On Day Two of this 5-day Utah trip we finally got off on the good stuff. We had fiddled with our communicators the night before so now we have four of our five connected but Dave was the odd man out. Unfortunately that was his lot for the whole trip.
Waiting at the Capitol Reef Visitors Center.
The issue was the wind, though. And dealing with a blasting wind proved to be an issue for this entire trip.
From Hanksville the road turned more westerly and got a lot more interesting, at a much more sedate pace than the day before. All the way to Torrey we were kicking back and enjoying the ever-changing scenery, and man, there’s a lot of scenery in Utah. We were in canyons, up over hills, and we passed through Capitol Reef National Park.
Lindsay told us he intended to stop and get some photos along the way so we shouldn’t be concerned if he was not there at some point. And as he said, he did drop off, Gene with him. The idea was that they would catch up to us at our next stop.
As the rest of us cruised along we passed a lot of pretty spots to pull over and I suggested to Tom that we pull into one of these and wait for them. Tom said he figured the visitor center would be a good place to wait. It was right alongside the road and we could all use the amenities. Sounds good.
We reached the visitor center and were lucky enough to get the most prominent, most visible spot in the whole parking lot so we relaxed and kept an eye out for Lindsay and Gene. After awhile here they came down the road . . . and passed right by without either one of them so much as turning their head to look in the direction of this bustling place. Oh well, maybe we’ll see them in Torrey or else we’ll see them in Panguitch, our stop for the night.
We took off and at Torrey we needed to turn south on Utah 12, which splits off before you get into the town. Just to be safe we rode into Torrey but didn’t see Gene and Lindsay so we turned around and took the road south.
After all the great country we had already been through you wouldn’t think it could get much better. You would be wrong. Utah 12 has got to be one of the very best roads in Utah, and that’s saying a lot because Utah has a lot of fabulous roads.
First you go up over some very high hills with fabulous views off to the left. Then you get down to Boulder and go down and the terrain changes radically. You run down into canyons and then up again, there’s multi-colored rock all around, then you come up through the slick rock and wind your way up and over another high plateau. Finally you reach Escalante. We stopped in Escalante for lunch.
The gorgeous country does not stop at Escalante. From there we went on, still following Utah 12, up over another high spot, and then down, and then up again coming in Bryce Canyon National Park. Here the color of the hills reminded me of a Dreamcicle, those white and orange ice cream bars on sticks. The road doesn’t take you into the main area of the park, you just pass by that, but then it goes down into Red Canyon, where now everywhere you look it’s red.
Finally the road came out to meet US 89, where we turned north to Panguitch.
It would be a couple more hours before Lindsay and Gene showed up. They had missed the turn onto Utah 12 at Torrey and went quite a long way before stopping to consult the map. At that point they could have continued forward and gotten to Panguitch quicker, but they didn’t want to miss Utah 12 so they backtracked the whole way.
What a great day. What a great ride. You gotta love Utah.
Biker Quote for Today
I’ve come to conclusion that the most time consuming activity bikers engage in is finding neutral.
by Marty Berke. Without the guidance from this book (and with no websites like yours available) we would not have found some of these fantanstic roads.