Pokin' around this past week

Just got back from a little trip north through Arizona, Utah, then west through Nevada and back southeast to Tucson (home). I was visiting a combination of places I wanted to see again, like the Grand Canyon, and places I'd never been to before, like parts of middle Arizona, middle Utah, and western Nevada.

All in all, it was around 2,400 miles, from my driveway back to my driveway. Temps ranged from mid-100's in southern and parts of central Arizona, to the 80's in Utah and parts of northern Nevada. Nevada started warming back up to the 100's as I was passing near the entrance to Death Valley, and pretty much stayed that way all the way back home, probably due to the lower elevations in western Nevada and central Arizona. The only major change was from the bottom corner of Nevada (in Laughlin), when I started the 7 hour ride home at 11PM Tuesday night, and got back a little before 6AM Wednesda -- the temps were pretty mild (80's and 90's mostly) in the middle of the night...

As is my custom, I don't really stop much for pictures, so there aren't too many. However, I do video the entire ride (except for the middle of the night part - can't see much then, anyway), and I'll be extracting stills from the video my GoPro took through my windscreen as time goes on. But it's late now, and I'm fixing to crash again (3rd time today - long rides can take it out of you).

Here's a panorama of Roosevelt lake in central Arizona. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the Roosevelt Dam off to the right, down the canyon from the bridge.


Here's a couple of Grand Canyon shots from various places along the South Rim. The second one is a pic of "Duck on a Rock" - I can't see a duck there, but it must be true, because there's a placard there that says it's so!



The reddish-brown cliffs in the distance are the Vermilion Cliffs in northeastern Arizona, along the Colorado River, just west of Page, Arizona.


Speaking of Page, here's the cliffs that Page is (more or less) on top of. Also, the road going up the cliffs to Page from Flagstaff was closed. Sure hope Page is still there, and they didn't take it away...


Finally, here's a pic beside US-89 north of Kanab, Utah, on the way up to Bryce Canyon.

Was thinking about going by there after the WABDR on my way home, now I HAVE TO, beautiful just beautiful.

Sweet, thanks for the pics. I always say I am going to take pictures and never do or take one or two and forget the rest of the trip.

As you can tell from some of the Grand Canyon pictures floating around the web, not all of Arizona is hot and dry. The "sky islands" (mountain ranges) are mostly much cooler than the desert floor, and eastern and north central Arizona certainly fit that description, at least where there're mountains.

Anyway, here're a couple more pics, this time extracted from the GoPro video I always shoot when I ride further from home than just to the store and back. These pics are from an area called the Mogollon Rim. These run from just outside Payson, Arizona, and show the towns of Pine and Strawberry, too.

Here's AZ-87 north of Payson.


Welcome to Pine, Arizona.


And finally (for today, at least), I'm entering Strawberry, AZ.


More to come as I work my way through the 250+ gigabytes of video I took. Next will probably be of the Sedona area and north of there along Oak Creek Canyon, where Slide Rock is (well known rafting/tubing spot). Maybe into Flagstaff, if I get real ambitious tomorrow. It's tough, finding enough time to go through all that video when you're otherwise hard at work being retired. Heh.

I deliberately headed through Sedona, Arizona and the rest of Oak Creek Canyon on a weekday so I could meander a little and not get bogged down in traffic and crowds. Unfortunately, I forgot that Sedona and the rest of Oak Creek are both tourist areas and that this is summer vacation time. I guess I outsmarted myself as far as the traffic and crowds go. Or maybe I was just unlucky to get caught up in some kind of visitor surge that came from having parts of the canyon closed off earlier this month due to fires.

Anyway, I was irked enough at the crowds and the Pokey-Joes in front of me that I never did do any meandering while I was there. Next time, I'll see about trying the area AFTER school starts.

It's still pretty country, though.

Here's the entrance to Oak Creek Canyon. I thought I'd be okay, until I caught up with all the folks in front of me.


Fairly typical looking cut in the canyon walls for the road.


Oak Creek businesses and (I believe) ranger station. Seemed pretty busy to me, and traffic was just creeping along. Sigh.


Finally got some freedom to move. I'm not speeding here, it's just that it felt so good to NOT be going 15 mph under the posted speed limit for a change...

That's it for a couple of days, I'm afraid. My wife and I spent most of today celebrating, and my youngest son and his wife are stopping by tomorrow to browse through the video I took. I don't think they realize working through 5 days worth of ride movies isn't something you do in an hour or two.

Anyway, I'll be back Monday or Tuesday with more pix. Bike's going to be in the shop for its 32k service, anyway, so I'll have some time on my hands.

I'll leave it for now with a couple of pix.

This one is from the GoPro on my bike, looking out over the Grand Canyon from as close as I was willing to get to the edge with my bike.


And just so no one thinks Arizona is all scenic cactus, cliffs, and pine trees, here's a picture of Arizona desert as all too much of it looks like.

Those pics are awesome, you guys sure do have some great scenery out there, thanks for posting.

Oops! I'd been meaning to get back to this, but managed to keep forgetting. Sorry 'bout that!

Anyway, after the Grand Canyon, I stayed overnight in southern Utah in the town of Kanab. Scenic place. The valley along US-89 north from Kanab was pretty to look at, too.

