Ride? Did someone say Ride??

[kwthom]

It might be a tic tacky to post about another board's ride, but...

http://redrockride.org/

On the road in a few hours...looking forward to it!

[kwthom]

Red Rock Ride was great; wish I could have left earlier in the day, but wife had to work until noon.

Next planned group ride: Death Valley Ride

Death Valley is an interesting place to ride; much nicer in the dead of winter.

[FastAttackSpam]

looks like fun

[Ben Dare]

Red Rock Ride was great; wish I could have left earlier in the day, but wife had to work until noon.

Next planned group ride: Death Valley Ride

Death Valley is an interesting place to ride; much nicer in the dead of winter.

Was just there today

[kwthom]

Interesting planning a trip in the dead of winter in two wheels; feels so 'odd'.

This is my second year for going to Death Valley. In fact, this ride last year is where I met many of these folks for the first time.

Should be fun.

[kwthom]

Death Valley 10 was nice...

http://picasaweb.google.com/kwthom/DeathValley10#

Coming up, a short weekend ride to the mountain areas of AZ with a couple of others from that other board.

Expecting another fun time!

[kwthom]

As promised...done in three parts! Full set of pix here, but still working on the captions & title slides.

Day 1 - Friday June 11
Home to Farmington, NM via Meteor Crater - 574 miles

GoogleMap day 1

Ride started out a bit cool - but at 4:00, and with a lot of miles to do today, early is good. Stopped in Globe for gas; trailer working great. Took a bit more power to roll out of the Salt River Canyon, but it's nice having it there. Burned more miles thru familiar territory; pictures sparse here. As we were nearing one junction, and with this opportunity close by, I asked my wife "wanna do a detour?" "Where?" "Meteor Crater." "Okay, why not, we're on vacation!" So a 80-odd mile, two hour detour began. Neat hole in the ground; will never see it again. Let me save you $15 a head and show you a couple of pictures.









Ended the day in Farmington, NM after riding thru the Navajo & Apache lands; beautiful country; a couple more pictures.





We got lucky; a place to eat was within walking distance to the motel. Some guy wants to see me back the trailer up in the morning; I want no part of that right now.

Day 2 - Saturday June 12
Farmington, NM to Longmont, CO - 418 miles

GoogleMap day 2

Left Farmington, NM. Know that we'll hit rain sometime today; trying to stay in the lowlands as much as we can. Right at lunch, we begin to hit rain. Rain is one thing; in the mountains, it's a little more of a challenge, but not as bad as it could be. Have plenty of traction with car tire on rear. Put the camera away here...didn't take it out again until Monday.





Day 3 - Sunday June 13
Longmont, CO to Rapid City, SD - 381 miles

GoogleMap day 3

Rain from Longmont, CO all the way to Rapid City. A LOT of other bikes with the same situation. We leapfrog from one spot to another; spend time drying & warming, then we continue, and the process repeats several times. An easy 8 hour ride turned into an eleven hour 400 mile ride of wet. Our rain gear preperation isn't adequate; this needs improvement ASAP, especially if the rain is going to continue. Spent the evening drying out the gear & clothes, and searching online for a place to get something..


Day 4 - Monday June 14
Rapid City to Mt Rushmore, then to Wall & Badlands - 250 miles -

GoogleMap Day 4

Found a store in Rapid City had rain gear! Helps with temperature control as well; Grace is much more comfortable. Went to see Rushmore; impressive - worth the trip. As we were leaving, another front rolled in, and obscured the mountain. I really wasn't into riding around the Black Hills, so we slowly started to head back into town & the room. As we did, the weather started clearing later, so we zoomed out to Wall, then to the Badlands Nat'l park. Absolutely amazing topography; especailly as the sun was going down (it was around 7:30 when we got there.) Heading back into Rapid City as the sun was going down (at 8:30 at night...) along I-80, we made the call that we would delete our 'down' day here, and press onward toward Yellowstone in the morning.







I know, I just couldn't do this real well in real time.

More in next post.

[kwthom]

Part two of three. All photos are at RoadTrip2010; photo captions being added.

Day 5 - Tuesday June 15
Rapid City, SD to Billings, MT via Sturgis, SD, Devils Tower & Little Bighorn Nat'l Monument - 452 miles

GoogleMaps Day 5

Left Rapid City, heading west; weather is finally good; the sunlight is nice. Took Nemo Rd out to Deadwood, SD - very nice road; thanks to the GPS for suggesting that one! Sturgis; sleeply little town; prep work in progress for the rally in August. 400,000 last year; a bad year; as their best had over 600,000. The motorcycle museum is a must-see if you're wanting to kill an hour or two; for $5, it's very well worth it. Quite a collection of history; not all of it is about H-D bikes, either. The picnic lunch routine is good; neat to be able to pull off into a community, find a park and have lunch. The Honda GPS does pick out the parks and such with great ease. With the sunset being as late as 9pm in these northern latitudes, it can make the travel days long. This was the day I knew chances of rain further west would happen; it did while on the I-90 between the Montana/Wyoming state line. 40+ MPH gusts, rain, and pea-sized hail briefly led us a couple of times to seek shelter under a bridge. Having the weatherband radio is nice, but not knowing the cities, towns, and counties in the area made figuring out the weather a challenge. Mental note: is there an inexpensive map that laso lists counties in an area? We did make Billings, though, as the storm movement was to the east. Watching the Weather Channel; Beartooth Pass not lookingtoo good right now; final decision in the morning. It's the ONLY rason I chose to make a ride this far north; hope it works out.












