Five Canyon Tour

RangerG

RangerG

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FIVE CANYONS TOUR
Day 1 August 6/15
I started my big tour of the year on August 6/15. As I left home a thick fog had settled in. I was having to wipe moisture off my visor like it was raining. After a few hours it finally decided it should rain, so on went the rain gear. I stopped in Outlook SK for lunch and met up with three more riders for the trip. We were on our way to the 9th Annual Wardens on Wheels rally at the International Peace Gardens.
We left Outlook and pinned the throttles pretty hard as we were trying to catch the Riverhurst ferry. It leaves the west shore on the ½ hour and east shore on the hour. Didn’t want to sit around for an hour and wait for it to come back. We made it!
The Riverhurst ferry pulls a huge cable up off the lake bed, through the hull and drags itself across. It’s 1.5 km or .93 miles across.



After the ferry we rode through mixed rain and clouds and pulled into Assiniboia for the night.
Mileage 739 kms.

Day 2
It was raining while we sat and ate breakfast. It stopped before we left and throughout the day it got hotter and hotter. We had a strong tail wind so mileage was very good too. We picked up two more riders in Assiniboia and now had six bikes in the group.
We rode through the Big Muddy Valley in southern Saskatchewan.

I had to feed my pet gator along the way. He likes Fritos Twists and we can only get them south of the border.

Lake Metigoshe State Park was our home for the next two nights.
Mileage 610 kms

Day 3
This is our Wardens on Wheels rally day. A group of Game Wardens meet on our bikes for a meeting, poker run and have a lot of fun. In the 9 years we have raised over $20,000.00 for the non-profit Game Warden Museum located in the International Peace Gardens.


The poker run took us to the Geographical Center of North America in Rugby ND. Along the way I got a bee sting in my throat. I guess I’m not allergic to bees!
That evening around camp we were accosted by five young women from the Becoming an Outdoors Woman group that was meeting in the park. A couple of them mooned us from the road then asked if we had beer. They had been skinny dipping and were wet and cold. We gave them a beer and I advised that to avoid hypothermia they should get out of their wet clothes and warm up by the fire. Lo and behold, one girl peeled off her jeans, stuffed her panties in her pack and put her jeans back on! Sorry, no pictures. They moved along before anyone got in any trouble.
Mileage 316 kms

Day 4
Gerry and I were heading south from here and the other riders were heading back home. We rode with Doug down to Hazen, stopping in Garrison to see the big Walleye.

As we headed west we were running low on fuel and pulled into Taylor ND. There was one gas station that appeared closed. The pumps were just skeletons. A Harley was parked out front and Gerry spotted an above ground tank. A guy came outside and sold us some fuel. When we told him we were heading to Glendive, MT, he said to stop at the Shamrock in Wibaux for supper. We took his advice and had the best meal of our trip! I ordered a burger and Gerry had the huge slab of Prime Rib.


The brew pub was going to be our second choice for supper.

We had ridden through the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I love this kind of badlands terrain!

We spent the night in Makoshika State Park on the outskirts of Glendive.

Mileage 621 kms

Day 5
We struck out on a gorgeous day. No wind, blue skies and hot! We spent some time at the Little Bighorn Battlefield site and learned what an idiot Custer was.


We spent the night in Casper WY at a shitty campground right in town.

Mileage 710 kms

Day 6
Gerry’s V-rod had been sounding poor since day 2 of the trip and we had found an exhaust leak on the crossover pipe. First thing in the morning we hit the Oil City Harley Davidson dealership. They were awesome! They took Gerry’s bike in, had the gasket needed in stock and proceeded to fix his bike. By 1:00 and only $140.00 later we finally left Casper heading south. While the bike was getting fixed this nice Super Bee pulled in. It looked nice but ran like crap. Stalled about 6 times before he got out of the lot.

We decided that WY is indeed the Antelope Capital .

As we rode towards CO, we crossed the Continental Divide 4 times. There is a weird basin in SW WY where nothing flows out of. It was getting late in the day when we made it to Rifle Gap State Park just north of Rifle CO. We had lightning and thunder all around us but never got wet.


Mileage 590 kms
No canyons yet!
 
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You took this trip back in August of 2015?

And here I thought I was bad about doing trip reports! LOL!

Nice report though. Looking forward to the canyons part.......... :popcorn:
 
An awesome ride report is just what I need right about now! Thanks for posting this! Awesome pictures and I totally agree with you about badlands, I love visiting places like that.

I remember how drastically the terrain changed after I crossed some large river in South Dakota. On the other side, it was like I was in a completely different part of the country, it changed so drastically. I think it was on the approach to the Black Hills National Park.

Keep the photos coming!
 
jared p said:
looks fantastic! thought: do the special red striping on the side of the hard cases too? might look cool, or lame, just a thought
Click to expand...

