Southern Utah Motorcycle Trip. (Bryce, Zion, Escalante, Mexican Hat) *Part One

So, it was time for another motorcycle trip. I got the guys all excited about the epic roads and sites of Southern Utah so off we went. Jon and I headed out of Phoenix and made our way through Flagstaff on to Lee's Ferry. It was a long haul to get in after a full day of work, but well worth it. Not off the beaten path, but a nice place to wake up none the less.

This is the jumping off point for the Grand Canyon rafting trips as well as several Fly Fishing operations. It's not a bad place to be.

Time to make hay. We hit the highway and headed for Utah. We had a pretty long ride just to meet up with the other guys in Zion so we had to ride without too many stops.

The views in Northern Arizona are epic. This part of Arizona is like an island being separated from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.

I love quiet roads. Thankfully there weren't any cops or RV's to spoil this ride. Jon says HI!

Sometimes it's amazing what shots you can get while moving along at a pretty good clip. This is all along the Vermillion Cliffs area.

Bubble Shields = Less Bugs in your face. This is a good thing!

Only in the Southwest can you go from Grasslands:

To Pine Trees in less than 10 miles=

And back!

We made it to Zion and had some breakfast with Chris and Jeremy. The Group was complete. 3 aircooled Harleys and 1 70's era airhead BMW. This should be interesting.

Did we push start the Beemer from where it sat in this photo? Maybe, maybe not. I won't say for sure....

Zion is a beautiful ride except for 1 thing... TRAFFIC. Depending on the time of year and time of day you may want to plan on doing about 10MPH through the entire park. There is no way to pass or be in a rush so we just put it in first gear and took in the sites. (ATGATT, I know...)

The tunnel is now 1 way only, thanks to some great drivers making stupid choices I'm sure. Expect to wait, and sit, and wait.

Right when you think you are done waiting, you wait to leave Zion.

The area between Zion and Bryce is amazingly beautiful and lacks the traffic and congesting of Zion. We were in heaven.

Some roads just need to be done on a Motorcycle. The road to Bryce Canyon is one of them. Lots of neat tunnels.

Large expansive terrain.

After making it to Bryce we took a bit to sit back and relax and just take it all in. So good.

It's staggering the number of "Hoodoos" in the park. On to tonights campsite we rode. We wanted to get away from the tourists and RV's. Some of the best motorcycle roads in the world! This little water crossing wasn't deep, but the concrete was covered in moss as slick as snot. We both fish tailed through the entire thing. Camp here you say? Okay! We sat back and had a few of these. Good night of day 2.