Here's the outskirts of Kanab, heading north on US-89.


Lots of farm land along this river valley.


Lots of irrigation, too. Maybe the river isn't always reliable...


In addition to all the farm land, there was a passle of ranch land too. Cattle:


I also saw a lot of horses, but they were all pretty far off the road. All I could recover from my movies was a bunch of little black dots way off in the distance.

Hey! Was that a llama?


And a little stream beside the road. this is a nice little plus for me, since I come from Tucson, where if I want to do a water crossing on my bike, I have to bring my own water to do it with...

Riding up US-89 through west central Utah. It can get pretty empty out here for a city boy like me. Must take some real self-reliance to live out here.


Passing through Marysvale, Utah, I spied a log house on the right.


The red hills are gone, replace with kind of dirt colored hills, but at least the water's still there.


Blech - US-89 joins the I-70 freeway for awhile at Richfield, Utah.


Back off the freeway and on US-89, passing through Salinias, Utah. There's a fair or block party down the street to the right. Fire engine sirens are blasting, no doubt giving the kids there a thrill.


Lonely road - US-89 north of Salinas.


Hah! I finally found some horses close enough to the road to actually see!


More freeway. I-15 this time. Utah freeway speed limit is 80 mostly. I'm going 75, because I don't want to burn up my 3.7 gallons between one exit and the next. Folks are passing me like I'm sitting still.

Time to wrap this up. It won't be about the complete round trip, since the last few hundred miles were done in the dark -- it's a lot cooler then. Also, the deserts of southwest Nevada are all kind of similar and desert-y looking - it's about like riding on the freeway, but without the freeway, and a little less interesting.

To catch up, after leaving I-15 at Provo, Utah, I stopped for a quick route update to Heber City, Utah. That took me up US 189 through the mountains of Wasatch National park. Here's US-189 north of Provo, not long after entering the park area.


A little further along, I began noticing a stream alongside the road. It seems there's a "Bridal Veil" falls there. I have no idea if it's the one everyone thinks of when they read, "Bridal Veil" falls. I've heard that most every state with mountains has a waterfall named that. Maybe, maybe not. But here's a picture of the one in Utah alongside US-189.


Just south of Heber City, where I spent the night, there's a big state park with a good sized lake there. This is looking north along the lake, towards Heber City (which is still out of sight!).


The next day, my route took me through Salt Lake City, and along I-80 south of the Great Salt Lake. I sure wish I'd have stopped at one of the viewing areas for a pic or two, but all I got was the view from my handlebar camera. Unfortunately, the road isn't very high above the lake bed, so the view is restricted.


West of the lake stretches the Great Sale Lake Desert. I managed to pull a couple of pics from my GoPro.


The first one is probably just about due south of where the Bonneville Speedway is out on the salt flats. A little further west is the exit for Bonneville Speedway.



Finally, in Nevada, I headed west from Ely, Nevada along US-50. It's known as the "Loneliest Road in America". Frankly, I thought it was pretty well traveled. As I remember from my trip last year, I thought Utah SR-95 west of Blanding, Utah was perhaps the loneliest road I've ever seen. Much less traffic than US-50 in Nevada. Maybe I just didn't go far enough west on US-50 in Nevada to get the true feeling of loneliness...

Anyway, here's a pic of US-50, leaving Ely, Nevada. You can almost read the "Loneliest Road" sign...


After that, it's just slogging through the southwest Nevada desert. I did pass a road that said it lead off to Death Valley, but I was already a little late to see my wife and her sisters in Laughlin, Nevada, so I didn't make any detours. Maybe next time.

I did get a pic on entering Laughlin. My wife said she was in the casino to the left of the road just then and she saw me ride by under the enclosed walkway over the road.

I remember going across the great south west as kid (3 times). My dad was in the Army and we traveled a lot. It's an area I'd really like to have about 2 weeks to just GO!
Thanks for sharing!

Glad you all liked it. I just wish I was better about taking actual pictures (even with my phone's camera) than just relying on the handlebar GoPro. It takes wide shots, but nothing's better than having the camera really pointing at what you want to shoot. Oh, well, maybe next time...

Arizona is a nice place for little trip many mountains which give to you much tougher time in the riding these mountains and its adventure for you that if you ride there..

kasi said:

Arizona is a nice place for little trip many mountains which give to you much tougher time in the riding these mountains and its adventure for you that if you ride there..

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I tend to get bored with the straight roads. It's still riding, but it can be hard to tell this mile from the last one, especially on roads through the desert. I usually just drone along somewhere real close to the speed limit on mostly straight roads.

Mountain roads, now, are a whole 'nother story. I'll admit that sometimes on really nice curvy roads my enthusiasm gets the better of my throttle hand.

how did you take those?

StratTuner said:

how did you take those?

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If the pictures you're asking about are through the windscreen, then they were taken as movies (and the pictures are screen shots from the D/L'd movies) shot by my GoPro Hero 3 (Silver), which was mounted on the left hand side of my handlebars. I usually keep the GoPro camera shooting the entire time I'm riding, except for night rides - not much to see, then.

If the pictures seem to be taken from off the bike, then they were taken with my iPhone 5.