3 Kaboom's, 3 Dudes, and a Chick ride Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana

Day 11 would be about 150 miles with a fantastic variety of mixed terrain and awesome scenery. We are now heading into the canyon lands of Utah.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Our path took us through large canyons like Echo Canyon on the Green River, through Dinosaur National Monument, and into Utah and ending up at Vernal that evening.<o></o>
We had big uphills and downhills, muddy ponds (which I enjoy a lot), slippery sand and silt with hard pack ruts underneath, rocky descents, and a greasy concrete bridge (more enjoyment for me).<o></o>
We were hoping to make it to Echo Canyon and camp there but we made it at noon and had more miles to do so we did not stay there.<o></o>
There is an awesome campground there worth a stay.<o></o>
And Paul had another of his famous flats in Echo Canyon.<o></o>
The weather was perfect and we were stoked since we heard and read that Dinosaur Monument/Echo Canyon was a perfect place for Adventure riding. <o></o>


Everything was going great until we rounded a corner and found a big mud puddle – I picked a bad line and got stuck.<o></o>
Both Paul/Jill and Jeremy pick a good line and made it through.<o></o>


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So Jeremy and Paul come back and offer to help while Jill carefully documents the proceedings.<o></o>
Jeremy takes over while Paul and I push.<o></o>

Jeremy blasts out with a big chuck of throtle and I get completey covered in muck – Thanks bud.

<o>The bike’s wheels were completely covered in sticky mud – not good for low fender Adventures.<o></o>
This can be dangerous as some bikes front wheels have even stopped because of thick mud between the wheel and fender.<o></o>


And I got a nice mud shower for my troubles – great start to the day!

<o><o></o>
Anyways back to important things, Paul was looking like a Pro flying down the trail.

<o>We finally reach the beginning of Dinosaur National Monument by the Yampa River.

<o>Heading towards the river – Paul/Jill ahead on the road.

<o>We saw lots of dead and live trees but it was definitely looking more desert like.

<o>Jeremy surveys the open road ahead

<o>There were lots of twists and turns in the road with steep uphills and downhill and some switch backs.

The road surface was pretty good except for the recent rains which deposited some silty slippery sand in stretches of the road that would sneak up on<o></o>
you and grab your front tire and make things squirrely for a few moments especially on our heavily loaded bikes. Had to be alert at all times.<o></o>
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<o>A huge arch forming in the distance

<o>The Yampa/Green rivers that carved these amazing canyons below
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<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]We finally reach the road into Echo Canyon Park[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Some video of the road up to the Echo park sign – I almost bit it in the soft corners a few times.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Finally we at just at the outskirts of Echo Park where the Green River meets the Yampa river.<o></o>
On the way in there are old cabins and a chuckwagon – remants of an old homestead<o></o>


There another more rustic shack further down the road

<o>So I charged off ahead of the group and had my video camera on – all was going well until I hit the deck very quickly when riding over a super slick concrete bridge that has tons of algae growing on it.<o></o>
There are a few of these on the way into the park – so watch out!<o></o>

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Paul and Jill helped me pick up the big pumpkin after my riding on snot encounter

<o>Paul Jill and Jeremy stopped to look at the Native hieroglyphs on the sheer rock face walls of the canyon.


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We continued into the canyon and stopped at the whispering cave<o></o>
It is was nice and cool in the shade there<o></o>


It just a sliver of an opening on the massive vertical rock wall <o></o>
From inside looking out you can see the massive sheets of rock hanging above our heads waiting to crush us.

The canyon opens up to greet us.

<o>The sheer rock shapes created by the forces of nature are amazing

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Paul stops for a photo just into the campground

<o>The campground is in a big valley shaped like a bowl.</o>
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And has access to the Yampa river
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<o>Here a video of our entrance into and around the campground at Echo park
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It is a magical place and nobody was there except us. <o></o>
We wanted to stay overnight but reached it at noon and had many more miles to go so sadly we had to leave after a quick break.<o></o>
Here is 360 video that Jeremy did to take in the view<o></o>



However, we could not leave without some drama – Paul got another flat – maybe Echo park was telling us not to leave.

