Duckadiledundee. You don't know what you missed. Most of those beautiful maids we ran around with. With love and peace on their minds and free love and kisses boy it was way out there. Rock on. Happy New Year. Joe.
Duckadiledundee Don't forget I came from around Belfast and Londonderry. They were there but deeper into the movements knives were more common and believe me some of those beautiful babes knew how to use them. Happy New Year. Joe.
Wow, @Adie P! You've been to far more U.S. National Parks and Monuments than I have and I live here! Thanks for sharing the places you've been along with some of your stories, experiences, and memories. Your words painted vivid and wonderful pictures. Simply beautiful. Do you have favorites?? To which two or three parks would you return if you could? The next parks on our motorcycle adventure list are those in southern Utah. We hope to go there following our annual Las Vegas Bike Fest adventures in October. Any specific recommendations??
You will enjoy Utah, I did the Mormon trail and Bryce Canyon amongst others well worth a doing your homework and setting out a plan
I believe, its a mountain range in Brazil. An updraft at the end of a huge canyon blowing the water vapour with it.
Hey, Sandi. Why, thank you, ma'am, for your kind words! I do, I'll admit, like to try to tell stories with my words but my tendency towards the poetic rather than the prosaic, and the wordy rather than the worldly (see what I mean?) makes me worry that I'm inflicting rather than informing! Anyhoooooo...... Yes, I've been to, or through, a lot of national parks and monuments - my best friend (and best man!) always says that I've seen more of the US from the ground than he has, though he's seen far more from the air. The latter part of that is undoubtedly true, the first part of it is, well ..... almost true. He's the guy I accompanied on the US50 end-to-end (Sacramento, Ca. to Ocean City, Md.) ride some years ago and, since his retirement from commercial flying, he's been doing a lot more motorcycle miles so I guess he might be catching up! Do I have favourites? It would be too easy - and too trite - to say "yep ..... all of 'em!!" but I have to say that I can't think of a single one - park or monument - that I wouldn't particularly wish to make a destination for a return journey. Zion used to be my all time favourite and it remains iconically representative of that wider region of South West Utah, but, on my last visit, it seemed to be an endless stream of RV's and cars on the Park's roads and in the car parks. The speed limits are restrictive - though understandable - and part of the valley road is accessible only by bus now and the sense of 'free access' to some of the world's most beautiful scenery seems lost now in concreted hiking trails and crowded walks. I guess that I was still living in the dreamlike memory of whenever my previous visit was - sometime in the early to mid-eighties, I think - and that the 20 or 30 year gap would have no signiificant impact on my utopian dream. Foolish boy. I only went to Zion in 1979 because I'd been told by an American who was asking about our "plans" for the trip that it must NOT be missed, and he was absolutely right ..... but I doubt he'd say quite the same thing now - and nor would I! I don't know how many days you'll have 'spare' on your October LV trip or how much riding you want to do so, although it's not difficult to provide my personal "recommendations" for National Parks/monuments to visit in that area, it might not be a practical route or itinerary planner. I would, however offer the following suggestions :- Make an early start out of LV and burn some quick miles on I15 north and I70 east, then onto 24 east to Capitol Reef National Park where a wealth of amazing Southern Utah scenery will be open to you from the Scenic Drive. Capitol Reef doesn't usually figure in the top 20 for National Park visitor numbers so, this late in the year, it should be pretty quiet. Pretty and quiet! From Capitol Reef take 24 west again then Utah SR12 south. This 120 mile, two lane writhes, twists and turns its way through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and will reward you with some of the most stunning views - especially where the road runs precariously along the spine of of the enormous, colourful Escalante rock plateau, and will take you on to Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is likely to be busy even in October but, as Don has said, it is worth the journey. From Bryce, 12 then 89 will take you through Kanab, Fredonia and Jacob Lake and on to Grand Canyon North Rim. North Rim is remote - with a capital R - just one of the reasons it's FAR less busy than South Rim. The elevation doesn't help much either - at over 8,000 feet it has a completely different and much cooler climate to that of its opposite rim a mile away and a thousand feet lower! That elevation does mean that, if you do go in October, you might want to pack for the cold and the rain! But it has all of the peerless beauty of its more well known companion destination and far less of the distractions. So, 2 National Parks and a National Monument, some utterly amazing scenery and fantastic riding roads. Wish it were me! ENJOY.
Thank you, Adie, for a terrific, detailed, and personal description of the Utah routes that you'd ride and recommend. I shall pull out our Utah and Arizona maps and print your post in anticipation of and planning for our October trip. I truly appreciate you taking the time to write all this up and I know it will be very useful as we plan our Utah route after we head there from the Las Vegas Bike Fest. Thank you!!! I'll be sure to do a write up replete with photos of Vegas Bike Fest and Utah if all goes as planned for our October adventures.
