Bwana and Bambi Ride the Grand Canyon

The Way Out

Well, I was going back to Farmington to hopefully finish up a never ending project that I had going over the past year. So we figured we could take the Feej up with us and go for a Spring ride after I completed the job. This is in early May, should be good weather, right?

Originally we were going to ride up but after a couple of trips to the grocery store here in town on Saturday afternoon, I realized we would again be droning across central and north Texas in blazing heat and humidity. Not again…..



So at the last minute I got a U-Haul so we could take the truck. We ended up leaving about 5:30 PM because of some things we had to get done at home first. The standard shot for those of you who follow our annual exploits.



Here’s the setup in the trailer. I bought a Sport Chock by Baxley Trailer and, believe me, it is Da Bomb! Simply put it at the front of the trailer and roll the bike into it. Then tie it down. No fooling around with the side stand or friends holding it up until you get the straps on it. I’ve covered up the license plate frame here so I don’t offend the sensibilities of the LDR purists out there. Simple tie-downs with a Canyon Dancer, it all worked beautifully.







Loading tip for AE owners: Be sure to check that the bike is in NEUTRAL before trying to hump it off the chocks and out the back of the trailer. It’s a lot easier to roll it when it’s not in gear…..

Central and North Central Texas to Wichita Falls. A record 103F that day so I’m glad we were in the truck. Here’s where the wind started in earnest. We had high wind out of Amarillo all the way to Santa Fe. Big grass fires to the South and blowing sand obscured the road on a number of occasions. Shades of things to come….





North Central Texas, ugh...



Here's our original route



I got some advice from one of our members here that the roads in southern Idaho and Wyoming were open. Yes, they were but both Bear Tooth pass and Chief Joseph highway were still closed from snow. We could get to Yellowstone but couldn’t continue on past it. And most of the high passes in Colorado were either closed or snowy. Time to re-route!

So the new plan would have us out across Utah via Mexican Hat and Four Corners. Down into Glen Canyon, Hanksville, Escalante, and into Kanab. The plan was to go thru Jacobs Lake, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Show Low, and then do the Devils Highway (191). But things change……

Saturday

I planned a short day for Saturday as Bambi had stayed with her son down in Santa Fe while I was at work. They arrived about 1:00 PM and we set out shortly after that. Destination was the San Juan Inn at Mexican Hat. About 130 miles so it would be a nice shake down ride.

The ride out from Farmington towards Shiprock and Four Corners









Some shots of the area around Four Corners. They finally were fixing the road I complained so much about Here (Four Corners Crusin’)









Stay tuned.....



Four Corners







Yes, we were HERE



Off to Mexican Hat







Aneth. We have some production out here, first time I’ve ever been there. Pretty isolated





Some locals out for a walk about





OK, made it to the San Juan Inn. Beautiful location right on the river. Complete with a not-too-bad restaurant attached where you can get drinks of various flavors (this is Utah after all).





Hanging out riverside in the evening. A large group of mostly ST’s pulled up for the night. A sprinkling of Hardley’s too. Interesting demographics in the restaurant, everybody seemed to be “young like us” in that they were mid-fourty’s to late fifty’s. No kids and very few retirees. Also a bunch of Germans and a few Frenchmen with some folks from Kanuckistan, I think Ontario.





We went looking for wine in the motel shop but none to be found. I finally figured this situation out a few days later when I discovered that all the beer in the shops was 3.2 beer and wine was considered “high alcohol” and so only sold in State stores. Got to love Utah…..



So we settled on some Tecate (3.2 don’t ya know) that we proceeded to drink by the riverside. I had one left and was feeling a bit filled up when two couples on Hardley’s rode up. With the choice between a bunch of guys on ST’s and a Hardley guy, I knew the Hardley guy would be most appreciative. Sure enough, I made his whole day when I gave him our last one as he walked by. Nice folks, the guy constantly jabbered his head off.

Later, we overheard him speaking with his wife. She was asking him if “they had enough Scotch” for the rest stops the next day. WTF???? I guess they do Scotch shooters along the way as they ride along……

Sunday

Mexican Hat to Kanab

Today’s plan is to leave Mexican Hat, go up the Moki Dugway, then via Hite and Glen Canyon, thru Grand Staircase Escalante to eventually end up in Kanab, UT. About 380 miles but shouldn’t be much of a problem.

The Mexican Hat



Vally of the Gods road. NOT Feej friendly so we gave it a pass



Heading for the Moki Dugway. The bluff in the distance is where the road goes over the top.





