(16) National Parks and Hiking
We have a down day today in Grand Junction, CO while the bikes are in the shop for new tires and an oil change. The last week has been spent in several national parks and doing some great hikes.
The consent theme of the trip so far has been dodging thunder storms. We’ve been on the road for a week now and have been rained on or at least threatened with rain every day so far. The monsoon season is in full swing in the west this summer. In the grand scheme of things we aren’t complaining since the area needs any water it can get badly. It just makes planning our routes a bit more complicated. It has also meant that we have pretty much abandoned our plans to find some dirt roads to go explore. Pretty much every place we were interested in exploring off the pavement is under flash flood warnings, is still muddy after rains or in the path of the next forecasted storms.
Grand Canyon - South Rim
On Monday, August 8th we set off for the south rim of the Grand Canyon. After riding through Kingman, AZ we decided to get off the freeway and ride part of the old Route 66 through Peach Springs and Seligman. It was nice to have some time off the freeway and on a more leisurely pace. While riding Route 66 I saw a sign for the Grand Canyon Caverns. I had no idea there was a cave that you could tour near Peach Springs. We decided to stop, but the elevator down to the caverns was broken so they had them closed. The caverns are privately owned and the short road into them has several dinosaur statues for tourist pictures. Of course we had to stop for one of those, LOL.
From there it was straight on to the south rim. We spent 2 nights at Mather Campground at the South Rim Village. This was our first chance to do a hike into one of the parks we have visited. For the full day spent at the South Rim we chose to hike part of the South Kaibab Trail. This trail actually goes all the way to the bottom of the canyon where there is a bridge over the Colorado River and then turns into the North Kaibab Trail and climbs up to the North Rim Lodge and visitor center. In total that is 12 miles and well beyond what we could do given our (read that MY) level of fitness and equipment. So the decision was made to hide down to the Cedar Ridge waypoint and then back up to the rim. That part of the trail is a 3 mile out and back (round trip) and steep hike. You lose 1,100 feet in elevation from the canyon rim down to Cedar Ridge in the mile and a half outbound part of the trail. Then it’s turn around and climb it back on the way out. Beautiful views of the canyon, but it was definitely a climb to get back to the top of the rim. Well worth the effort though.
Grand Canyon - North Rim
After 2 camping nights at the South Rim it was a 200 mile ride around to the North Rim via Marble Canyon with a stop at Navajo Bridge for a quick batch of photos. At the North Rim we chose to stay in one of the cabins at the lodge. It was nice to have a shower after a couple nights of dry camping. We chose to only spend one night here so there was minimal time for a hike. We only did a quick morning hike the day we left out to Bright Angel Point and a bit along the rim before jumping back on the bikes and heading off to Zion National Park in Utah.
Zion National Park
This was my third time to Zion and Neil’s second. We rode through the park ten years ago on our trip from Alaska to the Grand Canyon and back. This it was time to spend some more time and see parts of the park we did not get to see on just riding on the main road through the park. We hit more thunder storms coming into the area so decided to stay in a hotel rather then camp. The town of Springdale is just outside of the park and was my first choice for a place to stay, but we couldn’t find anything there that was reasonably priced. So, we moved a bit farther out and decided to stay in the town of La Verkin about 20 miles from the park entrance.
It was nice to be able to leave all our gear at the hotel and go into the park light. We locked our riding gear up in the one pannier we brought and caught the shuttle bus into Zion Canyon. Access to this part of the park is only available via the park shuttle bus service. We got off the bus at The Grotto stop and headed out on the Scout Lookout trail. This is another steep trail, but different from our other hikes in that we start at the bottom of the canyon and climb to the rim. So the up hill portion is at the beginning instead of at the end of the hike. This one is a bit longer than our South Rim hike at 3.5 miles round trip and 1,100 feet in elevation gain and then descent.
This was the first time either of us have been up Zion Canyon and and it was really stunning. The Scout Lookout waypoint is also the beginning of another climb to Angels Landing. That climb is only available by permit so we didn’t get a chance to continue onto that. It looked like an amazing climb. It is a difficult trip along a very thin and shear ridge with a chain/cable handhold system to help with safely making the climb. We could look over at the route and end of this climb and I bet the views would have been incredible. Maybe next time!
After climbing back down from Scout Lookout we walked back to Zion Lodge for something to drink. We carry water with us for all the hiking we do but wanted something with flavor. Then it was off for a short hike to the Emerald Pools before catching the bus back to the visitors center and a ride back to the hotel in La Verkin.
Bryce Canyon National Park
It’s a short 100 mile ride through Zion National Park and on to Bryce Canyon National park. However, in that distance you climb from Zion’s 4,000 foot elevation up to 7,800 feet at Bryce. That means that the temperatures in Bryce are much cooler than down at Zion. Even with a morning start time in Zion the temperature was around 90 degrees. Our hiking temps in Bryce were in the low 70s.
We spent 2 nights camping in an RV park just outside the park entrance. During our full day at Bryce we did our longest hike of our trip through the hoodoos. The hike was a total of 7 miles down from the canyon rim through the hoodoos and back up again. Bryce is one of my favorite parks that I’ve visited and I was excited to get some time to be able to hike it this time.
There is a 13 mile road into the park. After our hike we decided to ride the motorcycles to the end of the road and take in all the viewpoints along the road. About half way out we ran into another thunder storm. Since we didn’t bring our rain gear along we decided to give up on the ride, turn around and head back to camp. After getting something to eat near camp the rain made it to our location so we retreated to the tent. While we were laying in the tent waiting for the storm to go by we saw a lighting flash and the loudest clap of thunder I’ve ever heard a split second after the flash. That strike had to have been close, but from the tent there is no way for us to know how close. Then the rain started in earnest too. The tent held up fine and we had no issue of things getting wet, but we have decided that we will hotel it for the remainder of the US part of the trip.
On to Grand Junction
Yesterday we had a 300 mile ride from Bryce Canyon to Grand Junction, again, for some work on the bikes. We knew when we were here three weeks ago it was for a new rear tire. Well, it’s time to replace the front tire now. We are having both front and rear tires replaced this time though. There is still some tread life left in the current rear tires so we will carry those with us back to Arizona and use them up at a later date. I knew that the knobby rear tire we had put on three weeks ago wouldn’t last a real long time so rather than stop again for a new rear in just a few hundred miles I thought it best to replace them both now.
We also have a pair of new tires waiting for us at the house in Arizona. We will be carrying those with us and change them out on the road when we need them. While the bikes are in for a tire change I thought that is was also time to have an oil change done. We’ve put approximately 5,000 miles on the bikes to this point. So it’s time for an oil change too. When we leave for Mexico we will most likely carry a spare oil filter with us so getting the next change done will just mean getting oil.
That pretty much catches us up. I think the plan is to head to Telluride tomorrow. With all the thunder storms forecast for the next week or so we are looking at short days so we can be where we want to be by 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon and in a hotel for the day. When we are a couple days out from needing to be back in Arizona we will do a couple long days to get there. At this time I think we will be back in Arizona on the 21st. That will probably be my next update. Wish us luck in staying dry 😁
