Colorado Cruiser: Utah National Parks Ride

Our goal for today was to see Zion's National Park and get to Cedar City in time to watch a Shakespeare play at 2:00.

We left Kanab at 7:30 and meandered our way North. The temperature was perfect for riding, not hot and not cold. We turned off the highway towards Zion's and I got my first inkling of trouble when we saw a few signs warning about construction delays ahead.

We stopped to take pictures at the park entrance sign before entering the park. The ranger at the gate warned us that there was 5 miles of road construction all the way from the top of the canyon down to the bottom, and that they had recently watered the road. But he hoped that it wasn't going to be too muddy or slippery for us. We looked at each other, shrugged, and rode on in.

The views, mountains, and vistas were beautiful. None of the pictures I took really captured the scale of the scenery because you can't see the depth of the canyon or the height of the mountains. There was indeed construction all over. Several areas were one way traffic and single lane at the top.
The canyon is so steep that they didn't build a road all the way down, instead they made a long tunnel descending the first half and they built it right into the side of the canyon. Every few hundred feet they opened windows looking out of the tunnel into the canyon. The glimpses out these windows was incredible. I wish I could have stopped to take some better pictures, but the traffic is only one way and I knew that every delay I made was holding up allot of other people trying drive up out of the park. So I slowed down and grabbed some quick snapshots then sped on. Most shots didn't work because the camera was over exposed and very blurry, but one did.

Right after the tunnel the worst of the construction began. The park had scraped the top of the road off in preparation for re-paving. This leaves allot of rough road and the occasional dirt/mud patch where the scraping went all the way through. It was indeed very wet and somewhat muddy. This part of the road has about 8 tight switchbacks and the park seemed to have taken great care on the turns themselves to keep solid road surface so at least we didn't have mud as we turned. I took no pictures because both hands were tightly glued to the handlebars and my eyes could see nothing but road surface.

The last turn and descent were the worst with road crews taking up 2/3 of the width, gravel spread on the road, and mud underneath. We slowed down even more (if that's possible) and eased our way past the workers and gently across the mud till we hit solid road.

It took us 45 minutes to ride down what would normally have taken 20 minutes.

We stopped at the visitor's center to drink and rest a bit. In the store we found some cooling bandanas for $5. They are just long cloth tubes with some silicon beads inside that soak up water. Then you tie them around your neck to slowly evaporate the water and keep you cool. We stuck them in the ice chest for 5 minutes then tied them on. We were sure cool alright.

The ride from Zions to Cedar City took about 40 minutes. It was still cool but the heat was coming quick. We stopped right as we entered town and had lunch at Cafe Rio. That's one of my favorite places to eat. We all had pork burritos enchilada style.

We got to our hotel by noon, checked in and unloaded. The wifi was out for the day so I couldn't upload photos or send out my emails.

Kyle and Tanner took naps and I fiddled with my cell phone trying to get internet to work. After a pointless call to ATT tech support I decided to reboot the iPhone and all started working. It's amazing how hooked on internet access I've become. What's the weather? Check the internet. When does our play start? Check the internet. Do I have any email???

We walked over to SUU at 1:00. It was about 5 blocks wich seemed too short to ride, but a bit far to walk back and forth much. We opted just to walk and stay there all afternoon and evening. We got our tickets from will-call and started browsing the gift shop. We're going to be watching "Much Ado About Nothing". It's a comedy with a little bit of drama thrown into the middle. Kyle and I have watched it here before and seen the movie many times. But Tanner had never seen a live Shakespeare play before. He said he'd been forced to read some Shakespeare in high school but nothing since.

If you've never had the chance to watch a well acted Shakespeare comedy, you should. The Cedar City festival is always a joy to watch.

As in the past, I loved it. Tanner said he did too. And there was no mistaking Kyle's laughs, chuckles, and giggles throughout the play.

Afterward we talked about whether we should watch the evening's Shakespeare play in the outdoor theatre, or watch Alfred Hitchcocks 39 steps. I had overheard some other people talking earlier and they said that this year's production of McBeth was particularly dark and sinister. I voted for watching 39 steps and they both just shrugged and said "whatever".

We walked up center street to main and ate at the Pastry Pub. It specializes in sandwiches and salads. We all got something different and all thought what we got was delicious. I'd reccommend it if you're ever looking for somewhere a bit more healthy to eat there. We sat eating and stretching our stay in the nice cool air about as long as we dared. Finally we began the trek back to the festival with almost 2 hours before our show.

There is a free pre-show out on the lawn of the university at 7:00 so we wandered over and found ourselves a patch of grass in the shade to wait. It was fun to watch other people chasing little kids around and trying to keep sibblings from shoving grass down each other's backs. We lay there reading and relaxing till the show started. It was Scottish knight so all the performers were dressed scottish and spoke with an accent although they slipped in and out fairly often. The songs were fun and there was allot of props to keep the kids entertained.

The 39 Steps as an old Alfred Hitchcock movie that has been rewritten. The basic story is the same, but instead of being a true drama, it's been made into a comedy by having just 4 people play all of the different parts. The main character is a man who only plays the 1 character. A woman plays several of the women's roles, but the remaining 2 men play everyone else including a busty hotel matron and the main villain. Often they would be carrying 3 hats and switching between them as they delivered the lines of various people. It was a great comedy, well worth the money.

We walked back to the hotel and watched a bit of TV to wind down before sleeping.

Out on the road to Zion's