Tuesday 14 May 2013

One of the best riding days ever!!!



 This is why I ride an Adventure motorcycle!!  


With the exception of the heat this was definitely the best day I have ever spent riding.  After leaving Page AZ early this morning to escape the heat I traveled just over 200kms to reach Monument Valley:



Just north of Mexican Hat Utah you start the Trail of the Ancients, part of the National Scenic Byway.  Off Highway 261 there is a loop called Valley of The Gods, a nice twisty gravel road running through the wilderness:







Thanks to a couple days of off road training, even the thought of road biased tires didn’t put me off the route.  The bike handled really well, and fortunately I had left most of the luggage back in the hotel.

One word of advice: if you are ever going to visit a place, Google it, then check the Google images and follow the links.  One of the links I found when researching Utah and Arizona was a photograph of a place called Moki Dugway.  It is described as follows: “Caution – gravel road 10% grade with switchbacks for 2.5 miles speed limit 5 mph”!!!!!  After seeing the photo and reading that how can you not jump at the chance to ride it????  It ascends from the canyon floor to the top of the canyon in a VERY fast fashion.  I rode to the top, it is a good thing the speed limit is 5 mph, as I might have been zipping along at 6 or 7 mph!!!!!  At the top I turned aound and this is the view:





About a third of the way down is the viewpoint of the photo I had seen which gives you a good idea of the route:




After my descent back down to the canyon floor I set of for Comb Wash Rd., another dirt track running from hwy 163 to hwy 95.  Unfortunately it wasn’t very well marked so I missed the turnoff.  After realizing I had passed it I back tracked and set off down the road.  After a couple of miles I pulled over to check the distance to the nearest town on the other side.  I had a very limited margin for error with gas.  If the road was closed for any reason and I had to turn around I wouldn’t have enough gas to make it back to the nearest town.  So I turned around and left it for another day.

So another 200kms back to Page, back to the comfort of air conditioning!!!  So just over 650kms, and a few hours off road, with some of the best roads I have ever ridden on.  Does it get any better than that?????

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