I will post my daily ride reports from Seattle to SW-FOG 2014 in this thread.
I left Seattle at 3:45am and road the freeway to Kennewick Washington taking the slab the entire way. Stop for gas and breakfast at McDonald's. Also I meet up with my riding buddy.
The destination for the day is Meridian Idaho but along the way we take a detour to Owyhee Dam so I can bag my first Unofficial Dam Tour dam of the season. It was all slab today except for the detour to the Owyhee Dam and what a nice detour it was. Along the river people are out camping, fly fishing, and big white dog standing up in the back of a pickup truck with the wind in it's face and it all unfolds in front of us as we motor down the road. Pretty country out here long the river below the dam.
Temps today varied from 43 at Snoqualmie Pass to 82 in Ohyhee Lake a fine day for riding.
First dam of the season.
Ohyhee Lake
The River below the dam.
I left Seattle at 3:45am and road the freeway to Kennewick Washington taking the slab the entire way. Stop for gas and breakfast at McDonald's. Also I meet up with my riding buddy.
The destination for the day is Meridian Idaho but along the way we take a detour to Owyhee Dam so I can bag my first Unofficial Dam Tour dam of the season. It was all slab today except for the detour to the Owyhee Dam and what a nice detour it was. Along the river people are out camping, fly fishing, and big white dog standing up in the back of a pickup truck with the wind in it's face and it all unfolds in front of us as we motor down the road. Pretty country out here long the river below the dam.
Temps today varied from 43 at Snoqualmie Pass to 82 in Ohyhee Lake a fine day for riding.
First dam of the season.
Ohyhee Lake
The River below the dam.
Day 2
Today we road from Meridian Idaho to Spanish Fork Ut. The route.
The day started like this.
DCarver complained the Day 1 post was lame, Candy Butt worthy even, and it was. So to beef up the content I took a few freeway photos and detoured to Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls Idaho.
Slabbing I-84. Good pavement well at least compared it I-90 along Snoqulamie Pass in Washington.
Vast empty spaces along I-84. Nice for a city boy.
Then I got the bright idea to go to Shoshone Falls. Why not it was only five miles off the freeway and we had some time to burn.
Dig the crazy geography in what is essentially range land. This is the Snake River from the Shoshone Falls overlook.
Scenic view along I-84 near the Idaho Utah border.
An oasis otherwise know as a rest stop. The sign says this was Lake Bonneville 20,000 years ago and it was land locked. We now have moved from the Columbia River basin to the Salt Lake basin where water cannot escape.
I-84 scenery in Utah.
The Wasatch Mountains near Snow Basin off I-80.
Riding US 40 on the way to Provo just outside of Heber City.
End of Day 2
Today we road from Meridian Idaho to Spanish Fork Ut. The route.
The day started like this.
DCarver complained the Day 1 post was lame, Candy Butt worthy even, and it was. So to beef up the content I took a few freeway photos and detoured to Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls Idaho.
Slabbing I-84. Good pavement well at least compared it I-90 along Snoqulamie Pass in Washington.
Vast empty spaces along I-84. Nice for a city boy.
Then I got the bright idea to go to Shoshone Falls. Why not it was only five miles off the freeway and we had some time to burn.
Dig the crazy geography in what is essentially range land. This is the Snake River from the Shoshone Falls overlook.
Scenic view along I-84 near the Idaho Utah border.
An oasis otherwise know as a rest stop. The sign says this was Lake Bonneville 20,000 years ago and it was land locked. We now have moved from the Columbia River basin to the Salt Lake basin where water cannot escape.
I-84 scenery in Utah.
The Wasatch Mountains near Snow Basin off I-80.
Riding US 40 on the way to Provo just outside of Heber City.
End of Day 2
Day 3
Day 3 started out much the same as Day 2. We had breakfast but was a free breakfast at the hotel.
The ride starts on Hwy 6 east then to Hwy 31 and nice twisty affair going up to 9800 feet then plunging to Hwy 10 along mining towns then on to Hwy 72 another great twisty road. No freeways today! We also road Hwy 12 both directions and landed in Torrey Utah. Here is the route.
The first photos is near the summit of Hwy 31 at 9800 feet. No names to the passes here. All the signs say Summit with elevation noted.
I like how the highway plunges way with the mountains in the background.
My FJR near the summit of Hwy 31 otherwise know as the Skyline Road and it is. This is great road. Highly recommended.
Hwy 31 near the summit.
A frozen lake on the south side of the summit of Hwy 31.
.
A year ago mudslides made a mess of the south side of Hwy 31. Likely brought on by thunderstorms. Think twice before camping along this river.
Hwy 31 end joining Hwy 10 and we are in the arid flatlands and coal mining country. Odd to be in beautiful mountain country to drop in to flatlands. Oddly enough one of the mountain lake is called Electric Lake and it feeds the coal fire plants to create electricity powering this post.
We soon are on Hwy 72 heading to Torrey Ut.