We first took a short detour to Gooseneck State Park where you can see how the river doubles back on itself. Pretty cool park and the road out to the overlook is paved (Feejer friendly) unlike the Muley Point road above the Dugway.



Way cool overlook









Found a Power Ranger lurking about



OK, off to the Dugway!





Yep, it goes right up there. Somewhere or other.....





The "safety berm"





A Power Rangerette



At the top



Off to check out Natural Bridges NM. We're making an attemp at the National Parks Tour again this year







Natural Bridges









On towards Hite on Hwy 95 and the Colorado River crossing. Highway 95 from Natural Bridges all the way to Hanksville is some of the most spectacular road I’ve ever seen. You East Coast folks need to put this road on your list of “must do’s”. Everybody swoons about Kalifornia but it pales in comparison to the stark beauty of this area. The road up out of the canyon from Hite to Hanksville is fully FJR approved as it has tight sweepers toward the bottom and eventually flattens out to some pretty high speed stuff into Hanksville.

Grab your favorite beverage, kick back and I’ll quit jabbering so we can just ride along for a while















Got to Hanksville and decided to take a break

Hanksville food porn



Getting read to go



And here is where the wind really started getting bad. Heading across Hwy 24 towards Capitol Reef and Escalante was a real bitch. Cross winds almost dropped us a couple of times.





We'll soon be on top of the mountains in the distance



We stopped in Capitol Reef Visitors Center to get our National Park Tour stamp and I talked to a group of Hardley riders from Germany. Nice guys, they said the road up towards Escalante wasn’t so windy but it was “cooler”. Hmmmm… wonder what that means from a German? 35F maybe? Oh well, we’ll see. I warned them of the wind ahead for them, giving them a “dump the bike” motion. The guy got a little more wide eyed and indicated he indeed got the message. He told the rest of the group (probably 12 or more) what was up ahead. Hope they made it OK.

Going over the high passes we still found a bunch of snow



We had spent most of the day battleing the high cross winds from Hanksville all the way to Kanab. The section between Panguitch and Kanab was again beating us to death with cross winds. After all that I thought I needed some real MAN FOOD. We ate at the “Rocking V” in Kanab, a real stunner of a place to eat. Absolutely fantastic for being in Kanab and they have a full service bar (with dinner) including a good selection of wine. Be sure to check it out when you pass thru.

The "Rockin V"



Rockin V

Man Food



Real Woman Food



Stay tuned

Thanks for sharing the pics. Great right up too.

Scooper

Monday

Kanab to Grand Canyon

Off to Colorado City. I won’t go into the details here, you can Google it but suffice to say that yes, there are folks out there who dress like Prairie Women on a daily basis. One thing we did notice is that the houses are HUGE! Got to be 4000+ sq ft each.

Really strange place….

Hwy 389







Stopped by Pipe Spring National Monument. Interesting place, one of the only springs for hundreds of miles around. Been in use since about 1000 AD by various folks.







The pond fed by the spring



The Spring



Inside the fort



Approaching Colorado City, turn here



Ginormous houses





Well, enough of that. Back on the road towards Fredonia





Came back to Fredonia to get gas and ended up talking a while with the shop owner. He advised going thru Page instead of Jacobs Lake as it could be pretty cold and possibly icy. Good advice, we went thru Page. We were also planning on going to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but found out from another rider that the road had just opened yesterday. So that was out too. Ended up riding straight to the Grand Canyon South Rim.

And shit was it windy! Extremely heavy buffeting all the way down 89 and across 64 into the Canyon. Why does it always seem to be a cross wind and never a tail wind?

Lake Powel







Stopped at an overlook and immediately got a call from work....It was so windy I couldn't hear the phone so I had to crouch behind the bike to get any kind of windbreak



As usual, the wind was YET AGAIN beating us to death all the way down 89.

And into the Park

The Little Grand Canyon



And the regular sized Grand Canyon





We stayed at the El Tovar hotel for Bambi’s birthday. Stunner of a place Clicky. We had lost another hour to the time zones so we were booked into dinner at 9:30 Pacific which was actually 10:30 Mountain. Ugh! Discovered we could eat in the bar so that ended up really well. Good stuff

The El Tovar



Saw a bunch of apparently well-to-do Mexicans on Hardleys come thru, don’t know where they were staying. The park was packed! One guy we talked to said he made reservations 14 months ago. Can’t believe we made it in.





