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Thanksgiving Week Sport Touring 2005 |
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Written by Daniel Hienzsch
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
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Page 2 of 5
Wednesday, November 23The morning had impossibly blue skies, and I prepared to head east on I15 across the northwestern tip of Arizona to St. George, UT and then break off on UT9 to get to Zion National Park. Southern Utah seems to be crenellated from stem to stern with astounding canyons and Zion and Bryce Canyon are two of the most amazing examples.
I left around 7AM for the quick ride over to Zion. After stopping in a gas station to pick up snacks and picnic makings, I got on the road. It's only 80 miles or so between Mesquite and the valley floor of Zion so I figured it was going to take an hour and a half to get there. A smooth road leads into the park and after some sloping canyon walls, you are smack dab in the middle of immensely tall sandstone canyon walls of dazzling reds, yellows, tans and rust colors. The contrast with the early morning sky threw the edges of the canyons in sharp relief. Moonset over Zion
Zion is part of a system of plateaus called the "Grand Staircase". The Staircase includes everything from Zion to Bryce to the Grand Canyon. Layers of ancient sedimentary rock are pushed and jumbled all over the place and create the amazing features that really make this part of the United States distinctive. According to the NPS website, a 5.8 earthquake hit Zion in 1992 and I wouldn't want to be in any of those slot canyons during a quake (or during the rainy season for that matter). It's definitely worth a trip here just to see what you can from the main road, but, like Yosemite, I bet the best views are to be had once you get back into the land a little bit. I'll have to save that for a different trip though.
I rode in and headed straight to the end of Zion Canyon Road. There are trail heads all over the place that I can only imagine lead to amazing sights, but when I'm on the bike, I'm not usually equipped to take advantage of that. Adhering to a relatively tight timeline, I wanted to get in, drink in the sights, and then take a leisurely ride back out of the park to the north east.
 UT9 out of Zion
Once out of Zion, the road led up onto the high Colorado Plateau and another 80 to 90 mile blast across the high desert like plain to the next canyon on the list. From UT9, I took a left on UT89 and headed up through Glendale (See! Another one!), Hatch and then turned right on UT12 and onto UT63 to go into the park proper.
The road into Bryce is just as impressive as the eastern road out of Zion; there aren't many places in the world where you can see natural arch formations, let alone be able to carve an apex right under one. What the pavement lacks in speed and curvature (which isn't that bad since I'm not a proponent of flogging your chariot through a national park in the first place) it more than makes up for with appetizers of what's to come once you arrive at the edge of the amphitheater. Even before Uncle Sam claims your admission fee, you are already greeted by the bizarre eroded "hoodoos" on both sides of the road with scrub grass and sage brush clutching tightly to the arid land. The brush leads to Rocky Mountain Junipers and various Pine and Fir trees that live on any bit of non-vertical soil they can find.
I headed straight to the parking lot at the main amphitheater and took the path up to the rim walk. The bowl is open to the array of hoodoos that march from the cliff's lip down across the plateau. The hoodoos are created when water from snow melt seeps into the limestone, freezes and sheers off chunks of the rock; basically the same processes that form potholes. When you stand at the edge, the layers of the Claron Formation are exposed everywhere you look and you can see the age of the earth laid out like a timeline in front of you. To further demonstrate the interconnectedness of the Grand Staircase and the vastness of the basin that composed this area hundreds of thousands of years ago, the bottom layer of sedimentary rock in Bryce is the same layer of rock that form the upper layer at Zion. In fact, the UPPER layer at Bryce is the LOWER layer at the Grand Canyon. So there; now go forth and win a geologic trivia question.
 Bryce Canyon Hoodoos
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 Pinyon Pine
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As with Zion, trails thread in and around the amphitheater for those that aren't decked out in riding armor and molded sole boots, so should you find yourself there in temperate weather and appropriate footwear, get on down in there and see what the hoodoos look like from the ground up. That was not my fate that day and as the midday light had obliterated the photogenic shadows needed to throw the geologic formations into relief, it was time to blow a kiss to the eastern most point of my ride and start heading west.
Unfathomably, when I walked down from the rim trail to the parking lot, I was… absolutely… alone; the only vehicle there. So I took off my windbreaker, spread it on the pavement and had a little midday picnic of Gas Station Sandwich, Chips and Red Bull. It was, again, about 80 to 90 miles to Cedar City where I would stop for the night, so I took my time and enjoyed the emptiness of a place that must be packed chockablock on any other day. I suppose as it was the day before Thanksgiving, people weren't really focused on being out in nature. All Alone at Bryce Canyon
I cleaned up lunch and mounted the Sprint, deciding that since I still had time, I could easily make it through Cedar Breaks National Monument before stopping. I rode out of the park and headed west on UT12 to join up with UT89 until Panguitch, turning left onto UT143 ignoring the uncomfortably dark and ominous cast the sky was taking on.
The route was unremarkable, more "touring" than "sport", but it gets you where you're going and you can't beat the little beehive freeway signs in Utah. Apparently the beehive is the official Utah state emblem.
I got to Cedar Breaks and stopped at the Chessmen Ridge overlook. The amphitheater was created through the same three step "deposition, uplift, erosion" (sounds like a family law proceeding) geologic process that I was starting to get familiar with. The most distinct item, at least as far as I was concerned, was the amount of snow that was piled up from a storm that had blown through a week or so prior. Well that and the nasty looking clouds that I was no longer able to ignore in the south made me think that I had best get myself in order and just hunker down for the night. I went to the overlook, took my pictures, admired the nature, and then almost… aaaaaaaalmost dropped the bike again like a moron.
 Posing like an Idiot
I went south out of Cedar Breaks and made a right onto UT14 and headed west right into Cedar City.
I checked into the El Rey Motel, and being somewhat cold by the time I got there, I splurged on a room with a Jacuzzi. I performed the unloading / unpacking ritual and headed to dinner. The Garden House of Cedar City is a home converted into a restaurant, in a subdivision-like neighborhood with lawn mower owning people on either side. The place, in my most likely inaccurate recollection, had sort of a Victorian look to it. This being Utah though, there were no adult beverages to be had. In fact, I was warned, "Sir, there is caffeine in our iced tea." Chessmen Ridge Overlook
Ahhh, Utah, why do you mock me so with your lack of beer and wine and your cute beehive freeway signs? Don't you know I carried a flask of Don Julio Añejo with me all the way from California?
The food though, was fantastic. I recall the menu being a little bit eclectic. Steaks, Potstickers, Spinach Salad sort of eclectic. I also recall it being very tasty. Consider that a recommendation.
After dinner I went back to the motel and had a nice long soak in my Jacuzzi with my maps and a bumper of tequila, familiarizing myself with the long day in the saddle that was to come on Thanksgiving.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 February 2009 )
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