The Road through Nevada

Here we are taking the high road on through this hot and unexpectedly beautiful state.

This is the Extraterrestrial Highway...no, we didn't see anything weird. No flashing lights or hovering spacecrafts. Unfortunatley. My brother will be dissapointed. This first day we headed through was not nearly as hot as we thought it would be...we had wonderful shade most of the day. Shortly before this shot was taken there was a beautiful red sun shining through the clouds from the fire that blazed over the hills. We were too busy riding to stop and take a photo :( I know, it's sad. Mim got a speed demon bug along the way and shot out ahead of me on his sport bike to take a photo.
After a few hundred miles we chose a ghost town hot springs to visit and possibly camp at for the night in Warm Springs, NV. When we got there we found the pool surrounded by barbed wire fences and with a sign that warned people to keep out. Of course, it would take a lot more than that to stop us! So we headed into the pool and saw how gorgeous and natural the hot spring water was.

As we took off our shoes to soak our feet, I noticed some life swarming around a bush near the pool. Looking closer I took a short breathe and walked slowly away...there were giant sized wasp-like insects with pitch black bodies and large dark red wings apparently guarding the hot springs! One of those suckers just patroled the pool like it owned the place. So much for that idea...on we drove. After riding a brutal 370 miles we decided we needed rest and a shower...so we stopped in Tonopah, NV and searched for a cheap hotel. The first one we went to, the Economy Inn, was frightening so we turned around and got the other room available at the Mizpah Hotel. It was an old building that had been cleaned and refurbished and was very cool to stay at. The bed was HUGE and soft and we were SO happy. Of course it wasnt one of the cheaper hotels, so we cooked our dinner that night in the hotel parking lot before going up to bed...

Did I mention the bed? It was luxurious.

Goodbye sweet, sweet heavenly room at the Mizpah...oh how we enjoyed thee. Time to pack up and head out to finish our treck to California! We were so excited this morning to make it to California. Have you ever wondered how much luggage you can fit on two motorcycles on a trip like this? I think you might be suprised...here is our gear all packed up and ready to be straped to the bikes.

It's not a light load, but we sure have found a need for everything so far. We made it to California today and found our first stop...read about it in our next post!!

Zion National Park

We made it to Zion!!! It was quite the journey traveling through Utah with all those scattered thunderstorms. We got held up at a rest stop for over two hours when it poured hail and rain in huge waves. And we rode on despite weariness and sore butts. And we made it! Woohoo!! I now know why Mim has wanted so badly to see Zion for most his life. The place is incredible - gigantic mountains of rock, canyons formed thousands of years ago by the Virgin River and the sights were something to see for sure.

We spent our first evening in Zion at a nearby internet cafe, blogging, and staying out of the heat. Weather was around 102 that day. Once the Sun was starting to set we headed to camp and set up. Our campsite was blistering hot during the day with little shade, but the view was amazing.

This picture here is of campste #8 which we stayed at our second night at Zion. The first night, we stayed in #4, which we we instructed to vacate and move to #8 for our second night stay. Of course, whoever had #4 booked that night never showed up. While all our gear was sitting in the hot sun packed up on our bikes, the squirrels chewed up the tank bag (which is our ice box). It was very dissapointing since we couldv'e used the bear box to put our food in, had we not been asked to move camp sites. Oh well! We packed up that morning and went on an all day hike through The Narrows, a winding canyon among the mountains of Zion, the Virgin River flowing through it. When we reached the head of the canyon, we readied our walking sticks!

Mim carved some beautiful handles on our walkin' sticks

Now that we had some awesome sticks we set off on the adventurous hike through the river and up the canyon! We were so excited about this hike, we got up before sunrise. And we were so glad we did, because we beat the rediculously large crows of tourists who rushed in as the day went on. The Narrows also looked even more spectacular in the morning light. We were in pleasant shade for most of the day, since we started early.

