10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

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Sagebrush
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#16

Post by Sagebrush »

I've done several threads over the years all located in the Run Reports forum.
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#17

Post by sgwilly »

Thread? You could/should start your own tour company.

I've got a few pics from 3 trips to the SW but I'm waiting to see if I've done anything you haven't.

Awesome job!
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#18

Post by Sagebrush »

Within an easy drive from the Cortez - Durango area is Moab, UT. Moab is home to both Arches and Canyonlands National parks. Driving from the south into Moab the first introduction to the Navajo Sandstone formations is Church Rock. Located on private property but with pull offs on both sides of the road to facilitate photographers it is like a welcome beacon to what lies ahead.

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Moab is a nice western town with all the facilities you'll need. Just outside of the town limits to the north of Moab is Arches National Park https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm. There is a paved drive through the park to some of the easier to access formations. There is a lot more to Arches than just these formations but you have to be willing to hike fairly long distances to reach them.

These structures are called fins:

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A walk through some fins to see our first arch:

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And just around a corner there it is:

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Leaving the area of the first arch we can see our second arch in the distance:

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We get closer:

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And closer:

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And were there:

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Not all of the interesting formations in Arches NP are Arches:

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While in Moab we rented a Jeep Wrangler in order to do some off road sight seeing. We rented from Barlows https://barlows.us/ located in downtown Moab. They have great multi-day rental rates. They don't demand that you wash the jeep before returning it like other rental companies and have a fairly lenient scratch and dent policy. In addition there jeeps are in great condition and come equipped with a cooler. I can highly recommend them.

There are hundreds of off road trails in and around Moab. Many created by uranium prospectors in the 1950's. They range from easy to very difficult. We chose the easy ones because we wanted a sight seeing adventure and not a metal bending exhibition. We started on the Shaffer trail (seems all the trails have a name).

Sights along the Shaffer trail:

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We stopped for a confab, the yellow and blue jeep is the rental, the red one belongs to a friend who was showing us the ropes and as you can see and I later found out you can ride many of these trails in a vehicle that has just a little more clearance than the average sedan. I would think a Jeep Cherokee or any of the Jeep SUVs would do just fine.

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The trail took us along the Colorado River:

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Lots of flowers in the desert and because of the relative lack of vegetation they really stand out:

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The La Sal mountains in the distance:

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Somewhere we turned onto the Musselman Arch Trail which eventually took us to the Musselman Arch.

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We eventually entered Canyonlands National Park https://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm on the White Rim trail and then exited by climbing back out on one of the two trails to the visitors center.

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We stopped briefly at the visitors center then headed out on the paved road to the main highway. On the way we visited Dead Horse Point State Park https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/dead-horse/

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More Utah coming soon...........................





.
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#19

Post by Rat »

Wonderful .... looks like one could do that on a bike ?
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#20

Post by Sagebrush »

I was scoping out the roads for just that purpose as we drove them and I believe you could. I wouldn't do it in wet conditions or on a heavy tourer like the 1500 or 1800 but I would think that a 1000 or 1100 would work just fine if you didn't bring all your luggage with you and a set of semi off road tires wouldn't hurt. The suspension would have to be up to snuff, no worn shocks or leaky fork seals. The other thing is these trails tend to be long. You would definitely want to pack a lunch and plenty of water. Of course a dual sport or adventure tourer would be perfect and we saw some out there.
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Re: Motorcycle rental in the US

#21

Post by Ric »

Are these trails open, or you must follow a guide/ranger?

(I'll change the topic's title)
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#22

Post by Sagebrush »

They are for the most part open, located for the most part on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property or within national parks boundaries. My former motorcycling friends (in some of the pictures) have moved on from home ownership and motorcycling to full time RV-ing. They will be in the Moab area for two months beginning in April. Its and annual thing for them. They would like nothing better than to take a couple of Norwegians on a guided tour of the many beautiful trails in the area. They do it all the time. If you would like me to find out when they plan to arrive in Moab and find out if they would help you out let me know and I'll contact them about it.
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#23

Post by Ric »

That would be just amazing. Check your private messages
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#24

Post by Sagebrush »

On the second day of off-roading in Moab we visited an area called Fins & Things. This is more of a rock climbing area and less of a scenic drive where a person can find just how steep of a grade his vehicle can climb. Since I was busy driving I couldn't take pictures but my wife, Terrie, stepped up and took pictures of the experience with her cell phone. This was not a smooth ride by any means. Terrie says that riding in the back seat was like being a ping pong ball in a washing machine. Because of this we have many, many pictures of the side pillars, floor boards backs of seats and front passenger's ear holes but I wont bore you with those pictures.

We set off in a group consisting of a bunch of Razors and our lone Jeep:

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This is what much of the area looks like, you can see the trail marked by the tire residue on the sandstone:

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I try a little personal off-roading. Its amazing how rubber tires and shoe soles stick to this slick rock. The smooth sandstone in the area was named slick rock by the pioneers as the iron hooped wheels and horse shoes slipped easily on it.

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A yucca in bloom:

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We came to an area where you could loop around and re climb a hill, Terrie got out of the Jeep and took some pictures.

