What a couple of weeks it's been since my last blog post. We've both been on extreme sensory overload and lots of altitude adjusting. We're on the way back towards Rhode Island and have less than 2 weeks left.
Zion is an extremely biker friendly park, actually not allowing cars into the park but the shuttle buses and bikers only. So we took advantage of that and rode the 8-9 miles in and out. When we arrived at the north-most point of the park, we did the short hike to The Narrows. People were not able to actually go into The Narrows as the river was running too fast.
We stayed at the Zion Canyon Campground, directly on the Virgin River, which I highly recommend. We had been unable to obtain camping within the park but this was even better. Located just outside the gate of the park. Our views from our site were stunning.
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Upon our leaving Zion, we took the Mt. Carmel Junction 1 mile long tunnel and roadway. You need to check in and get a pass for the tunnel and they stop traffic and let you go if over the normal vehicle limits.
We arrived at Bryce Canyon and again we were overwhelmed by its majestic beauty. We stayed at Ruby’s Inn campground right outside the park. Bryce Canyon National Park is very biker friendly and we were able to ride our bikes to all the sites within Bryce Canyon Sunset point sunrise point inspiration point. We went to sunrise point at 6:15 in the morning and were the only bikers there we were able to capture sunrise. Although it was very cold, we managed it well and went and had a great breakfast at the Bryce Canyon Lodge.
We did drive into Arches National Park but didn't know you needed a timed entry ticket for the steep, scenic drive and we opted not to do it.
So we traveled onto our next campsite at Dead Horse Point State Park, right outside of Canyonlands National Park. This was a magnificent campground and park. The views were utterly amazing. We walked out ot Dead Horse Point in the AM, all by ourselves and took a few pictures and videos.
FUN FACT:
Dead Horse Point name[edit]
According to legend, the park is so named because of its use as a natural corral by cowboys in the 19th century, where horses often died of exposure.[6] Dead Horse Point has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.[7]
We also met a woman who grew up in Turin, NY and had the same ski coach as Tom. They knew some of the same people.
On our way out of the park we encountered REAL COWBOYS, (I thought I saw RIP!!!!!!!) corralling the cattle off the roadway!
While in Moab, we also visited Canyonlands National Park. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped at several lookouts for picture taking.
Then we were on our way to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. This was a magnificent, winding and steep drive but the visit to The Palace was worth it!
The travel to Pinon Flats, at Great Sand Dunes Park, Mosca, Colorado, over Wolf Creek Pass, San Juan Mountains, was admittingly a drive that put us both in some wacky altitude and vertigo states, that took a few days to overcome. We had definitely had our fill of up and down canyon drop driving!
The Great Sand Dunes Park was very interesting and we stayed in a very beautiful campground within the park and visited by deer that night!
A long journey from mountains with snow, sleet, and rain to FLAT FLAT lands!
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