But by now we were pros at fixing flats and we had it done in no time.<o></o>
We carefully renavigated the concrete algae water bridges and made our way out of the park<o></o>
Some cool rocks on the way out of Echo


<o>Shortly after leaving the park we reached a paved road that would lead us to a fantastic overlook of Echo park for great photo opportunity.<o></o>
But as luck would have it the road was closed due to construction – damn!<o></o>
So we turned around and rode South until we reached Blue Mountain Road and picked up the dirt trail again.<o></o>
Upon entering the trail we found it to be really slick with a layer of sand on top of a thin layer of snotty mud.<o></o>
It was hard work and everybody almost lost our balance on this trail and by this time this day everybody was really tired and it was super hot.<o></o>
We did not know what the conditions were like ahead so we stopped at this spot to ponder our options.<o></o>
We felt like taking a big lick of this salt lick – well maybe not.<o></o>


We finally convinced ourselves that you never know when we might get back to this place and so lets just get out there and enjoy it instead of having regrets later.<o></o>
It was the best decision we made. Soon after leaving the salt lick we came over a rise and were treated to a specular canyon view and a big downhill<o></o>
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The road was a bit rough in places but manageable as long as you kept your speed down.<o></o>
Jeremy ripped down there a bit too fast and blew this corner but luckly for him there was a runaway lane.<o></o>



It was about 20 minutes of continuous downhill and amazing scenery – what a great ride.

<o>Video of it here</o>
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Finally made it to the bottom

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Near the bottom when it leveled out there were several patches of deep silty sand with hard packed ruts in them just to make it interesting.<o></o>
Bikes were really squirrely going through there and I almost bit it trying to get off the road when a truck comes the other way.<o></o>
But we paddle our way through and made it.<o></o>


Saw some cool hoodoo like rocks after that

<o>We finally catch up to Paul/Jill and take a break from our hot dusty ride. Hi-5s for everybody for making through without incident.

<o>Paul and Jill enjoying the moment

<o>We were on pavement now and took a quick panarama shot at this river overlook.

<o>We rode up to the Dinosaur National monument Fossil Bone Quarry

<o>We stopped in the fossil visitor center and immensely enjoyed the cool air conditioning after saying HI to the giant dino outside

<o>The center had some great fossils and we bought some stickers and cold drinks.</o>
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<o>Chicken feet anybody? circa 1,000,000 BC

<o>Since we were very hot and sweaty we decided to stay in Vernal that evening and grab a hotel.

<o>It was a wise choice since just after we emptied the bikes and settled in a huge hail storm came through
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<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]What a weird way to end the day but we didn’t care since we had one of the best days on the trip<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Awesome memories.<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]The next day (Day 12) would see us heading into the mountains again through some nice forested roads with pristine mountain streams<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
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I'm glad you made the choice you did on Blue Mtn. Road. Often a tough call.

Sorry to disappoint, but that would be a sickle bar mower. Not that you're gonna be paying that much attention when you have all that amazing scenery around you.


This is an amazing ride report and very much makes me want to follow in your tracks.

Indeed!

Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk 2

Yah, you are right!
I even grew up on the prairies of Alberta in Canada,
Embarrassing!
I will fix.

thanks,

BTW you shoud really get out on this amazing ride. Tony Huegel has all the info you need for it here
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=845500b

Mike Z

Very nice ride report, thinking of heading out that way again next summer.

I know this is two years late but here is Day 12

Day 12 - Aug 31




Day 12 would be about 230 miles. We would leave Vernal and travel through Flaming Gorge canyon, do some handlebar field repairs, pass through scenic mountain meadows and forests, visit Henry&#8217;s Fork, hit a bit of a rocky section, another Paul flat tire, have a swim in a muddy pond, and end up at fantastic campground in the mountains South-East of Salt Lake city.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
It was a nice sunny day that morning when we got up and got ready to leave Vernal, Utah. <o></o>
We went to a gas station to fill up and a guy comes running excitedly over to talk to me about my bike, gear, setup, and travel, and he rides a bike too. <o></o>
This happened from time to time on the trip and it is a great way to chat with locals to find out information about the area, like best places to eat, camp, get supplies, motorcycle shops, etc.<o></o>
It also turns out he is in the oil business which is big out there, and in particular, drilling. He hands me a bunch of stickers that have the slogan &#8220;I love Drilling!&#8221;.<o></o>
So I told him &#8220;Thanks&#8221; and I slapped it on my bike luggage and remembered seeing quite a few vehicles with the &#8220;I love Drilling!&#8221; stickers in town, so that was our slogan for the day.
<o></o>

We zoomed our way north towards Flaming Gorge.

