Passes & Canyons Blog

I go out of my way for terrific motorcycle roads and coming home from Tooele, UT, last week was no exception. I wanted to revisit American Fork Canyon and the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway, which provide a great alternative route to Heber City and U.S. 40, which was my road back to Denver.

I’ve been this way before more than once. The OFMC discovered this road years ago thanks to a tip from a local and we ride it whenever we can. If you’re out in the Salt Lake City area you should make a point of riding it, too.

Fortunately, in the farflung reaches of the Salt Lake City metro area, the American Fork Canyon is easy to find, provided you know it exists. From I-15, exit east onto Utah 92 just south of Point of the Mountain and follow this road arrow straight to the cleft in the rock that is the mouth of the canyon. Then kiss the city good-bye, there’s none of that ahead.

You’ll quickly reach an entrance station for Timpanogos Cave National Monument but if you’re only passing through there is no fee. Should you pay the $6 fee and visit the monument? I have to admit we never have, but here’s what the official website says about the place.

Timpanogos Cave National Monument sits high in the Wasatch Mountains. The cave system consists of three spectacularly decorated caverns. Helictites and anthodites are just a few of the many dazzling formations to be found in the many chambers. As visitors climb to the cave entrance, on a hike gaining over 1,000 ft in elevation, they are offered incredible views of American Fork Canyon.

Make your way through the canyon, which is pretty spectacular in its own right, and then bear right to head on up the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. This is a winding, twisting, amazingly narrow strip of asphalt that loops up to Alpine Summit and then on down past Sundance Ski Resort. It hits U.S. 189 running through Provo Canyon and a left will take you up to Heber City and U.S. 40, or a right takes you down into Provo.

Biker Quote for Today

God makes the lightning, bikers make the thunder.

Second day out on last year's OFMC trip, near Chadron, Nebraska.

With John having taken on the duties of OFMC trip planning, and me having given up on arguing with him about it, I just wait patiently for him to announce to us all where we’ll be going on our trip this summer.

Well, the word came out the other day and here’s where we’re going.

Friday: Denver to Estes Park – 100 miles on Peak to Peak Highway, through Nederland. Maybe meet in Blackhawk for brunch first.

Saturday: Estes to Oak Creek – 140 miles through through Rocky Mountain Natl. Park, Grand Lake, Hot Sulfur Springs, Byers Canyon, Kremmling, and Yampa.

Sunday: Oak Creek to Vernal – 166 miles on the “Twenty Mile Road” to Hayden and on US 50 to Vernal. It is 300 miles to Vernal for those “short riders” who may join us on Sunday.

Monday: Vernal to Ferron, UT. – 200 miles on new “chosen” scenic motorcycle roads through national forest. Scenic US 191 southwest from Duchesne, UT through “The Huntington Canyon Scenic Byway.”

Tuesday: Ferron to Hanksville – 160 miles on more new “chosen” scenic motorcycle roads through Miller Canyon, Fremont Junction over Hogan Pass, by Fishlake, Loa, and Capital Reef Natl. Park.

Wednesday: Hanksville to Ignacio – 266 miles on more new “chosen” scenic motorcycle roads through the crossing of the Colorado, scenic byway in Fry Canyon, and Reservation backroads to Cortez, through Durango.

Thursday: Ignacio to La Veta – 207 miles on US-160 over Wolf Creek Pass, across the San Louis Valley, over La Veta Pass to that nice little local owned motel by the golf course.

Friday: Golf Day in La Veta!!! – 12 miles to Cuchara and back for a “last supper” with the OFMC after a round of golf at Grandote Peaks.

John’s theme this year is new roads in Utah we haven’t been on. Those are the “chosen” ones, though I’m not clear on the use of that term.

So it sounds good to me. That’s why I quit fighting him about the planning. I do like to have a say in this but he always comes up with good ideas, so just let him have his fun.

What I’m really interested in is the other trips. There are many of us now who can take more than one trip a year and John is supposed to be planning a couples trip and maybe one or two others. I’m looking forward to a good summer.