Did somebody say it was windy??

Tuesday

Grand Canyon to Show Low

Woke up too early, a bit of a sore head for both of us from the night before. Well, nothing like a hearty breakfast to cure that! While eating breakfast, we saw a couple of elk wander by the dining room windows.

Grand Canyon Breakfast





Packing up out front





Gratuitous Grand Canyon shots. If you've never been there, you really need to put it on your list

Once we got packed up and headed out, we stopped at ALL the South Rim turn outs.



















Action shot





Back out on 89 south and into the wind



The wind again beat us to death on 89 down to Flagstaff. Pulled into Sunset Volcano for another NP stamp. Some guy on a Hondapotomus had lost all the stuff he had strapped to the back seat, I guess he didn't have it tied down enough and it just flew away!

Volcano



Lava flows



Happy campers (out of the wind)



Made it thru Flagstaff and headed out on I-40 to Holbrook



We stopped by Walnut Canyon N.M. just off the freeway. I'm amazed how many National Parks and Monuments are scattered around.

Found this place in Holbrook. Looks like an old Route 66 monument, complete with "period" correct cars out front







Finally made it to town for the evening. Stayed at the Best Western



Mexican food for dinner at the place next door. Yum!



Almost done!

Wednesday

Show Low to Farmington

We had reservations at the Alpine Lodge in Alpine on route 191 for Wednesday night. But when we woke up and checked the weather, we found that it was 32F there with snow and sleet. Whoops! Not that way. This is May, right??Rerouted across Hwy 60 thru Springerville to turn north at Quemado on Hwy 36



There seemed to be a big storm brewing all around us



Hwy 60







Turnoff on 36 towards I-40 again



It was real strange along here, not much to look at other than open desert (which isn't that bad in itself)



Turned onto Hwy 117. Generally rolling and uneventful (except, of course, for the WIND) until we got near the Acoma Reservtion. Then the scenery changed dramaticly. We ended up at the Malpais National Monument.





Then we cam across this rock formation. Pretty cool.



Having too much fun!



Continued on I-40 to Thoreau where we turned north on 371. Stopped at a Subway for lunch and to recharge the camera batteries.

I’ve been on a lot of desolate roads in my time but this one rates right up there with the best (worst?). Between Thoreau on I-40 and Farmington, there isn’t shit, nada, nothing, zero. There’s a couple of “towns” listed on S&T but don’t believe it. We did stop at what appeared to be the only place, a local Native trading grocery store and gas station (“no gas until next week”) that was run by some distracted white guy. Still windy as hell, so off we went, into the building storm.





The wind blew from the west incessantly. Probably in the neighborhood of 30-50 MPH sustained with gusts to who knows how much. There was blowing sand and intermittent heavy rain. And the temperature began to drop. Soon it was 46F. Probably some of the worst, if not the worst, riding conditions we’ve ever been thru. I was so concerned that the bike would get blown out from under us, I slowed to 40-ish in fourth, just to maintain control. We were leaning into the wind at about the same angle as we would have been on a 70 MPH high speed sweeper but we were going STRAIGHT!!!!





Of course we had heated gear in the trunk but there was absolutely no way we could have stopped to put it on. One of those deals where, when you stop, you loose. Best to stick it out for another half hour to Farmington where at least we could get behind some building, out of the wind. Cudo’s to Bambi for figuring this out on her own, she just hung in there quietly thru the worst of it.



Finally made it back to Farmington and our motel to try to thaw out and dry off. Uneventful from there, picked up the truck and another trailer the next day and set off for the long drone home.



Again, another "Real Adventure" ride for the day so we needed Man Food again to finish up



Chick food for one tough pillion





And this always cracks us up

"Where's it all going to fit?"



Presto!



A great trip even if we did have to change our routing some. Can't believe how cold it was this late in May.

Back in Hootin' now, 100F today and too hot to ride. Glad we squeezed this trip in

One thing I forgot to mention was how well the tank bag performed. It's the Yamaha one from Kanuckistan

Tank Bag

Even in the howling cross winds, the thing never budged. Held on without any issues what so ever.

Nice ride report!

Thanks for taking the time to post up!

Thanks for sharing and giving me some more food for fodder on a trip I'm planning later this year! :yahoo:

Wow! For an alternate route, turned out great.

Took the liberty and stitched a couple pics together. I gotta stop by there some time.

Nice pics, RR and commentary. Sounds like it was quite an adventure!

Thanks for sharing the trip with us.

--G