Picturesque Parks

So we made it from Cedar City to Zion, with only a few small hurdles. I had a blowout on my rear tire while riding on the interstate, so we got to change the tube on the shoulder of I-15. Other then that, it being over 100 degrees and the start of some sort of cold or infection it went pretty smoothly.

Coming into Springdale at the entrance to the park we made one of the 2 best stops of the trip so far (the other being Hope Valley Resort, coming off Carson Pass) at Springdale Orchard. The best apple I've ever eaten!!

We got to take a day off in Zion and went for a couple of nice hikes. It's amazing how small you can feel looking up at these magnificent towering cliffs that have been forming for hundreds of thousands of years.

One of the hikes we did was up to a series of pools. Oasises in the desert, Emerald pools. I can only imagine this place during the spring run-off. The cascadig waterfalls and lush vegetation.

The other hike was along the Virgin River, a mellow winding path at the top of the Zion scenic canyon. Dave and I were both amazed at how green it was, even in the end of August. I can definitely understand why the Paiutes would have settled here.

This is the view from our campsite, the first night in Zion. We had to move to a different site the second night.

The next day we climbed our way up to the tunnels the first of which you can't bike through, so we waited. The tunnel was built in the 1930's and is barely wide enough for 2 modern day SUV's to pass side by side and there are still no lights in the 1.1 mile long tunnel so Dave and I waited for a truck with room and willing to take us through.

After about 20 minutes a truck pulled into line with a little room in the bed of their truck, so we decided I go first. We loaded my bike into the bed and I hopped into the cab and waved goodbye to Dave. The two guys who gave me a ride were very nice. They were both from Georgia and on a several month road trip around the U.S. checking out the National Parks. They dropped me off on the other side and kept going toward the East entrance.

While I was sitting on the East side of the tunnel waiting for Dave I guess a couple waiting in line to drive through saw me sitting around and when they made it through pulled up to Dave and asked if he needed a ride. I guess they decided we needed to be together, so they loaded Dave and his bike into their truck turned around and got back in line to drive through the tunnel. After they dropped him off by me, they once again turned around to head through the tunnel a third time and down into the park. Dave and I continued up and out of the park.

The rest of the day was mostly downhill to Mt. Carmel Jct. and then uphill again for a while to Kanab, were we pulled into the Hitch-N-Post RV.

After Kanab we left Utah and entered into Arizona.




We rode pretty much uphill at around a 6% grade all day, with a fierce headwind yhe first 17 miles, to a small little junction called Jacob Lake. We found some nice, easy dispersed camping and saved our money to get breakfast the next morning at the Jacob Lake Inn instead. We did indulge in some fantastic cookies, though before heading to our campsite.

After our breakfast at the Inn, we rode the 45 miles into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It's pretty undulating the whole way, with several steep descents and climbs. It was a perfect beautiful fall day as we wound through the burned forest area and into lovely changing Aspen groves and mixed evergreen trees and sweeping meadows. We hit our highest point so far at 8840 feet. Except for the last steep winding hill into the campground it was a great ride. And the best part yet was that they have non-reservation first come first serve hiker/biker ONLY campsites, which have by far the best view of any other campsite and possibly on the rim as the site is right on the rim.


We are taking another day off here at the rim, but now both Dave and I are trying to get rid of this nasty cold/sinus infection thing, so we are taking it pretty easy.

Now we are trying to decide if we want to actually ride around to the South Rim or veer from our planned route and ride down through Flagstaff and Sedona and into Prescott. We would be riding on 89 the whole way and we are not sure what the shoulders are like and what the climbing from Flagstaff through Sedona and Jerome is like. If any of you know that road/route please leave a comment and let us know.