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Summer 2016 Bike Trip (CO, NM, AZ, UT)

5K views 25 replies 12 participants last post by  Mudflap 
#1 · (Edited)
Since I'm deep into planning a 10 day bike trip for this summer, I went back and looked at pics from last year's journey. I thought you guys might enjoy them, since anyone not in a year-round warm climate is getting ready to kick off the season... so I picked quite a few. Enjoy!

We started in Denver, then down to New Mexico, across Arizona, and looped back through Utah and back into Colorado. The trip was a week long... My good friend of 20-something years flew out to Denver from Chicago, and I loaned him my blue/black Victory Cross Country for the week. I did the trip on my black Indian Dark Horse. My other two buddies were on a yellow Goldwing and a red Victory Magnum.


Million Dollar Highway, Colorado





Middle of nowhere New Mexico





El Mapais National Conservation Area, New Mexico







At the hotel for the night, Show Low, Arizona
On the way here, we rode through the hardest rain I've ever experienced on a bike. It was coming sideways, and at one point,
it pretty much felt like someone had slowly poured about 44oz of water into my crotch that pooled in the seat. Balls wet = you know you're soaked!




Salt River Canyon, Arizona



Roosevelt Lake, Arizona









Near Jerome, Arizona



Grand Canyon South Rim, Arizona



Lake Powell, Arizona







Zion National Park, Utah







Route 12 near Bryce Canyon, Utah





Grand Staircase - Escalante, Utah





Somewhere south of Torrey on Route 12, Utah






Hite Overlook, Glen Canyon, Utah
You can see my buddy standing about 1/3 of the way down, and 3/4 of the way across the second pic.






Ouray, Colorado



Back home in Denver, total mileage

 
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#3 ·
I didn't think ANYONE would ever find Nowhere New Mexico.:D We were lucky in Arizona. We just got the wind. No rain when we were there. Nice photos.
 
#4 · (Edited)
We found it! :D If you guys ever find yourself roaming west of Albuquerque, route 117 south through El Mapais is a good bike road. We only got hit with rain a couple of times, and generally it was light and passed quickly as per usual out west.

On that last stretch to Show Low however, man that was bad. We could see the storm, and myself and my buddy from Chicago voted to just sit tight at the gas station and wait a half hour, figuring we'd dodge it. The others however, were worried about getting to the hotel and finding some dinner so we got out-voted and just said alright, whatever dudes... Yeah... we hit it, haha. Sad thing is, we ended up just ordering pizzas anyway, nobody wanted to go out after getting drenched. There was nowhere to even pull over really, and its desolate out there, so really the only choice was to just hunker down and push ahead figuring we'd find the other side. We did, but it took about 15 minutes of riding in sideways rain... I should mention there were huge lighting bolts hitting all around as well. Again, nowhere to hide though, no shelter... At least the tires would have ground out my body as it was charred well done, lol.

This year's trip is back through Utah reversing most of that route, then across Nevada to Mammoth California. Through Yosemite and over to the coast highway in Morro Bay, where we'll ride that north and check out Monterrey and Pebble Beach, then over the Golden Gate and over to Napa wine country, then cut back to Lake Tahoe and head back east. We'll drop slightly south into Lake Powell again, then do Monument Valley on the way back to Moab Utah and home to Denver. My buddy is planning to ride his Harley Ultra out here a few weeks before and park it in my garage, then fly back out for the trip so he can do it on his own scoot... I'll be sure to take a zillion pics!
 
#6 ·
Awesome pictures! Thanks for posting.

The South West is one of our favorite places to ride too. We did our last trip there in 2015, and it being a small world, I recognized more than a few places from your pictures. Turns out we did some of the same roads, even down to almost the exact same parking spots!

We're riding up around Lake Superior this Spring but plan on going back to the SW this Fall or next Spring.











 
#7 ·
Awesome pictures! Thanks for posting.

The South West is one of our favorite places to ride too. We did our last trip there in 2015, and it being a small world, I recognized more than a few places from your pictures. Turns out we did some of the same roads, even down to almost the exact same parking spots!

We're riding up around Lake Superior this Spring but plan on going back to the SW this Fall or next Spring.
Love it! I guess we're a predictable bunch when it comes to choosing roads. :icon_cool: I lived in Scottsdale AZ for a few years back in the late 90s, and I always tell people that was my absolute favorite place to live of the many I've tried. There is just something about the desert... I'm with you, the southwest is my favorite place to be, and to ride.

Here are some bonus pics from the trip...

Sedona, Arizona





Grand Canyon, Arizona




Bryce Canyon, Utah




Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah







Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado




 
#11 ·
Yes, I love the desolation. That last pic looks like Nevada perhaps, although parts of Northern AZ and some of western Colorado and northern Utah look like that as well... We'll be going across Nevada this summer, and I'm looking forward to those loooong stretches.
 
#15 ·
I really looked at that picture Eye, I'm sure there had to be some buzzards up there somewhere. LOL It is amazing how lonely it is out there. The last time I was out that way it was HOT and I was too young to really appreciate it.

Thank you both for sharing those pics!! We haven't been thru Arizona on the bike and only a little bit of Utah but I know right where those pictures of Mesa Verde were taken. I spent quite a bit of time in Colorado from '69 to '73 and fortunately my aunt tried to make sure I wasn't bored so she took me to a lot of places. The Rockies are so beautiful and I can't get enough of riding in them.
 
#19 ·
I had wanted to ride many of those roads on a motorcycle for 20 years before I ever finally bought one. Trip was a dream come true really...

We are headed off on 7/31 for a 10 day ride out to California. Unfortunately Highway 1 is closed near Big Sur due to a bridge that was damaged in a mudslide and had to be demolished. It won't re-open until September, so unfortunately riding that stretch from LA to San Francisco will have to remain on the moto bucket list for another day. We'll head to Monterey and ride up past San Fran at least, so it won't be 100% without Highway 1 goodness at least... I'll have a ton of pics in a few months hopefully, and I'm planning to take some video as well...
 
G
#20 ·
funny how this works, this is my home area, I ride these roads on a regular basis, 180 is awesome, 550 is another, 191 cant be beat. As nice as these roads are I always look forward to riding some of Michigan or Minnesota and as usual, one of my favorite areas to visit is the Blue Ridge mountains and north through Kentucky.
 
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