We took a detour from the main hike and found our way to this beautiful waterfall where magical acts of nature occur! On our way back down we stopped in the sun, had a snack, and went for a swim in a glorious swimming hole. We saw many more beautiful swimming holes on the way back down, but we huried our pace as much as we could for there were hundreds of people flocking in and crowding the paths. That night we had way too much pizza for dinner because we both felt so vamished after the long hike. So, around 5pm we were ready to go to bed but it was too hot! We walked to the river near our campsite to take shelter from the heat for awhile then tried to go to bed while it was still way hot outside. Mim fell asleep while I layed in hot agony until around 1 in the morning...the next day we were ready to shoot through Nevada!! And we were very determined to make it through in one sweltering hot day...

Goodbye Zion! We had a wonderful time...

Bryce Canyon National Park

After camping at Calf Creek we rode on to Bryce Canyon, a beautiful park with strangely shaped rock.

Here I am practicing my new skill of setting up the tent!

We went up to the top of the trail for a hike and it started pouring rain, so we pretty much just got a few pictures in...

Later that evening, it cleared up outside and we went for a short hike up to see some grand views of the park.

And that's all for now! We are in another amazing National Park which we just arrived at today...can you guess where it is???

Calf Creek

Our next camp spot was at Calf Creek National Monument. It cost us a whole $3.50 to camp there and it was worth way more. This place was gorgeous as you can see. And as always, we picked the best campsite in the whole place. This was the most quiet campground we've stayed in. We woke around 9 and it was so quiet, as if everyone in the place was still asleep. It's definitely not like that in National Parks!

The creek made its way over the road...here is me riding on through the stream on our way out of the campground. It was pretty deep and slimy. Glad we made it through!

Capitol Reef National Park

Here we are at Capitol Reef, our first stop was to see the Petroglyphs on the sides of these rocks. A lot of them have apparently been lost with the fallen rock. When we got to the campsite we had not even gotten off our bikes before a gentleman walked up to us and invited us to sit and have dinner with his family. We were so happy we stopped in front of his campsite! They were such a wonderful family and we laughed and played music and had such a nice time. They fed us steak and potatoes and kept offering us more food until we were stuffed! It was so nice. Here they are with Mim.

It was so easy to make them laugh! :)

The campsite had a gorgeous view and we enjoyed a campfire that night for the first time since we departed...

The next morning we packed up our camp and went for a little hike in Grand Wash Canyon.

Utah

Hello again! We crossed into Utah a day earlier than we planned and we were so happy to make it. Seemed like it took us ages to get out of Colorado! We just had way too much fun at those hot springs. So, when got to Utah on Thursday, we reached the first town, Monticello. We were both so very hungry and tired from the ride. We could only find one pizza shop and an old diner in town that was open. The diner was so very depressing...the food wasn't terrible. We were starving so it was lovely to eat. Being that we were so tired, we got back on the bikes and headed toward the closest road to National Forest. The spot Mim found was amazing.

We had to chase a few cows out of there and kick some pies out of the way for the tent, but it was one the most beautiful campsites so far. There we were in a big, beautiful aspen grove just outside Monticello. I love camping for free...and they always seem to be the best spots. We woke the next morning to a very loud buzzing noise, much like you would hear if there were a hive of bees up above in the tree. I looked around but didn't find it. There must've been some loud bees somewhere not far from where we camped. SO, our next destination was to a river called Doloros River, just past Disappointment Creek. Well, after a hot and long ride in the desert, that river was sounded better and better. But when we got there, all we were was disappointed. It was nothing but a bunch of scattered, muddy puddles. No choice for us but to keep going...so off we went.

We stopped to view the desert mountains, there's Cheese Box there to the left. And we finally did find some water!

The Colorado River was a little muddy, but had to stop and put our feet in. There was a group of people getting ready to raft down the river and they saved Mountain from being sucked into the earth by the muddy quicksand! They offered us a spot near their boat and even gave us some free beer and water to drink. It was way to hot to keep standing out there in no shade so off we went again.

And not twenty minutes later we got stuck in a desert storm. Here we are crouching under a cliff to keep from getting soaked. I was pretty much already soaked because, well, we figured it was only going to be a light drizzle and I didn't put all my gear on. Learned that lesson pretty quick! I now have all my rain gear in one bag, ready to go as soon as we see any formidable clouds a comin'. I got to test out all my gear later that day when these clouds came upon us...

Since we were denied any good places to camp and the river we wanted was run dry, we continued on toward Capitol Reef National Park and made it there late that evening.