Forget Subway stop at the General Store to have a sandwich like this.
It was 1:00 and our room was not ready yet so we drop some gear at the hotel and headed toward Escalante to ride one of the best roads in the country, Hwy 12! Yea Haw!
With temps in the mid 70’s is was a perfect day, even better than this photo.
Photographing a great road with harmless puffy clouds.
I decided to pull over to take this photo - a good decision!
The Hogsback on Hwy 12.
Calf Creek is at bottom of the canyon. Hiking to Calf Creek Falls is great fun but not on this trip.
And old tree.
The road falls way leaving great scenery for us to enjoy.
Twisty alert!
Look closely and you will see the road.
No road here but nice scenery and a great day!
Back to the road views.
Is this awesome or what?
The Hogsback, again.
End of Day 3
Day 3 started out much the same as Day 2. We had breakfast but was a free breakfast at the hotel.
The ride starts on Hwy 6 east then to Hwy 31 and nice twisty affair going up to 9800 feet then plunging to Hwy 10 along mining towns then on to Hwy 72 another great twisty road. No freeways today! We also road Hwy 12 both directions and landed in Torrey Utah. Here is the route.
The first photos is near the summit of Hwy 31 at 9800 feet. No names to the passes here. All the signs say Summit with elevation noted.
I like how the highway plunges way with the mountains in the background.
My FJR near the summit of Hwy 31 otherwise know as the Skyline Road and it is. This is great road. Highly recommended.
Hwy 31 near the summit.
A frozen lake on the south side of the summit of Hwy 31.
.A year ago mudslides made a mess of the south side of Hwy 31. Likely brought on by thunderstorms. Think twice before camping along this river.
Hwy 31 end joining Hwy 10 and we are in the arid flatlands and coal mining country. Odd to be in beautiful mountain country to drop in to flatlands. Oddly enough one of the mountain lake is called Electric Lake and it feeds the coal fire plants to create electricity powering this post.
We soon are on Hwy 72 heading to Torrey Ut.
Forget Subway stop at the General Store to have a sandwich like this.
It was 1:00 and our room was not ready yet so we drop some gear at the hotel and headed toward Escalante to ride one of the best roads in the country, Hwy 12! Yea Haw!
With temps in the mid 70’s is was a perfect day, even better than this photo.
Photographing a great road with harmless puffy clouds.
I decided to pull over to take this photo - a good decision!
The Hogsback on Hwy 12.
Calf Creek is at bottom of the canyon. Hiking to Calf Creek Falls is great fun but not on this trip.
And old tree.
The road falls way leaving great scenery for us to enjoy.
Twisty alert!
Look closely and you will see the road.
No road here but nice scenery and a great day!
Back to the road views.
Is this awesome or what?
The Hogsback, again.
End of Day 3
Day 4
This is an off bike day. Last year when I went to Colorado I never took a break, everyday going to a new destination. At the end of the trip I had the sensation I was blowing by everything I came to see. So one of the reasons for going to Torrey UT beside riding Hwy 12 was to to have an off bike day.
In 2006 I road my Vstrom down the Notrom trail to the Burr road. One of the other options was to ride to Cathedral Valley but short of time I put it on my bucket list. So we went GS’ing in a Liberty Jeep in a loop through Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park.
The start of the jeep trip.
This is a self guided tour. Just rent to jeep. This is very nice. No need for a Vstrom and the jeep has A/C, plus a get to ride the FJR to during the trip rather than the Vstrom.
We had a newspaper with description of the various scenic stops.
Our jeep and some scenery.
This place makes the Painted Hills in Oregon look silly.
Looks like a couple of breasts.
The Temple of the Sun is the name of this big rock!
A little vegetation with your rocks?
Temple of the Sun
And now we start to go up and see where we have been.
End of Day 4
Day 5
Today we road from Torrey Utah to Holbrook Az. As was warm in Page AZ we took the quicker route and left at 5:50am. The route.
The only photo I shot today was for dam tour. Here I am at Glen Canyon dam near Page AZ.
Sorry about the weak day five ride report. It was a slog down Hwy 89 in places with temps around 90 all day and the day ended riding 90 miles on I-17. Day 6 will be better.
Day 6
Did you guess our route? If not here it is.
It was a slog down the desert landscape until we reach elevation near Alpine Az on the Coronado Trail aka Hwy 191.
Highway 191 after Alpine is high speed turns on good pavement. Here are a few photos.
There was a fire here in 2011.
After the summit the good pavement and long turns gives way to rougher pavement and much tighter turns. Ninety miles of twisties - whoa! I know of no road that is so twisty for so long.
Photos of this twisty fest......
A hairpin....
Sand and tar snakes....
This plateau looks like an African plain.
After leaving Hwy 191 at Clifton and the largest copper mine in America we pickup Hwy 78 where we found excruciatingly slow at 30 mph and a wonderfully twisty road.
After this we road in to Silver City.
End of Day 6
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