OFMC Rides New Roads In Utah
Riding through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The OFMC rolled out of Vernal heading for something special: new roads. We’ve been all over Utah but in plotting out this trip John realized there is a section in the middle–south of US 40, north of I-70–where we had never been. And looking at the Utah map by Butler Maps, he saw there was some red and yellow on some of those roads. Time to fix this deficit.
We headed west to Duchesne, a town we’ve been familiar with since the very earliest days of the OFMC, but then did something different–we turned south on US 191. This took us through a canyon and over a range of mountains that were pretty nice all on their own, but they were only the beginning. We hit US 6 as it comes out of Price and jogged northwest a short distance until we turned west and south again on Utah 96, which goes past Scofield State Park and the town of Scofield. This is called the energy loop and we passed a variety of mines, power plants, and a (presumably) hydro lake name Electric Lake.
Past Scofield the road became Utah 264 and twisted and curved its way up on a high ridge. This was some of the red on the Butler map. Red means good. Up on top we hit Utah 31 and it descends through a long canyon, more red, then yellow, all the way to Huntington, where we picked up Utah 10, to Ferron. Ferron was our stop for the night. A little town out in the middle of not much that makes you wonder how people make a living way out here.
The following day we stayed on 10 until it hit I-70 and after a short jog west we continued south on Utah 72. More yellow and red as we cruised up a canyon and over a pass. More gorgeous country we had never seen. And I might add here that so far we were missing all the July heat we could easily have encountered. Each day was cloudy, even rainy, so going over passes we were bundling up and every once in awhile we were putting on the rain gear. We’ll take that over 100 degree heat any time.
Running down Utah 72 toward Loa we took the more roundabout route of Utah 25 around Fish Lake. More red and yellow. Judy and I had been on this road some years ago but we were going the other direction so it’s always good to take a road the other way. Then we hit Utah 24 and turned east to Loa and Bicknell and Torrey and through Capitol Reef National Park. Out the other side we were at Hanksville, our stop for the night.
The Hanksville Inn was gritty but very biker friendly and they gave us our own corner of the place with a patio all our own. We added some excitement to this little burg when John suffered a medical issue he is familiar with but which we had no warning of. We found him seemingly comatose and called 911 but a quick call to his wife, Cheryl, by his son, Johnathon, gave us the tactics we needed to revive him. Cheryl was totally calm, having been through this numerous times, but we were taken unawares, and the ambulance did show up, siren wailing and lights flashing. And John, of course, was embarrassed by it all and wished we hadn’t called 911.
And oh yes: at Hanksville we met up with Ray and Randy and Johnathon, who had ridden from Denver that day. So that made us nine.
The next morning we turned south out of Hanksville on Utah 95 headed through the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The last time the OFMC had been on this road we were headed the other direction and we had come to Hite on the south side of the lake and spent the night before taking the ferry across in the morning. In the years since then the level of the lake has dropped precipitously and the Hite marina has been abandoned. They built a bridge or two to get you across and so this time we took the bridges.
Just south of Blanding we hit US 191 and turned south to Bluff. Here we took a less well known series of roads that cut across north of the Four Corners area, saving us time and avoiding that tourist attraction. About 10 miles out of Cortez we ran into new chip seal and oh boy was that a mess. If I’d been on the V-Strom or even on my CB750 it would have been better but the Concours hates gravel. But we endured.
Then from Cortez on to the snarl that is Durango and finally to Ignacio, the the Sky Ute casino and hotel for the obligatory gambling spot we always have on these trips. Along the way Friggs (Free Eggs, that is) got word that his lady friend, Vicky, had been in a car accident and early this Thursday morning he set out for home. The rest of us are on to Gunnison today. Right now, though, it’s breakfast time.
Biker Quote for Today
Riding my motorcycle around L.A. is like my own video game. But unlike many folks at the wheel, I am occupied with getting where I’m going and keeping myself safe. Most people are applying makeup, texting, and checking out the beauty in the next car. — Hugh Laurie
Tags: motorcycling in Utah
