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Day 5 (10-12-07)
It is so nice waking up to the sound of the Colorado River and looking out your tent to see the canyon walls lit up by the morning sun. I truly do believe it’s as close to heaven as I’m going to get.
After a quick couple of eggs, and some PowerAde from the night before it was time to break camp and get my little butt on the road. BTW, by this point setting up and breaking camp is less than a 10 minute ordeal. So I’d say I’m getting the hang of it quite nicely. Alright, off to Moab to fuel up and it’s time to find the reason that I came on this trip.
I’ll be honest with you, I was nervous. After dreaming of Monument Valley for so long I was worried that it wouldn’t be all that I have hyped it up to be inside of my head. “Would it be as grand as I pictured it?”, “Would it be the thing that I’m looking for?”, “Will it reveal itself like all the stories say it does?” And so on. I just didn’t want my dream for so long to be, well, you know, sub-standard in reality.
Well, I can honestly say that it was everything I was ever looking for and way, way more. If anyone goes there, please listen to me, like I listened to others before me. You NEED to enter it from the North on 163. Trust me, it’s worth it. It is revealed to you in a way that can’t be described unless you are actually there. Alright, enough with the chit-chat, on with the pics.
See, I told you that the pictures wouldn’t do it justice!!!! You’re just sitting back thinking, “Man, those are some big rocks…..” But trust me; it is well worth the trip to go see in person. I would go back in a heartbeat just to ride though it again. And it’s a lonnnnggggg way out there and back.
From there I made it into Tuba City, Arizona where I met two guys on bikes. Ed was on a GS1200 Adventure, and his cousin Terry on an ST1300. I chatted with them a while and they were heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (the same place I was heading) so I asked if I could tag along for a bit. They said sure and off we went.
Making great time, we scooted along around 90 mph to the town of Jacob Lake. Now I use the word “town” loosely. It’s a gas station, general store, and a restaurant. Yep, that’s about it. We topped of our tanks, bought some food for breakfast, and then set off on the North Rim Highway to try and find a spot to camp in the park.
Well, 60 some odd miles later we made it to the entrance and we were greeted with a “Campground Full” sign. Uh oh…. Not good because a front was blowing through from the North and we were afraid we would be setting up camp in the rain, cold, and dark. Not good if you ask me.
The Ranger at the gate (really cute I might add) told us to go park in the National Forrest somewhere and just setup a primitive camp. That was about our only option. So back down the road about 5 miles and then off on a little gravel forest road. What we found was a perfect clearing in a valley to keep us sheltered from the winds and weather.
Ed and Terry….. Ed was celebrating getting laid off, and Terry, well… Terry was just out for a vacation to see some killer roads and scenery. Both guys are top notch if you ask me. I was very lucky to meet up with those two.
After a dinner of Pad Thai, it was time for bed for what would be the coldest night of my camping career so far. Yes, I’m a fair weather camper, so don’t give me any crap about it. Tomorrow…. A big hole, lots of miles, off on my own again, and plenty of devils on the highway. Nighty, night everyone.
It is so nice waking up to the sound of the Colorado River and looking out your tent to see the canyon walls lit up by the morning sun. I truly do believe it’s as close to heaven as I’m going to get.
After a quick couple of eggs, and some PowerAde from the night before it was time to break camp and get my little butt on the road. BTW, by this point setting up and breaking camp is less than a 10 minute ordeal. So I’d say I’m getting the hang of it quite nicely. Alright, off to Moab to fuel up and it’s time to find the reason that I came on this trip.
I’ll be honest with you, I was nervous. After dreaming of Monument Valley for so long I was worried that it wouldn’t be all that I have hyped it up to be inside of my head. “Would it be as grand as I pictured it?”, “Would it be the thing that I’m looking for?”, “Will it reveal itself like all the stories say it does?” And so on. I just didn’t want my dream for so long to be, well, you know, sub-standard in reality.
Well, I can honestly say that it was everything I was ever looking for and way, way more. If anyone goes there, please listen to me, like I listened to others before me. You NEED to enter it from the North on 163. Trust me, it’s worth it. It is revealed to you in a way that can’t be described unless you are actually there. Alright, enough with the chit-chat, on with the pics.
See, I told you that the pictures wouldn’t do it justice!!!! You’re just sitting back thinking, “Man, those are some big rocks…..” But trust me; it is well worth the trip to go see in person. I would go back in a heartbeat just to ride though it again. And it’s a lonnnnggggg way out there and back.
From there I made it into Tuba City, Arizona where I met two guys on bikes. Ed was on a GS1200 Adventure, and his cousin Terry on an ST1300. I chatted with them a while and they were heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (the same place I was heading) so I asked if I could tag along for a bit. They said sure and off we went.
Making great time, we scooted along around 90 mph to the town of Jacob Lake. Now I use the word “town” loosely. It’s a gas station, general store, and a restaurant. Yep, that’s about it. We topped of our tanks, bought some food for breakfast, and then set off on the North Rim Highway to try and find a spot to camp in the park.
Well, 60 some odd miles later we made it to the entrance and we were greeted with a “Campground Full” sign. Uh oh…. Not good because a front was blowing through from the North and we were afraid we would be setting up camp in the rain, cold, and dark. Not good if you ask me.
The Ranger at the gate (really cute I might add) told us to go park in the National Forrest somewhere and just setup a primitive camp. That was about our only option. So back down the road about 5 miles and then off on a little gravel forest road. What we found was a perfect clearing in a valley to keep us sheltered from the winds and weather.
Ed and Terry….. Ed was celebrating getting laid off, and Terry, well… Terry was just out for a vacation to see some killer roads and scenery. Both guys are top notch if you ask me. I was very lucky to meet up with those two.
After a dinner of Pad Thai, it was time for bed for what would be the coldest night of my camping career so far. Yes, I’m a fair weather camper, so don’t give me any crap about it. Tomorrow…. A big hole, lots of miles, off on my own again, and plenty of devils on the highway. Nighty, night everyone.
Did you do the swing thing at the Royal Gorge? Quite a rush...! Did you ride out the back way on the far side of the bridge or did you go back out the way you came in? Did you do Skyline Drive on the West side of Canon City?
All the help were college kids that were there for the summer and lived on site. They ALL seemed to have that vacant staring over our shoulder look when they talked to us. Creepy... I downed my ice cream and we got out of there 
The ride down the North side into Utah was great.
Got my first scratch on my brand new VFR 800 that afternoon when I removed the tank bag 
I was cleaning sand out of nooks and crannies for weeks and weeks after that trip!