Biker Quote for Today

A biker can smell a party 5,000 miles away.

The OFMC at the Grand Canyon.

You’d hardly know it from reading this blog but the OFMC took its 24th annual summer trip a couple weeks ago. As always, it was a good one. We’ve never had a bad one.

I’ve already told the story of how it started out with all of the group gathering in Grand Junction, except me, because I had a flat tire and ended up spending the night in Eagle. The following day they all rode on to Marysvale, UT, and after my bike was rideable again I headed there, too. I rolled in around 9 p.m. to finally join the gang.

Up to the point of turning off I-70 to get to Marysvale, the ride was nothing special. I mean, it was interstate. But then heading up that canyon on U.S. 89 was another thing entirely. I’ve never been on that stretch of road before but I’m sure I will be again. Very, very nice. Utah is just gorgeous, you know?

The place we stayed was pretty interesting, too. It’s called the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort. It’s named for the hills around there. That gives you an idea.

We followed U.S. 89 south through Panguitch and took UT 143 over to Cedar Breaks National Monument, the first in a series of national parks and monuments we visited on this trip. UT 148 took us down to UT 14, which carried us down Cedar Canyon to Cedar City. Then we hopped onto I-15 and blasted down to Mesquite, NV.

After two days of gambling, golf, and sitting in the pool, we backtracked as far as St. George and caught UT 9, which took us to Zion National Park. We hadn’t come to see the park this time so we just passed through on the highway, but that’s a pretty spectacular ride on its own. East of the park we picked up U.S. 89 again and cruised down to Kanab.

Just beyond Kanab, U.S. 89 splits off an Alternate 89, which we followed to Jacob Lake, AZ, which sits at the intersection to the road that runs down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That was our stop for two nights as rode down into the park on the intervening day. Our first night there it was chilly and rainy so we sat around on the deck of one of our cabins wearing our rain gear. The rooms were too small to get all of us into one and there was no roof over the deck. So it was rain gear.

The ride into the park was especially satisfying for me considering the troubles I had experienced the last time the OFMC came here about 20 years ago. I got to see the sights I didn’t see then and I got to drink that beer on the patio of the Grand Canyon Lodge, overlooking the canyon, that I missed out of back then.

We backtracked from Jacob Lake to Kanab and almost to Panguitch on 89. Just a tip: if you go this way some time, the view headed north, coming down off the plateau that forms the North Rim, is kick ass. We didn’t realize it coming the other way but heading down it was an “Oh my goodness!” moment.

Just south of Panguitch we turned east on UT 12 to Bryce Canyon National Park. Having been there pretty recently, and having been without WiFi for four days, I didn’t go into the park, choosing instead to sit in the Best Western and use their internet connection. The rest of the guys went in. One thing we saw again and again on this trip was the amazing number of foreign–mostly Asian–tourists. They thought we were pretty interesting and in several instances asked to have photos taken with us. That happened again in Bryce, but one of the kids didn’t realize Randy’s exhaust pipes were hot and as everyone crowded together he got a pretty bad burn on his leg. Yeah, he’ll remember that part of his trip for a long time.

From Bryce we continued on 12 to Escalante, Boulder, and up to Torrey. From Torrey, U.S. 24 carried us through Capitol Reef National Park, to Hanksville and up to where we got back on I-70 heading east. A little east of Green River we turned south on U.S. 191, which cruises right along the boundary to Arches National Park on its way to Moab. We took a sidetrip that would have taken us into Canyonlands National Park if we had gone one way, but took us instead to Dead Horse Point State Park. The view there is of the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River.

After a night in Moab we rode UT 128 along the Colorado River as it continues to form the boundary of Arches, along the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, and back up to I-70. Then it was a blast on I-70 to home. Another OFMC trip in the books.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motorcycle touring with Ball O’ String

Biker Quote for Today

I enjoyed being lost in such a nice place minus the gravel.