Day 6 - Wednesday June 16
Billings, MT to Yellowstone Nat'l Park - 264 miles

GoogleMaps Day 6

Another cloud-filled overnight & morning sky, and a decision on where to stay while in the Yellowstone area needs to be made now. This is high season here; everyplace near the park is expensive, unless you want to be 50+ miles from the park. In addition, I really wanted to ride the Beartooth Highway (US-212) into the park; with the weather not being as cooperative as I'd like, we've decided to pass; came in on US-89 from the north, which turned out to be the original park entrance from the 1880's. For those who have never been; two loop roads developed that takes you thru the park to many of the highlight spots; 300 miles of road in total (paved & unpaved?) so, we should be able to spend the day here. We did decide too get in Old Faithful now, while we had periodic rain sprinkles. Got to motel outside of West Yellowstone, and it was getting really cold (low 40s), so chose the bBQ dinner at the neighboring campground. Food was great, but it's time for a really, really warm shower (no pool or spa...) and off to bed. The highlight ride is tomorrow!











Day 7 - Thursday June 17
Ride in Yellowstone Nat'l Park - 190 miles

GoogleMaps Day 7

Well, I'd been hearing this on the Weather Channel, on the weatherband radio, but didn't believe - snow in June at 6500' in elevation. Nothing is sticking to the ground, so off we go to the park!

The park is amazing - the pictures don't do it justice at all. I'll only share a few here; more in the Picasa location to view. It's difficult to appreciate the thermal pools that the heat and steam, although it stank miserably, it'd help warm you up a bit. By early afternoon, some clouds broke free, we found a picnic area for lunch. What I would have given to have had a bowl of chili or something, but the cold cut will have to do. As we continue on the loop road, the clouds return and really get thick. It's continual light flurries for much of the ride; then they start to get thick. Thick enough that I needed to wipe the windshield a couple of times to remove thick layers of the stuff. Again, not freezing, but bike thermometer reads 34-38 much of the day.

And this is June.











Agaiu, so many more pictures at my Picasa page if you want to see more.

Day 8 - Friday June 18
West Yellowstone, MT to Brigham City, UT - 387 miles

GoogleMaps Day 8

Doesn't it always turn out like this? Beautiful day, warmer temps, and it's time to head down the road. A lot of varied scenery today, and a 50 degree temperature change in these 387 miles for the day.

Wyoming? Idaho? Yeah, I'm coming back sometime - these roads are terrific!! This was a touring day; knowing only where we needed to be to lay your head on a pillow was great; the miles just drifted by, and sights like these were along the way,









Last four days of the trip report next!

[kwthom]

Part three of three. All photos are at RoadTrip2010; photo captions being added.


Day 9 - Saturday June 19
Brigham City, UT to Golden Spike National Historic Site, Promontory Summit, UT to South Salt Lake City, UT - 124 miles

GoogleMap Day 9

Intended as a short day, most of these miles took us to Golden Spike NHS. If you're into transportation, history, or the combination of those two items, you owe yourself a Saturnday morning there. They do a reenactment of the moment when the transcontinental railroad was completed at this spot in May of 1869. After this, we went to see friends of ours who live in the area.









The neighbor to the north of the historic site; cool - things that go 'boom'



Much day spent visiting friends living in the So. SLC area.

Day 10 - Sunday June 20
South Salt Lake City, UT, Bryce Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park to Hurricane, UT - 375 miles

GoogleMap Day 10

Today, we start in earnest the journey toward home. From our trip this way last year, it'll take two days in touring mode to get to Tucson, but Grace didn't do well in the heat, so may need to keep her out of the desert as much as I can. A nice ride to Payson, then to home should work.

Road down a portion of I-15; saw the 80 MPH posted speed; weird. Wandered back toward the scenic portion along US-89; decided to at least blow thru Bryce & ZIon, as we've lived here a long time & actually been thru here twice before on the bike, but never stopped.









Day 11 - Monday June 21
Hurricane UT, to North Rim Grand Canyon to South Rim Grand Canyon to Payson, AZ - 546 miles

GoogleMap Day 11

Then we heard about the Schultz Fire in the Flagstaff area. Actually, this became a day of detours. We've both lived in this state over 35 years each; neither of us had been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This is the closest we've ever been; let's do it!

I now see why people like it here so much more than the South Rim.



Here at the gift shop, a ranger informed us that US-89 near Flag was closed. Uh-oh; detour had been set up to go thru the GPNP south rim road. Yikes, that's nearly 200 miles more than I had expected, plus the room's already reserved & paid for!







The white in the horizon...the smoke plume.

So, we start hustling down the road at a bit quicker place. Stopped for lunch in Cameron; I probably should have played more with routing in hindsight; could have went thru Tuba City & south to Winslow & cut ~100 miles off and a couple hours off the trip. No sense taking a GPS & NOT using it; lesson learned.



Payson. Dinner. Shower. Sleep.

Day 12 - Tuesday June 22
Payson, AZ to Home - 181 miles

GoogleMap Day 12

Up early; hit the road.







Roll into the driveway showing 4250 on the odometer, but know it's optimistic. Using the links in this series of messages will give you the routing we used for the whole run.

Thanks for riding along; hope it was enjoyable.

Total mileage (Honda: 4250) (Google: 4142) ~ 2.5% odometer error

[Goldwolf]

Great Write-up and excellent pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[FastAttackSpam]

great pics and write up, thanks!

[kwthom]

Thanks!

The ride was great, but I didn't ride after that trip for nearly four weeks.

Now, I'm getting the bike ready for a trip -- for work.

I like this!!