+ Week N. Arizona to Yellowstone and back

[Tantjjim]

I took a trip from Northern Arizona to Yellowstone from April 21st through the 29th. Before I forget everything, here's a summary of the trip:

Day 1: Left from north of Show Low, AZ and made it to Price, UT for the night.
Day 2: Went from Price, UT to Idaho Falls, ID
Day 3: Left Idaho Falls, ID, met up with the folks in Island City, ID and we spent half a day in Yellowstone
Day 4 - 6: We spent going through Yellowstone, 2 days I was in the car with the folks and the last day I was on the bike.
Day 7: Left Yellowstone and made it to Vernal, UT
Day 8: Went from Vernal, UT to Monticello, UT
Day 9: Was the last leg from Monticello back to AZ

I'm slowly going through video footage I've captured along the way. My videos are terrible, but if anyone wants to check them out on Youtube here's my channel:

Life By Jim

The goal for this trip was to not freeze so I started each day around 9-10am to avoid the morning chill which worked out well. Daylight was limited so I tried to find a bed for the night around 6-7pm at the latest which also worked out well. Average days were around 400 miles of riding depending on where I stopped along the way. Per the recommendations from this crowd I brought heated jacket and pants liners. I only used the jacket liner a couple of times but sure am glad I had both options.

The bike I took was a 1988 GL1500 and I'm sure glad I took it over the 1997 R1100RT that I was considering. Total miles was around 2400 with plenty of cool stops and rides on the trip, here are the highlights that I remember along the way.

Day 1 I took off from Northern Arizona and wanted to make it to the middle of Utah without pushing myself while also trying to take different routes that I'd been on before. I took highway 191 through the Navajo Nation and on into Moab. A route I've done plenty of times in the past in a cage but so far it's never gotten old. I planned to stay in Green River that evening but hotels were a bit outside what I wanted to pay so I kept going on 191 to Price where I went to a restaurant called Club Mecca which was thankfully not a club and had a pretty good burger. Day one was an enjoyable ride but was just a get there kind of day, I think I was around 450 miles for the day.


Day 2 I left from Price, UT and the plan was to avoid Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas as I hate that section of I15. This day was the coldest day of the trip and certainly had me questioning my decisions. I left out of Price, UT a little after 9am and started heading toward Duchesne. After making a wrong turn outside of Helper, UT I turned around and went the correct route which was a bit of a bummer because I was enjoying the ride up highway 6.

Back on track to Duchesne I ran into a little bit of weather which turned into some snow flurries. Nothing crazy but just enough to get the roads wet. The pass went over 9,000 feet though and it was literally freezing. Stupid me didn't start the day with my insulated gloves but I did have the jacket liner which I used to alternate hands to warm them up. I could have stopped but the direction the weather was going it seemed better to push through vs risk getting caught in worse weather. I considered turning around but the distance to get over the pass was short so I pushed through. Fortunately some wet roads and cold hands were the worst I had to deal with then. Down the other side of the pass was blue skies and warmer temps. The attached picture was after coming down that pass, night and day difference in weather within 10 miles.

I did swap out for insulated gloves then and kept going, thank God I did because the day was only going to get worse from here. Duchesne to Heber City was more weather, more cold, and more passes but only up to 8,000 feet this time. The weather wasn't as bad and the roads didn't get as wet as the first pass but the distance was greater and it was cold this whole stretch of the ride. I stopped in Heber City for a bite to eat as it seemed the weather was going the opposite direction I was and after an hour it fortunately cleared up and the rest of the ride to Idaho falls was not too bad.

Next up I stopped in Ogden and swung by the Cycle Gear to see if they had any heated glove liners I could add as my hands were really the only thing that was cold enough to bother me. The did not but a gentleman there suggested some Dianese waterproof gloves. The instant I put them on I knew that was going to be the ticket. They were comfy, warm, and fit... like a glove There was no need for heated liners after that, these gloves were stellar the rest of the trip. A quick cruise up to Idaho Falls and I crashed for the night after stopping at a pretty nice restaurant called Jakers. Unfortunately I ordered the chicken fried steak and they must not have changed their fryer oil out after a Friday fish fry because the steak tasted like fish. Bit of a miss there but everything else was quite good and I'm sure had I not gotten the chicken fried steak everything else would have been top notch.

