a little wine and good friends sitting around a campfire. It must have been Christmas sense I have had a real home made meal. Look what a professional can do with the same picture!!








Once again here is a small video of part of my ride in Arches. Was trying to show the scenery along the road, unfortunately I did not get the really good parts. Was so interested looking I never thought of the Flip Camera.

Moab - Arches and Canyonland

It has been a real lazy 4 days. Just working on things and we had to move once. The road we took to get here follows the river and is supposed to turn to dirt, climb 1500' and end up at Dead Horse Lookout in CanyonLands NP. A 100 mile loop. I left too late to complete the whole loop but had fun on the dirt part. Every corner you turned there was a "how did God do that" view. I cannot figure out what keeps this rock up. Here is a Link to more pictures if interested.
It is interesting how a picture just does not capture the grander of a place, but they will have to do.

Below is a 4 min video of part of my ride back down. I ran out of room on the Flip Video camera just as the Colorado River came into view. The road would be a fantastic quad and dirt bike spot.

Moab - Arches and Canyonland

150 miles today from Gooseneck to Moab. It was a very enjoyable drive. Lots of new scenery and as high as 7200' with snow still left over to 4200' at the Colorado River where I am parked.
At Gold Bar BLM, a small group campground. Hope to stay a few days and take the bike to the parks.
More later

Here is where I am parked for now.

GooseNecks

We are parked at GooseNeck overlook. The above picture is out my rear window. The river makes at least four sharp turns that I can see.

In the morning we saw a bunch of rafters going down the river. Yesterday I met a man traveling on a bike - BMW 650, and he said he has rafted the river and it looked a lot better from up here then down on the river. You really never knew you were turning so sharp..

We were going to leave the next day but the wind started comming up very fast. It got bad within an hour. Too much to drive in. There had to been gust to 50mph with a steady 20mph. I closed everything up to stop the dust from comming in the RV, brought the dish down. At one point we all moved our rigs to poing into the wind to lessen the RV movement. It got hot also, about 80 and could not open the windows.
This is a pictue of three of us stuck in our rigs.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

View out my back window. This place was a little more than I expected also. There is a 17 mile loop that I did not have time to take. Bet it was nice. Took a lot of pictures and will put them up on the picture Gallery as soon as I can.
Here is more information on Monument Valley

Still at Lake Powell

Met a very nice Dutch couple, Laurens & Attie Hoddenbagh who also happens to be a professional photographer and a man of God. He took one of my normal pictures and did his magic which is above. You might want to click on it to get a better look.
He has taught me a lot, most of witch has gone way over my head.

The beaches and water of Powell around here are very nice. The sand is clean and the water very blue.
Took a 60 mile ride today up Hy89 two the Wave and the old 1870 town and movie set of Pahreah. All of the movie sets have burned down but was supposed to be very interesting. Made it about 5 miles from the turn off and decided to turn around. It was getting very windy and the Utah roads!!!! Hy89 North has to be the most uncomfortable in the nation. No potholes, just very rough, I have rode on washboard dirt roads that were smother.
Should leave Sunday or Monday for Monument Valley for a night and then on the the Goose Neck area.
Had to throw in the clever one with the mirror :)

Cottonwood,AZ to Lake Powell.UT

It was only a 4 hour drive which I easily made into a 6 hour drive. This drive was the most interesting yet.
Camp Verdi HY17 to Flagstaff was a climb from 3000' to over 7000' in a short distant. Did not see much of Flagstaff but from what I did see I really liked it. The camera was in the 5er so no pictures.
Flagstaff to Page was high desert and some very nice canyons once in the Navajo Nation.

After leaving Page, AZ you get to see this bridge. What a site. The speed limit was 25 and I think I only was going at 10 too see the view. No one was behind me.
At the other side was the Glen canyon visitor center. I pulled into the parking lot to look and take some pictures.


Once in the parking lot you could see Glen Canyon Dam. Not as big as I thought it would be after spending a lot of time on Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. The water level is very low. tomorrow I will go to the visitor center and find out how low.

The old water line must be 100 feet above the water. Below is taken from the visitor center. Wonder what it looked like when it was full?
The last picture is taken out my front door. Camped in a very nice place.

Ride to Sedona

Went for a ride to Sedona. I have not been there in over 20 years, sure has changed.
I was completely surprised by how red the rocks are. One can look at all the pictures, can look at doctored pictures but you cannot duplicate nature.



Wanted to take what is called the upper loop of Red Rock Canyon but was getting a little too late to fix a flat or whatever. So took the shorter lower loop which at one point went by the multi million dollar housed I have heard about. Broke my camera so missed the houses but got some nice shots on the way.
When I pulled over to the side of the road to take a picture there was a Native American girl out of site from the road making and selling necklaces. Two for $10.00. This was so out of place.
Maybe it was the Big old man in a black leather jacket, but she was not friendly at all..



Here is the last picture before the camera broke. I was trying to show the redness of the rock and as usual it does not work. Right to the left of this picture was one of the expensive houses built into the wall of the red rock.


And I will finish this off with a very poor video of the road I was on.
My Flip camera mount was loose, so its a little shaky.
The reason I put this here is to look at the scenery along the road.