Red Rocks of Utah. Day 53. (4,750 miles)

We started this week at Jane’s sister Lizzie’s house preparing to continue our trip, including trying to get information from the laid back guy at the LA shippers who will be transporting the bike to Brisbane for us. Fingers crossed it will be as smooth a process as he says!

Above we headed off through Western Colorado towards Utah.

Huge valleys, as you can see the traffic was a nightmare.

Our first stop in Utah was the town of Moab, very popular for outdoor pursuits. We were so focussed on finding a campsite that we forgot to take any pictures of the town! This is the view from our campsite.

Close to Moab is the Arches National Park, Utah is famous for the red rocks and canyons in various parts of the State and this is the first park we visited. We rode through at sunset which was nice as the rocks become even redder at this time and also many of the coach size RV’s (motor homes) have left for the day.

There had to be a sunset shot.

The North Window rock. Flipping enormous!

Both of us (still talking) at the South Window rock.

Our next stop was Capital Reef National Park, very pretty and less dry than Arches more a mix of rock cliffs and green areas. This picture was taken on John’s Blackberry as we had used up both camera batteries snapping away.

This road is called the Hogs Back, a slighter better view than the one between Guildford and Farnham.



A couple of pictures to prove that camping did take place! According to the campsite office the temperature dropped to -5c and our sleeping bags are not 4 season so it was a little chilly. In the middle of the night we added an extra layer and jumped into some foil survival bags John had bought. We may have looked like a couple of turkeys ready for roasting but at least we were a bit warmer!
John’s techie bit - for those who are interested, I bought the bags because they were recommended by the Duke of Edinburgh award organisers and of course paid more than you would for a normal foil survival bag/. However, they really did the job turning our summer sleeping bags into winter bags. The only problem is that they condensate.



This is Bryce Canyon, amazing rock formations just two of about 100 pictures taken.


I leave John alone for 2 minutes and come back to find him surrounded by Harley riders, I was a bit worried he had said shiny Harleys are girls bikes and was about to suffer the consequences! Turns out they had spotted the UK number plate and asked about our trip, phew!
John’s techie bit - The Tenere is the star wherever we go. Most riders that we meet who are familiar with the bike really want Yamaha to release this model in the USA and not the 1200 which they will soon be getting. Can’t help thinking that Yam are missing a trick here.