 

[Tantjjim]

Day 3 I left Idaho Falls, again a little after 9am. It was a relatively short ride to West Yellowstone where we'd be staying. The folks were in a car coming up behind me and I knew they get early starts. I stopped in Island Park, ID for some fuel for the bike as well as myself. After some pretty good Poutine at Ponds Lodge I thought the folks might be pretty close behind so I called and sure enough they were only 10 minutes out. We met up there and continued on to West Yellowstone. It was too early to check into the hotel so we decided to do a quick trip to Old Faithful then back to the hotel.

I took the bike out there, ran across a couple bison maybe 15 miles into the park which set the tone for the whole trip. There were bison aplenty! Numerous times they'd be just cruising down the road without a care in the world to the vehicles around them. I was slightly concerned being exposed on the bike but they just lumber along and do their thing. I made sure to give them plenty of room and avoided spooking them and ran into zero issues.

We went and saw Old Faithful do its thing which is mandatory if you're there. There were maybe 20 people in total around watching the site which was a nice change from when i went over Labor Day weekend a couple years ago. On the way back we had plenty of time in the day left so we stopped at Biscuit Basin, saw the sites, then headed back to the hotel. That night it was Pizza at the Wild West Pizzeria and Saloon which was pretty good.


Day 4 and 5 was spent in the park with the folks cruising around in their car. Day 4 had a bit of weather, mostly drizzle and some snow flurries so I'm glad I was in the car. We also took the road from Mammoth Hot Spring to Tower Junction which had a bit of construction on it and was pretty chewed up in places and would not have been pleasant on a bike. Doable, but dodging gravel and potholes for 10 miles is something I try to avoid unless necessary. Unless anyone is interested there isn't much to talk about here, Yellowstone is amazing, you should go see it for yourself someday. Spend a couple days at the least, a couple weeks if you can, once you've seen it all go back again and find all the things you missed. I've been to a lot of cool places and I couldn't say that any one is "the best" but there is certainly something special about Yellowstone.

 

[Tantjjim]

Day 6 was our last day in the park and I'm glad I decided to take the bike back out. We thought that we had pretty much seen all that was available (this time of year most of the roads are still closed). I thought there might have been a short stretch south of Canyon Village that we missed and I was right. For those not familiar, Canyon Village is near where the 2 huge waterfalls are in Yellowstone. We saw one on the second day there, but missed the other one. Not only that, but there were multiple vantage points that were open that we were able to check out, it was definitely worth returning to. The sun was out, the temps were good, and the roads were in really good condition making riding during the day a treat.

Then we went back to the geyser basin around Old Faithful, watched Old Faithful again from a different vantage point, and there was another geyser that seemed like it erupted on a pretty regular basis that we might be able to catch but it was a bit of a hike. Little did we know that the paths often times were still covered in a couple feet of snow so it could be rough going, breaking through the crust and sinking your whole leg in the snow, fun times! Even more fun when your almost 70 year old parents are going through it as well but they soldiered on and we probably hiked a total of 5 miles that day. We missed the Daisy Geyser that I was trying to catch by about 15 minutes but found out we were pretty close to the Morning Glory Pool so we hiked out to that and by the time we got back we were within 20 minutes of Daisy going off again. The folks and I split up as they wanted to check out another area, I got to see Daisy do her thing, and we met back up around Grand Geyser.

A quick hike back to the parking lot and that was the end of our trip to Yellowstone. After thinking the last day would be a quick cruise to see anything we missed wound up being a full day seeing things none of us had seen before and didn't know was there until we took the extra time. I really enjoy not having a plan for this very reason, sometimes you run across things you might not ever see otherwise by being adventurous and just seeing where the road goes.

 

[Tantjjim]

Day 7 was time to start the long trip back home. I always try to go a different route to break up the monotony and take advantage of exploring new areas so instead of going back through central Utah I decided to head east into western Wyoming and north eastern Utah. The route took me back to Idaho Falls and Pocatello where I wasn't paying close enough attention and rode over a 2x4 in the road as I was switching lanes. Thank God the Goldwing didn't flinch and the tire didn't flat and I was able to keep on going. That was the only somewhat close call the whole trip.