<o>The terrain was changing from red rock desert to lush green forests

As we rolled into the Flaming Gorge area Paul needed to stop to make some repairs to his handlebars which were coming loose!<o></o>
<o></o>
<o>We stopped at Flaming Gorge Resort at the gas station were the attendant brought out his tools and Paul and he tore into it.

The bike was soon back in tip top shape and we charged off East into the trails of Ashley National Forest<o></o>
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<o>We passed by a fork in the stream near Henry&#8217;s fork

The forest was closing in around us and the road was getting a bit more rocky<o></o>
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Some videos of our travels
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The riding in this area was a fun section that we all enjoyed a great deal.<o></o>
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After the fun dense forest riding it opened up a bit and had some nice meadow scenes with high mountain peaks in the distance.<o></o>
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<o>We popped into Wyoming briefly as we made our way in a generally westward direction.

Jeremy passes by a huge white face rock.<o></o>
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We had some great views of this pyramid looking mountain with snow on it.


We were in Wasatch Forest now

Cool looking stream<o></o>
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<o>We saw a few quads with Canine passengers zip by the opposite way

As luck would have it Paul got yet another flat, but it was a good spot to take a break.

We were getting really good at fixing flats quickly so we were soon on our way<o></o>
We climbed up to Elizabeth Ridge at over 10000 feet high<o></o>
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<o>A very cool looking cloud &#8211; maybe one of those mechanical horses?

We were back out of the dirt and traveled through high mountain passes on hwy 150<o></o>
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<o>This was Kletting Peak at 12000 feet high
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The hwy wound higher and higher until we reached Mirror Lake Overlook and stopped for a break


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Its an awesome wall of rock

Jill climbed down to a big ledge<o></o>
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<o>Just one more step back Paul!

A little further on Jill takes this great picture of a big mouse alone in a meadow.<o></o>
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<o>Further along the road

So at one point Paul pulls off the highway onto a short dirt road because the GPS is telling him to.<o></o>
But this was a small routing error and as we followed along there was a deep puddle.<o></o>
Paul wisely drove around it. Like a magnet I was drawn in and I got about halfway through when my rear tire slide completely out sideways and I went for a swim.<o></o>
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<o>The bike got turned sideways by the slippery mud and as I was lying in the soupy water, Jeremy blasts through the puddle splashing me again &#8211; thanks Bud.<o></o>
Paul comes by to offer advice (without getting wet) and helps me get it out.<o></o>
I must say that driver error was a big factor but the Mefo tires are not good in mud. Dunlop 908 from now on.<o></o>

But it was a nice spot for a quick rest
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[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Shortly after we stopped at the town of Kamas for dinner &#8211; Jill was hungry &#8211; those curly fries looked great![/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]After dinner we headed West and South towards Lehi, Utah.<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
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<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]We passed by Jordanelle reservoir[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Closer to the mountain ridges lining the Great Salt Lake Plain.<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Since this was our last night on the trip we wanted to camp and we found a perfect campground off Alpine Loop Scenic loop road, North of Hwy 189, East of Lehi.<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]We were permitted to use the group campground since the people who reserved did not show up.<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]It was awesome &#8211; with fantastic mountain peaks and a large fire pit with lots of wood. <o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
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<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]We pitched our tents &#8211; with a smile[/FONT][/COLOR]</o>
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<o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Got a nice fire going[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][IMG]https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/M/Mike_Zieglmeier_foreverwest12_IMG_0038_zps27a331b7.jpg[/IMG][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]Looks like someone left a glove in the fire!<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]</o><o>[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][IMG]https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/M/Mike_Zieglmeier_foreverwest12_IMG_0047_zps8548f065.jpg[/IMG][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]And contemplated the journey that turned out to be way better than we expected. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][IMG]https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/M/Mike_Zieglmeier_foreverwest12_9566fae6-57cd-4b54-acd7-2cd1ef80b905_zpse7784ff9.jpg[/IMG][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]We were also thinking about the next and last day&#8217;s journey that would take us through the Pony Express route back to Wendover. <o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#eaf1dd][FONT=Arial]<o></o>[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Phew ... Welcome back. Thought you'd gotten lost and forgotten out there.

Well we did find our way out and thanks for being patient - more to come this week.

Mike Z

Nice update Mike. You're bringing back GOOD memories September can't get here soon enough!