I had wanted to get vinyl wrap with the red stripe design on the bags but it was going to be around $300.00. The cases are sprayed with Plastidip. Cost about $75.00.
 
lytehouse said:
You took this trip back in August of 2015?

And here I thought I was bad about doing trip reports! LOL!

Nice report though. Looking forward to the canyons part.......... :popcorn:
Click to expand...


Fall is my busy time and winter is depressing. We had a couple warm days so I got some enthusiasm do do this. Working on Part 2. :sport12:
 
Part 2
Day 7, August 12/15

We packed up and headed into Rifle for breakfast. Researching online, I had seen Rifle Grill and had to stop there. The guy with the semi-auto was our very enthusiastic waiter but he wasn’t quite as cute as the girl packing the revolver.







From Rifle we took 45 ½ Rd down to Hwy 65. We twisted our way up to the top of Grand Mesa



We continued south to Hwy 550, The Million Dollar Highway. Ouray, CO is a town that’s squeezed into a tiny piece of ground between two huge, steep mountains. Who the hell would ever think this was a good place for a town?



I have to admit that I get a little nervous on skinny mountain roads with no guardrails and sheer cliffs. Reminded me of the Going To The Sun Road in Glacier Park, MT. We had a couple light sprinkles of rain at Red Mtn Pass and stopped at Silverton for lunch. I never noticed the cool 4WD 50’s era cab until I looked at my pictures. Pretty little town.



We stopped at Molas Pass for a few photos.



We rode on to Mesa Verde National Park for the night. We were too late in the day to get access down to the ruins but we enjoyed them from the top. I had a black bear run across the road in front of me too.









The birds up on top of the cliff and in the trees were all vultures.





I need to spend some more time here.
Mileage 522 kms.
We had met the couple camped next to us and their two young kids. We sat up and watched a meteorite shower then crawled into our tents. Not long after getting into my sleeping bag, I hear the sound of steady pumping on an air mattress. My first thought, “your kids are in the tent with you two”. Oh well what ever. HOWEVER!
The next day I asked Gerry if he heard the couple next door getting frisky in their tent. He says, “no, that was me pumping up my air mattress”. What the HELL! He used an electric pump to blow the mattress up every night but apparently it had a built in pump that he could use to add more air.
I said, “OK, I thought the couple were getting frisky so what the hell did they think the tough bikers were doing next door”? I told Gerry that if he ever touched the internal pump in his air mattress again at night, I would stab it with my Bowie knife! I don’t care if he has a huge rock in the middle of his back, I don’t want that sound coming from our campsite again!!!
 
Now we're see canyons! Thanks for the photos, brings back fond memories of the forum meetup we did last year! Ouray is such a cool town, eh? I'd like to go back and ride the switchbacks again as we had pretty clear road in front of us most of the time!

Keep the photos coming!
 
Part 3 August 13/15

Day 8
I did say Hi to the couple the next morning, not knowing that the air mattress sound had come from Gerry’s tent. A guy on a BMW was camped on the other side of us and I walked over to talk to him, Lord only knows if he heard Gerry too.
His name was Carlos and he was from Ecuador. He had been as far up as you can ride in Alaska and was heading back home. He had lost a Yamaha Tenere in Juno, when a service tech failed to properly tighten his oil filter and ran the bike dry. The shop paid him for the bike and he called home to get more money to purchase a new, fully equipped BMW GS. I told Carlos we were headed to the Grand Canyon and he asked if he could join us. We were good with that and looked forward to hearing about his trip and home country.
We rode through Bluff, UT and on to Mexican Hat.







Hwy 163 took us to Monument Valley. Love it!





Carlos



I had reserved a tour of Antelope Canyon, just outside Page AZ . As we got close I was trying to find the tour location and at one point pulled over to look at my GPS. I took off again and found the road we needed. I drove up the road and Gerry and I pulled into the line up. Carlos was missing! Gerry told me he had gotten off his bike when I first stopped but I didn’t see that. By now Carlos would have missed where we turned. Sorry Carlos!
Canyon #1 Antelope Canyon
The tour cost $20.00 and another $8.00 for a Navajo Tribal Permit. Worth every penny! The canyon had been closed for two days due to rain and they were running at least an hour behind schedule. I could include many, many pictures, but these will give you a taste.








We were running later in the day now and stopped for supper in Page. SW of Page was:
Canyon #2 Marble Canyon



We walked out on the bridge, snapped a few photos and headed west. We had a campsite reserved at Delmotte Campground, north of the Grand Canyon. It was getting dark and storms were around us as we headed south on #67. We put our rain gear on and rode in heavy fog for the last 40 kms. It was getting dark and I had to pull my visor up to see. Then my glasses were fogging up. We got into camp and set up. We had missed a huge downpour by an hour or so.

