Colorado Cruiser: Utah National Parks Ride

I've been looking forward to taking a long motorcycle ride with my son since I started riding 3 1/2 years ago. This summer I finally managed to get the stars to align and we're actually doing it.

The plan is to leave Colorado Springs and get over to the South West corner of Utah, then ride through the national parks and then back home taking a week.

The first days' ride started at 7:00 with the final load of the motorcycles. I've learned through all of my long rides, that staying hydrated is very important. So I rigged an ice chest to sit on the passenger seat of my bike where we can keep 6 bottles of gatorade on ice. I'm also carrying 2 cameras, radios for chatting back and forth, an MP3 player for music, clothes, and a few other essential odds and ends. Kyle's bike recently got highway pegs for stretching out, a backrest, a throttle lock, and a headset for listening to music. Mine has had all of that for years.

As we left, we headed South down I-25 for 100 miles. I've always hated freeway riding, but we don't have the extra day to spend meandering out of Colorado. So we "manned up" and took the freeway. Semi trucks passing us at 90 is always so exciting.

This is Kyle's first long ride so I stopped every 30 miles to check how things were working. We adjusted his backrest a bit, and eventually decide to switch his music player around, then settled into the mile eating pace.

We turned West off of the Freeway at Walsenberg and onto highway 160. We climbed up LaVeta pass which dropped the temperature down into the 50s for a while, then descended into the San Luis valley. This valley is something special. It's very high and surrounded by even higher peaks, so in the winter it is often the coldest place in Colorado. But in the summer its one of the hotter places in the state. We scorched our way for 100 miles across the valley before starting the climb up Wolf Creek Pass.

The pass cooled us off, but as we climbed, we started to feel a few rain drops. The skies were gray and we could hear thunder. However, every time I pulled over thinking that maybe it was time to put on the rain gear, the rain just stopped. Finally we got a clear enough view of the sky to see the clouds were head south, and the Northern skies were all clear so we skipped the gear and just kept riding. Never got more than a few drops through the whole pass.

We stopped allot for pictures because Wolf Creek Pass is filled with beautiful scenery. The smell of pine tree and sap was thick in the air. It was so clean and refreshing. I was just soaking it all up.

The road down off the pass winds allot and has even more beautiful views, but you don't dare take your eyes off the road to admire them much or you'll find yourself a permanent part of them.

By the time we got to Pagosa Springs we were both very hungry. We took one run through town and decided that $5 subs at Subway sounded good. We each ate half our foot longs and stuck the other halves in the ice chest for later and road off to the West.

The ride so far had been fairly cool because we took off so early, and then spent allot of time up high in passes. But now we descended towards Durango and the temperatures started climbing. It probably only got into the high 80s or low 90s, but it felt very warm with the slow traffic through town and the hot asphalt. We drank some more of our gatorades, gassed up, and pushed on.

Now it was getting to be mid afternoon and the clouds again started to gather. We could see rain falling off in the distance all around us, but other than a few drops, nothing hit us. The clouds and rain really helped to ease the heat though, and by the time we got to Dove Creek it was a very pleasant temperature.

I spotted a small park with picnic tables in Dove Creek, so we stopped and ate the rest of our sandwiches. I read the story about the local farmers battling the sage brush for decades in order to build the thriving metropolis of Dove Creek. Not the biggest pinto bean supplier in the US, but the BEST!!!! Kyle grabbed a short nap on the park bench while I checked a few things on the bike.

We were on the home stretch. The road from Dove Creek to Montecello is only 2 lanes, but it is fairly wide and very well paved. I think the locals mean that the speed limits don't apply because we were constantly being passed despite going the speed limit. The people would come up on us so fast and just fly past in the other lane with the noise of their passing being my fist sign that a car was even near.

We turned South at Montecello. Within a mile or two we saw our first bunch of deer standing at the side of the road. I quickly decide that 45 would be plenty fast for that road, and the rest of the ride was pleasant and uneventful.

We spent the evening at my Aunt's home just chatting and relaxing. This was the longest single day ride we'll do this trip, but not the hardest, that's tomorrow.

Kyle and I ready to ride