| Author | Message | ||
     Needs_o2 |
The wife and I are heading to Capital Reef in three weeks, and were looking for input on what are must do things in the area. We'll be camping, so any input on campgrounds would be appreciated as well. Thanks! | ||
| Needs_o2 |
I drive Julie crazy with my haste and lack of proofreading. How do you edit the thread title? | ||
| Yo_barry |
If you continue west past Capital Reef, take H-12 through Escalante! Great, great road and beautiful scenery. I camped in Escalante. If you continue west on H-12 it takes you to Bryce Canyon. Going east from Capital Reef, at Hanksville, go south to Bullfrog on Lake Powell. You can take the ferry across to Halls Crossing. If you prefer not to do the ferry, stay on 95 to Hite, there is a bridge across the Colorado River. On either route find your way to H-191 north and ride up to Moab (Canyonlands and Arches.) Just north of Moab, UT-128 is a nice little ride along the river that gets you to I70 not far from the Colorado border. | ||
| Tankhead |
Ahh My absolutely favorite national park. The scenery is mind blowing. I will post up pics later when I get home from work. Route 12 to Bryce, Zion, just beautiful. | ||
| Jphish |
There is also a dirt road off 12 (I think - verify with local knowledge) that goes thru water pocket fold in Escalante. Pretty cool. Although South Utah has SO much spectacular scenery - you're in it every where ya go. | ||
| Calamari_kid |
Amazing area to ride in. A big +1 to Hwy 12, quite possibly one of the top moto roads in the country. A ride through Zion is a must as well, stunning scenery. The Quality Inn in Springdale has a good campground out back, they put this grimy looking rider in a nice spot right on the river. Springdale's a touristy little village type place, not crowded at all when I was there. They've got a free shuttle which I took to The Bit and Spur for a decent dinner with tasty local microbrews to drink. If you like things a bit less populated check out the campgrounds outside the east entrance to the park. If you check out Bryce Canyon, and you should, plan for plenty of time off the bike. Not much to see from the road, but lots of cool hikes and lookouts. Watch your speed around the towns, lots of speed tax collectors about. A little video of Zion. http://vimeo.com/5104086 | ||
| Charlie_zulu |
Last year on H-12. Fantastic road, the drop on each side of the road in this pic are "eye opening"   | ||
| Needs_o2 |
Thanks guys, Been to both Bryce and Zion, and loved both of them. Plan on spending about four days in the Capital Reef area and really enjoy finding off the beaten path hidden secrets whenever we check out areas like this. | ||
| Jphish |
"Off beaten Path" - Grand Staircase / Escalante for sure. 1.3 million acre Monument managed by BLM - can pretty much camp anywhere & very few people, compared to parks. Also "Needles Overlook" off 191 has a landscape view of CanyonLands worth the ride. One of my favorite little 'pocket parks' is Natural bridges monument. All on your way to / From Colo. You'll run out of time before you run out of scenery. Have fun! | ||
| Motorcyclemike |
Ride the Burr Trail from Boulder to Bullfrog or vise versa. You won't be sorry. I did it a couple of years ago. Came from the east, took the ferry across lake Powell and picked up the trail there, amazing road for a Uly. | ||
| Sharkguy |
A few years ago my wife and I took a trip out to Utah. We spent a couple nights in kodachrome basin state park. It was an awesome place. We used it as a base camp to explore the area with our motorcycles. It's located a bit south of Panguitch. Pretty close to bryce, zion, escalante. We then spent three days near moab and explored around there. Awesome areas, enjoy! There is a great book by Marty Burke i believe it's titled exploring the southwestern united states by motorcycle. has maps of most of the great riding routes, campgrounds, places of interest, etc. highly recommended. Have fun, watch for mule deer, elk, and cattle...free range out there. | ||
| Sharkguy |
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| Sharkguy |
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| Sharkguy |
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| Needs_o2 |
At Bryce in the HooDoos!  Julie amongst giants.  | ||
| Needs_o2 |
Overlooking Zion at secret test area.  Looking up at Angel's Landing. Hard to see but there are people all over it. I was told that about one person falls off every year.  The trail up to Angel's landing.  | ||
| Al_lighton |
Just a fabulous place...the devils backbone is the coolest. If you have any mechanical issues, there's a colorful character in Escalante that goes by the name of the Desert Doctor. He's the only shop for about 150 miles in any direction, he'll do what he can to get you going again. Cool shop, if you happen to be in escalante, stop in and say hi to him, his shop is truly a thing of interest... 120 S Center St Escalante, UT 84726 435-826-4951 | ||
| Bratigan |
I vacation in that part of the world and its some of the best riding and scenery anywhere. Can't wait to get back again. Lucky you. BR | ||
| Tankhead |
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| Tankhead |
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| Tankhead |
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| Tankhead |
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| Tankhead |
 I NEED TO GET BACK THERE> YES I'M SHOUTING | ||
| Sharkguy |
Awesome! Is that the white rim trail? | ||
| Needs_o2 |
Al, we'll make sure to stop in and see the Doc, especially if Bear starts to feel a little sick. Tankhead, are you trying to torture me? Where are those roads? | ||
| Al_lighton |
I was in that area on my ride up to the World Superbike races last year. Did it by myself last year, this year Reindog and I are planning on going, and we;ll go through a lot of the same area. It's so **BIG** there. Here are a lot of pics from that trip, using my cell phone. I'm not much of a photographer.....               That last picture is just one part of the Desert Doctors Tire walls....he writes the home location of the riders that he's rescued with bad tires in that neck of the "woods" on a scrap of their tire and staples it to the walls of his shop...its COVERED in tire "plaques". It was not too far from there that, on the way back from the Breckinridge 2002 Buell rally, one of our riders was down to the threads in his rear tire. We wrapped his tire, multiple times, in gaffers tape, and limped it 350 miles into vegas. He had to ride it on the devils backbone wrapped in gaffers tape, which was a bit scary. One screw up up there and there is NO WHERE to go but down on either side of the road. Too bad we hadn't known of the doctor then..... (Message edited by al_lighton on March 30, 2012) | ||
| Sharkguy |
Great pics. I love that part of the country. Sorry I missed Docs when I was out there. |
