sedaliahog

The Grand Circle

My friend Stan and I had never been out west, so we decided our
vacation would be to the Grand Circle. It is an area in the
Southwestern U.S. with the biggest collection of National Parks and
monuments, State Parks and monuments, and other viewing areas
which are all located in areas of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and
Utah. We knew this would be a trip full of beautiful scenery and only
11 days to soak it in, but we were up for the challenge.

After a full day’s work on Friday, June 22, 2007, Stan and I left
Marshall, Missouri and headed for Alamosa, Colorado on I-70.
Seventeen hours later, and a long ride through Kansas, we arrived in
Alamosa at Stan’s aunt’s house. The ride into Alamosa that morning
was beautiful heading through Levada Pass. It was my first real trip
into the Rockies. We stayed there all day Saturday and headed out
early Sunday morning riding through Wolf Creek Pass. That was a
sight to behold for my first trip across the Continental Divide. We
stopped at Mesa Verde National Park for a tour of one of the cliff
dwellings. It is amazing how those structures were built. We left there
and rode to the Grand Canyon National Park with just enough time to
set up camp and watch the sun set. That is a sight that I will never
forget!

After some more views of the Grand Canyon on Monday morning
watching the sunrise over the canyon wall, it was destination Sin
City. We made it through the desert and through the Hoover Dam
checkpoint that afternoon, and then stopped for pictures on the
Arizona side of the Dam. That was absolutely as HOT as I have ever
been. The thermometer read 112 degrees. Dry heat or not, it didn’t
matter. It was HOT! We crossed the dam and headed to my old
college roommates’ house. They gave us the tour of the strip, a
couple of Harley-Davidson dealerships, and Mt. Charleston (just west
of Las Vegas), where people went to watch the atomic bomb testing
back in the mid 1940’s.

We left Las Vegas on Thursday morning with a stop at Zion National
Park. They have a bus tour through the bottom that shows an
excellent view of canyon. The ride out was great with the tunnels and
the overview back on the canyon. As we headed for our final stop for
the day, Bryce Canyon National Park, the temperature fell into the
mid 80’s. That was a relief! A friend from back home was working as a
park ranger in Bryce Canyon so we got the V.I.P. treatment again. He
took us out on a tour of Capitol Reef National Park, the Grand
Staircase Escalante, and the Glen Canyon. I got a little nervous when
we got his truck high-centered on a gravel road in the middle of the
Grand Staircase, but we made it out ok and with many good pictures.

We left Bryce Canyon on Saturday morning for our tours of
Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. They are
sister parks on the eastern side of Utah. By this time, each gas and
food stop started to get fairly long. Any kind of air-conditioning or
shade seemed to be a paradise. Both of these parks were filled with
trails to hike and overlooks that seemed endless. We saw what we
could see and then headed towards Grand Junction, Colorado, but
not before an encounter with an owl on I-70. All I had time to see was
a huge wing. Thank God he hit the fender of my trailer and not me or
Stan.

Sunday we toured the North Rim of the Black Canyon National Park
(by accident), but the view was worth it. Somewhere on the 75 mile
trip around to the south rim, a car in front of me had a blowout. That
shook me up more than the owl incident, but luckily it wasn’t my tire
and the other lane was open. We found our campsite, unhooked the
trailer, and took the 16% grade road to the bottom of the canyon.
That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

We left the Black Canyon and rode to Pike’s Peak. 14,110 feet was a
new experience for me. I didn’t think it would affect me, but I was
wrong. Somewhere around 13,000 feet we ran into a snow
thunderstorm. I think they called it grabble, but it was more like
miniature snowballs. And yes…I almost got sick after only about an
hour on the top. We took lots of pictures on the way down and then
rode through Garden of the Gods. I guess we should have rode
Garden of the Gods first and then up Pike’s Peak. It is pretty hard to
beat 14,110 feet. We left Colorado Springs that evening and headed
for Limon, Colorado where we crashed for our last night away from
home, and made it back to Marshall safely the next afternoon on July
3rd.

Most mornings we really had to bundle up, and within an hour or so,
we would be back to our t-shirts, but we never once had to put on
our rain suits except for the snow on Pike’s Peak. We totaled 3,615
miles in 11 days of excellent riding and experienced some of the
most beautiful county and extreme temperature changes. We
covered 8 National Parks, 2 National Monuments, lots of mountains,
and many other cool stops in our seven state journey.