I went through Lave Hot Springs, Soda Springs, and Montpelier onto Cokeville and eventually Little America. I think it was around Cokeville that I thought I was going to avoid the Wyoming wind. I was dead wrong. A little ways outside of Cokeville it was constant wind with the occasional gusts, all of which I did not want to deal with on this trip and it only got worse as I headed back towards Utah and the Flaming Gorge. I wanted to stop by Rock Springs to check it out but signs indicated 45MPH gusts. I had zero desire to deal with anything more that I already went through so skipped Rock Springs and headed straight to Flaming Gorge.

I wish I had more time to spend in the area but the drive was well worth it in and of itself. South of Flaming Gorge it did get a little cold again going over some passes but the drop into Vernal, UT was a beautiful ride. So much so I'd go back out there just for the ride. I had weather chasing me into Vernal and when I arrived I found out Verizon doesn't service that area so I had to ride around to find a hotel with rooms available but found a decently priced Quality Inn that had a restaurant onsite. Dinner was a fantastic steak sandwich which fueled me up for the next day.


Day 8 was definitely a sight seeing day. I started off by heading to Dinosaur Nat'l Monument. Fortunately I came from the west side and just followed the signs to the visitor center where I found out the main facility with the, you know, dinosaur bones, was actually in Utah and not in Dinosaur, CO. Glad I decided to make that stop as I really wanted to check that out.

After that it was time to try Douglas Pass. Again, with the advice of those on here I was able to find weather info for the pass. It snowed a little the night before but daytime temps were in the 40's and it looked like the pass would be completely snow free by the afternoon at the latest. I started the pass a little after 12pm and only ran into a couple wet spots and a fair bit of mud across one section of the road. After that I really wish I would have brought the beemer because that section of road is sublime, well maintained, beautiful sweeping corners, great scenery, would definitely return just for that ride.

From there it was just a cruise to get back to the Moab area where I planned on spending some time in Canyonlands Nat'l Park. On the way I stumbled upon highway 128 which follows the Colorado River from Cisco off the I40 into Moab. Words cannot describe that ride, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the road the scenery was so amazing!

From Moab I knew I wanted to spend some time in Canyonlands and from my recollection there was a really cool overlook of the Colorado River I could go to and see where the Green and Colorado Rivers converge. My recollection was incorrect and although you can certainly hike to the confluence point, it's 10 miles round trip through rough terrain. I got to the trailhead around 6pm thinking I might be able to do a quick 1 mile hike when I ran across a couple people coming out saying that they started at 10am that morning. I wasn't mad about my failure of recollection though as anytime spent in Canyonlands is time well spent and the 30 mile ride in from the highway was completely worth it.

The ride back out however, got a little interesting. The road is open range and I ran across 4 groups of cattle that were crossing the road at that time of day, close to 7pm at this point. I was also the lead in the group of vehicles so I had to herd each group of cattle off the road. Of course, there was always 1 cow that would just sit in the middle of the road and stare at you until you got close enough to encourage them to move away. One cow thought he had to come in for a closer look so he ambled towards me, his nose to my headlight, then moo'd at me before walking off. I don't know what he was trying to say but he certainly had to get it off his chest before letting us pass.

After that it was a quick ride to Monticello, UT for the night. Fortunately I was able to make it to town 30 minutes before everything shut down at 9pm. Gustavos Mexican restaurant served me up a typical gringo chicken chimichanga which was quite good and I tucked in for the night.


Day 9 there isn't much to talk about. I was about 4-5 hours away from home at that point and although it's always a a beautiful ride back through Northern Arizona to get home, for me I was just in get it done mode and didn't do any additional exploring. Fortunately all went well and it was good to finish the trip with an easy day.


Going to Yellowstone in late April was certainly a risk. If I didn't have the backup of riding in the car with the folks I probably wouldn't have taken the trip this early in the season but with how everything went I'm sure glad I did it. I hope you enjoyed reading me talk about it.

 

[FASTRacing]

Thanks for taking us along.

Enjoyed the narrative and the pictures.

 

[Tantjjim]

Thanks for taking us along.

Enjoyed the narrative and the pictures.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!