Three states in a day!

Managed to get a very early start out of Overton, was on the road by 8am. Okay, perhaps not early, but for me it is!

Another hot sunny dry day, they've been endless since I hit southern Oregon. Today's destination, Zion National Park in Utah and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

At this point I'm still in awe of the scenery in the desert, pretty damn stark and inhospitable, but it has a certain beauty. That said, by this time, I was starting to become jaded by it and it was starting to become background noise. However, there were spots that still took my breath away.

After a few hours I was at the entrance to Zion National Park. Oh, and on this ride I finally saw mountain sheep! Just hanging out right next to the highway in this stunning canyon munching on the road side grass. Totally oblivious to the four lanes of traffic rushing by them.

Zion itself is very cool, I would imagine it to be a geology students playground from the very cool rock formations there. The ride itself was a lot of fun, very scenic and rode on red pavement!


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It didn't take long to traverse the park and soon I was heading south for Arizona. Stopped in a little town of Kanab UT for some lunch and found that they had free internet with your burger. Used that time to do a quick email check and hit the road again. I'd been without any internet access for a few days by that point. I'm sure I could have found some if I tried hard, but I really didn't want to take the time to do so.


Next stop, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the third state of the day.

I arrived at the North Rim around 4:00, at that time the sun was getting low and it made for difficult pictures shooting directly west. But it was pretty stunning to see it.




Still, it's a just a big hole in the ground, a very big hole in the ground. I'd love to come back and go hiking into the canyon on a return trip. I stayed for about an hour and needed to hit the road to find a place to camp/stay. The campsite in the park itself was full, there was a campsite back by Jacob Lakes(the turn off to the canyon). It was also getting damn cold too, at this point I'm up around 6000ft in the mountains. By the time I hit Jacob Lake I was freezing and needed to break out the liner for my jacket, plus put some full leg pants on under my riding pants. I decided that I was far too cold to camp here and wanted to get out of the mountains to find a warmer spot.

Well, good thing I filled up in Jacob Lake as it turned out to be the last gas station until Cameron AZ. By that point I was running on fumes and thought I'd have to call(provided I could find a phone or get cell reception) BCAA to deliver some fuel! It was now totally dark out and the next town was Flagstaff, I did try to find a place in Cameron, but the only motel had just one room left and it was $160 a night, thanks but no thanks. Off to Flagstaff I go(Jacob Lake to Flagstaff is about 265km, not a short ride). It was a long day, but totally worth it. Riding through the desert at night with no urban glow was pretty cool, seen the last of the sunset glowing off the cliff walls, to the sheer brilliance of the stars. Plus I met this, in her words, "crazy Navajo chick" who took my picture for me at a view point coming out of the mountains. Not just one, but four pictures in different places along the view point. :) She was pretty funny, very sweet and asked a lot of questions about where I was from and where I was going.



Thankfully about 20km down the road from Cameron was another reservation with a gas station, motel and restaurant. Even better, they had rooms available for $37. Not as luxurious as my last motel, these particular rooms were built in those portable type modular trailer/buildings. Felt like a dorm! But hey, it was cheap and clean. Kept the bugs out too, saw a couple of very large Darkling Beetles in the parking lot. Ugly critters that have a defense similiar to a skunk!