I can't tell you how cool my weekend ride in Utah was (but hopefully my photos can!)

Thursday afternoon I decided to drive down from Boise on Friday to see a client in Salt Lake City. Thursday night I thought, "Hey, what the heck? Maybe I should check the forecast for southern Utah, to see if I can do some of the other parts of last year's ride that I had to cut off early due to poor weather?"

Sure enough, the forecast for the Moab, Bryce, Capitol Reef areas looked decent enough for the weekend (cool and with a chance of some showers, but I didn't care). I loaded up the Multistrada in the back of my pickup, and Friday morning headed down to Utah. After visiting the client in SLC, I drove the couple of hours south to Richfield, which would be my starting point Saturday AM.

On the way there, I knew I had a little extra daylight, so I decided to check out a little mountain road near Nephi - the Mt Nebo Loop Road. My Butler map said it was usually closed until June 1 due to snow, but it's been a light snow year so I thought maybe there was a chance. I drove to the bottom of the road, and didn't see any signs that it was closed, so I unloaded the bike and geared up. Sure enough, about three miles into the 37 mile route, I came around a corner and saw the road completely covered with snow! Oh well, at least I got a couple of cool pics along the way:





Spent the night in lovely Richfield, then headed southeast toward Capitol Reef National Park. Didn't take long for the scenery to get very awesome.







Chimney Rock









The lonely road between Capitol Reef park and Hanksville



Turn south on Hwy 12 and soon the terrain is simply other-worldly. Mind-blowing, frankly. Mile after mile after mile.







Drive right up to the edge, the view is amazing!



Not bad for an iPhone pano, eh?



My favorite photo spot IN THE WORLD





View of the Colorado River from the bridge - looking west



and looking east



Here's how you ruin a perfectly good view of the river canyon - make it a selfie!



Amazing views everywhere



As I headed south, it looked like it was time to put the rain gear on



I got sprinkled on a bit, but mostly the skies just looked evil as I passed the Natural Bridges National Park and traveled toward Blanding.



I rode up to Moab where I had a great early dinner - Thai chicken wrap with a cranberry smoothie, and watched MotoGP qualifying on the iPad



After dinner I headed to the northeast, along the Colorado River on Hwy 128





My neck is still sore from gawking at the amazing views, front, back, right and left







A nice hippie couple offered to take a pic of me. Very thoughtful!



I stayed in Green River for the night. Lots less expensive than Moab, though Moab is a lot more interesting and fun! After 430 miles, it was nice to take a break.

Sunday morning the forecast was for cold, wind, and showers. It started out gray and a little wet.



Being spring in Utah, however, just a few miles down the road as I turned west from Hanksville toward Capitol Reef, out came the sun!



Capitol Reef Park has unlimited amazing scenery, as you can see







I had a great brunch at a little cafe in Torrey (and warmed up a bit), then headed south on Hwy 12 to head over the mountain toward Escalante and Bryce Canyon National Park. I stopped for a couple of pics along the way.





There was a little fresh snow on the trees. It was cold and windy, but pretty sunny. As I snapped pictures, more and more snow was hitting me. Too much to be blowing off the trees. I looked up and saw clouds developing, and in a couple of minutes, it was snowing pretty hard! Thankfully the wind was keeping it from sticking to the road.

As I rode down the hill on the other side, the weather ahead looked pretty terrible. Because a lot of the terrain where I was headed I'd seen last on last year's trip, I decided to reverse my course and reroute. Before I knew it I was back in the sunshine!





I decided to check out a new road I hadn't been on yet - north from Loa up the hill on Hwy 72. It was sunny, but cold and windy as I climbed.

How cold?



When I got to the summit, I could see it was even higher than I thought! No wonder it was so chilly (33 degrees at that point).



I headed down the other side and back toward my truck in Richfield. I stopped for one last pic.



What a great weekend! Just about 700 miles of breathtaking fun. Amazing scenery, fast and fun twisties (with almost no cars), and decent weather. Everything from sunny and nearly 80 degrees, to 33 degrees and snowing!

Really glad I made the trip! Here's the route I wound up riding, in case you're interested:

Day One

Day Two

Lots of nice pics. Winning post. Thanks.

WOW! Epic roads, great photo's. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome scenery - beautifully captured = fantastic photo's. Thanks for taking us with you.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice Utah is at the top of my bucket list..................

Too bad the traffic was so heavy, Dude. Ha!

I used to live in central Wyoming about an 8-hour drive/ride down to the Moab area. When I got tired of Winter I'd head down and ride those glorious roads, then back in Summer to get off road on bicycles and dirt bikes. What an amazing place. Thanks for the run down memory lane!

Doug

Incredible scenery!

your photos did tell how cool your weekend was!

I agree, this is one heck of a good photo. If it ain't already done, I'm gonna nominate it for the front page. Excellent photo!

Looks like a great place to visit, nice photos!

Nice camera work! You hit all of my favorite roads.

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Really nice shots. Looks like some good roads. I might head out that way this weekend!

thanks for sharing.

YK

Thanks very much!

Thanks for the excellent post!

This makes me thing I need a better camera.

What did you use for these photos bwhip?

Now that's the way to post a RR!
Awesome.

For a few of them, it was the iPhone 5S and my pocket Canon S100. Most were with my Canon 5D Mark III, with either a 16-35mm f/2.8 lens, or 85mm f/1.8 lens. I have a pretty big tank bag I carry the camera gear in.

Good stuff

excellent route selections

The top of 72 (and 72 in general) is under rated

Already said, but amazing photos. Nice bike too! Looks like it was a ride to remember.

I'd love to hear a little about your shooting and post techniques. Your exposure on your subject AND the skies is excellent!

Phenomenal photos, Bwhip! Seriously, down right inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to post them.