Jim spots one of the Razors as from where the Razor is the driver can not see the crevice at Jim's feet.

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Here I am in the Jeep taking it from the opposite direction. While climbing this hill the only thing I could see through the windshield was sky. I had to wait till I crested the hill to be able to see where to turn.

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Completing the loop:

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Fins and things took a big part of the day, so after completing it we took off for the Onion Creek trail until we ran out of daylight.

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Coming up, day three in Moab...............................

.
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#25

Post by Sagebrush »

On the eve of the our last day in Moab it rained most of the night and into the morning leaving many of the trails quite muddy. By noon however, the desert had dried enough to let us go sight seeing on more trails. We chose to go an area called Gemini Bridges. The road in was sand, not the rocky gravel that we had experienced on the other trails.

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The Gemini Bridges area was like a giant playground for adults.

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One of the two bridges:

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You had to detour around or jump across the fissures in the sandstone:

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Terrie and Debbie take a different path:

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Charlie decides there is something interesting to investigate off to the left:

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Turns out it was a couple of small arches:

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It didn't take long before everyone became scattered:

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Charlie perches above one of the bridges:

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He joins Terrie and Debbie on the other bridge where the light is better:

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The hollows in the rock were filled with water from the rain:

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Its a long way down:

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Coming up Bryce, Zion, Coral Sands, Mokie Dugway & Valley of the Gods................



.
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#26

Post by Rat »

Great stuff .... action1

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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#27

Post by Sagebrush »

Southwest of Moab and just north of Mexican Hat, Utah and not far from Monument Valley along UT-261 lies the Moki-Dugway. The pioneers called an area where they had to dig a path to make it level for their wagons to pass a Dugway. The Moki-Dugway ascends an escarpment. Running along the base of the escarpment for a distance of about 30 miles is Valley of the Gods road. This unpaved road runs between UT-260 and US-163. US-163 is the road that passes through Monument Valley.

This map is a screenshot from Google maps.

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On the road between Moab and the Moki-Dugway:

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The Moki-Dugway:

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This view is from the top of the Moki-Dugway. The road that zig-zags straight away is the paved road UT-260. The road that goes to the left is the unpaved Valley of the Gods road. The junction is at the base of the Moki-Dugway.

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View from the top along the escarpment:

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Path of the Valley of the Gods road:

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Along the Valley of the Gods road. This road is not difficult to drive, just dusty. Our friends drove it in a Toyota Prius so how hard can it be?

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Approaching Monument Valley from the east on US-163. Monument Valley is on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Access to the Monuments and the visitor center is controlled by the Navajo Nation and they charge a fee for the privilege to view them up close and personal. We visited the visitor center in 2007 when we rode through the area on motorcycles but didn't desire to visit again on this trip.

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Coming up, Page AZ, Bryce NP, Zion NP and more............................




.
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#28

Post by Sagebrush »

I'm lumping in Page, AZ in with the Utah pictures as it sits right on the border with Utah. Page is known for three major attractions, first and will only cost you a 1 1/2 mile round trip hike, is Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River. The turn off for it into the parking lot lies just a couple of miles south of Page on US-89.

The hike from the parking lot to Horseshoe Bend.

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Looking across the plain its hard to tell that there is a river there.

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Unlike Moab the Colorado runs clear here as its just down river from the Glenn Canyon Dam. This is the first dam on the Colorado and it creates Lake Powell.

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Horseshoe Bend.

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You can rent motorized rubber boats for an excursion on the river. I didn't look into it while we were there so I have no idea what the expense is but it looks to me like a good way to spend a day.

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Make sure you hold on to your hat as it may become part of the landscape.

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The town of Page was created to support the workers as the Glenn Canyon Dam was built. Page lives on as a town catering to the tourist industry.

Glenn Canyon Dam.

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The US-89 highway bridge across Glenn Canyon.

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Lake Powell.

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In the hills surrounding Lake Powell there are alcoves that serve as sheltered areas for plants not associated with a desert environments to grow. Fed from ground water dripping from the overhead you can find ferns, orchids and columbines among the many plants that call these alcoves home.

Along the walk to view one of the alcoves.

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The alcove from a distance.

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What it looks like Inside.

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In my opinion the real reason to come to Page, AZ is to tour the Antelope Slot Canyon. The Antelope Slot Canyon lies within the boundaries of the Navajo Reservation and like Monument Valley they control access to it. The only way to tour the canyon is to go through one of the Navajo tour guides, we happened to use the Antelope Slot Canyon Tours http://www.antelopeslotcanyon.com/ and were very satisfied with the experience. The guides drive you out to the canyon and walk you through talking about the history of the canyon and interesting facts about it. Most importantly they help set up your camera, everything from a cell phone to a high end DSLR, to ensure you get the best pictures that your camera is able to take.

Views from inside the canyon.

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Coral Sands, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks just ahead....................




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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#29

Post by Ric »

Waiting for the next part!
This topic, and Sagebrush particularly, is a huge source of informations and tips, that I'm using A LOT while planning my trip
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Re: 10 days tour in NM, AZ, UT and CO

#30

Post by ericheath »

Amazing. Glad you were able to stop and take as many pics as you did. I have to see that one day. So beautiful, majestic, but desolate.
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