Mileage 606 kms

Day 9
Canyon #3 Grand Canyon
We rode to the North Rim and spent the day there. I had been to the south rim before and found some of the walking trails on the north rim much more terrifying! Fall off the path and you die!







We could see rain showers on the south side but we stayed dry.




It was a beautiful day at the campground.




Mileage 133 kms
 
So overall you liked our little town of Ouray? One of my favorites too....we visit there almost every year, and sometimes twice
When you decided to come back, let me know?
 
Part 4 August 15/16

Day 10
We headed north up to Kanab, UT on to Hwy 89, then east on UT #12. Nice roads! We stopped off at Bryce Canyon Nat Park. Gerry’s said his mom had told him that someday he’d have to see Bryce. Gerry’s mom has passed but her advice was spot on.

Canyon #4 Bryce Canyon






Just as we left Bruce Canyon we took refuge in a gas station as a thunder shower hit. We had a wonderful ride up Hwy #12, taking our time and staying behind a thunderstorm.










We pulled over on the Hog’s Back, a stretch of the highway that runs up on a ridge. We were catching the rain but luckily I had a cold beer to tide us over.







As we drove through Dixie National Forest there were all sorts of quads and guys in camo with bows riding around. Hunting season was open. A couple weeks earlier than where I’m from. We ended up in Torrey UT for the night at a very clean and tidy private campground, Wonderland RV park. We were able to use the wi-fi, wash laundry and get caught up on the Blue Jays pennant run. I had a Spot locator I was using and was able to text my family with updates along the way.

Mileage 465 kms

Day 11

We rode through Capitol Reef Nat Park and enjoyed every minute of it. Southern UT is absolutely amazing! I enjoy this terrain more than the Rocky Mountains!







We made it over to Moab by early afternoon and rode up Hwy 128 to find a campsite along the Colorado River. My right turn signal starting flashing at a higher rate than normal in the heat. They are Watsen signals. The builder suggested I add an aftermarket flasher to correct the problem. I think I paid enough for the signals that they should work properly hot or cold. This was the only time they acted up.





We rode back to Arches Nat Park and took in the sights. Did I mention it was hot as hell! 102*F. We decided to take a hike to Delicate Arch, one of the focal parts of the park. So we start hiking, thinking that the little specks of people we see in the distance must be near the arch. Nope! This was about ½ way. The parking lot is about the center of this photo.



Did I mention it was 102*? Other than myself, the only people I felt sorry for were the Rescue workers that were hiking in, with a wheeled stretcher, to bring out a hiker with chest pains. My legs were sore, my feet hurt, I was hot and my water wasn’t cold! No chest pains though. Finally we made it.






I’m pretty sure they could run a paved road right up to this thing!
Balanced Rock



It dropped down to 70*F that night. Tent doors open, on top of the sleeping bag, sweating.

Mileage 356 kms
 
Part 5 August 17/15

Day 12

We took Hwy #128 up to I70, then over to Fruita, CO for breakfast. Starvin’ Arvins serves up a big cinnamon bun.



It was a fun ride up Hwy 139, over Douglas Pass.





CO #64 to UT #40 than into Vernal, UT. The run up the hill north of Vernal on #191was fun. Nice fresh pavement. We got to the Flaming gorge area and made the decision to go right and cross the dam. That was all good but the 20 miles of fresh chip seal that followed sucked! Once through that we were up on a high WY plateau. And the wind was howling. We rolled into Rock Springs WY and treated ourselves to hotel for the night.

Mileage 535 kms
 
Well those were worth the wait! Fantastic.....and if you're not aware of a little photo contest here on the forum called Bike of the Month....Please check that out.
hint hint.........

ranger.jpg
 
lytehouse said:
So overall you liked our little town of Ouray? One of my favorites too....we visit there almost every year, and sometimes twice
When you decided to come back, let me know?
Click to expand...

Lots more to see. I'm sure I missed lots of good stuff. I'd appreciate a guide, if you're offering!
 
awesome pics, thanks for sharing, and holy cow $300 to vinyl wrap? no thanks, plasti dip it is lol bust out the painters tape!

and riding the pch1 is a great idea, just be warned, to enjoy it, you're gonna have to do some illegal passing on a lot of RV's lol however from Morro Bay to Monterey is one of my favorite stretches of road out there. up north of san fran in the redwoods is also beautiful in its own way as well. if you keep going north, oregon is beautiful as you get into the haystacks but the drivers suck and have a higher tendency for road rage. you could literally spend a month riding up the west coast zig zagging from the coast to I-5 and back and thats only covering half of it, some of the best riding and scenery you'll see is out there
 
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