day 28

all that was on my mind today was getting to vegas and seeing aLex. it was a relatively quick trip and i didn't really plan on seeing much between williams, az and las vegas, nv. it was a pleasure to see the hoover dam. i didn't stop to do the tourist thing, but i got a few pictures. as there are not many routes out of vegas, i will probably have to cross over it again. maybe i will stop then.


hoover dam - 09/08/2006


hoover dam - 09/08/2006

aLex already had everything arranged. we were staying at the paris hotel, which wasn't too hard to find on the strip with the eiffel tower out front. since i had to take my bike to the local dealer, bmw of las vegas, for its 12,000 mile maintenance, i had to check in and unload everything before the valet drivers got mad at me for parking in the entry way. it wouldn't have been bad except that it was already about 95 degrees and there were tons of people to weave through with bags, helmet, etc.

after a brief delay at the airport, aLex finally made it. we already had reservations at nobu in the hard rock hotel. the dinner was great, but the service was just satifactory.

day 27

after the rain yesterday and it looking like rain again today, i decided to skip zion national park and instead see grand canyon national park (i would have wanted to do some of the trails at zion, and i didn't know how they would be in the rain).

after leaving utah with no more wives than when i entered, i headed down the u.s. 89-alt which runs by the entrance to the north rim of the grand canyon. i had already decided to only see the south rim, as i didn't have time for both. i then passed by the vermillion cliffs which were visible from bryce canyon national park the previous day.

while taking the first picture below of the vermillion cliffs, an older gentleman walked up to me and warned me of some gravel on the road in the valley below (where i took the second picture while stopped). i thanked him but was curious why he was warning me, as he was driving a jeep with a trailer. he then told me that he had a bike like mine, clarifying that it was a bmw r100e (e for imported from europe). i asked him how he liked it, and he told me that he had about 480,000 miles on it, which i took as him liking it very much. he said that he had the jeep and trailer so that he could take his dogs (four small ones, don't remember breed). i asked if he considered a sidecar, to which he replied yes, but some of his dogs would run if they could so he didn't try it.



vermillion cliffs, az - 09/07/2006

i got this picture while stopped for the road construction.


vermillion cliffs, az - 09/07/2006

further on down the road i came across cliff dwellers. the first picture looks as if it were from a different planet. the "house" in the second picture is actually built around one of the giant boulders.


cliff dwellers, az - 09/07/2006


cliff dwellers, az - 09/07/2006

below is the colorado river before it enters grand canyon national park. notice the boat in the river near the center of the picture.


colorado river near marble canyon, az - 09/07/2006

all day it had either been threatening to rain or just barely spinkling. finally on the the last stretch to grand canyon np, the skys opened up. it was so bad that i had to pull over. luckily there was an old abandoned roadside stand that was used by the navajos to sell their arts and crafts. luckily the rain didn't finish it off while i was under it.


rain delay - 09/07/2006

i didn't know what to expect when i got to the park. i have seen many impressive things already on my trip, but the grand canyon was impressive based on its sheer size. although the rain and clouds prevented a clear view of the entire canyon, i think they provided a good contrast of the landscape.


grand canyon, az - 09/07/2006


grand canyon, az - 09/07/2006

day 26 (updated)

i had planned on seeing three things today, kodachrome basin state park, bryce canyon national park, and zion national park. of course i thought i could do more than i actually could. i only made it to the first two. i will see zion tomorrow before meeting alex in las vegas on friday.

i don't have much of an internet connection here at the camp site. i think it is dial up and costs $2 for 15 minutes. i can't even use my own computer. i will have to cut this short and give more details and pictures tomorrow tomorrow.

update - 09/07/2006

on the road to kodachrome basin state park i passed through red canyon, which was just warm up for what i was to see today.


red canyon, az - 09/06/2006


red canyon, az - 09/06/2006


kodachrome basin state park, az - 09/06/2006


kodachrome basin state park, az - 09/06/2006

by the time i got to bryce canyon nation park, it was already threatening to rain. luckily i started at the far end of the park where the rain would hit first and then worked my way back to the beginning. i only got sprinkled on a few times. it's pretty easy to see the rain when it it coming.


view from bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006

one of the interesting trees at the park is the bristlecone pine. this one is over 1500 years old and is actually still alive, even though it doesn't look like it.


bristle cone pine, bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006

the rock formations were amazing. not only that they were created in the first place, but that there were so many of them in one place. from the second to last picture, you understand the line in the indian story "You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks". if you haven't seen egough, i have about 50 more pictures.


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006


bryce canyon np, az - 09/06/2006

day 25

well, it was another day of valleys and basins, with brief climbs over mountains. from ely, nv i went to the great basin national park. it was a 4000 foot climb from the base of the park to the viewpoint of wheeler peak, mostly on roads with a grade of 8%. there were not any places to stop on the way up, but they were doing some construction on the road at one point and i got this picutre of the valley below.


on way to wheeler peak, great basin np, nv - 09/05/2006

once at the top, with an elevation of about 10,000 feet, there were great views of wheeler peak


wheeler peak, great basin np, nv - 09/05/2006


wheeler peak, great basin np, nv - 09/05/2006


wheeler peak, great basin np, nv - 09/05/2006

after leaving great basin np, i crossed over into utah. the terrain and roads were similar to nevada, with large flat valleys surrounded by mountains. i took highway 21 most of the way. at one point, i did not see a car coming in the opposite direction for about 30 minutes. in the picture below, you can see the road gradually going up into the mountains.


highway 21, ut - 09/05/2006

once i got to my campsite near panguitch, ut (just north of bryce canyon national park), this is the view i had from my tent.


view from my tent, panguitch, ut - 09/05/2006

day 24

today was the first day in a while where i did not have any specific sites to see on my route. i just had a final destination, a campground outside ely, nv. luckily the route from bishop, ca to ely was a site in itself. it was u.s. route 6 the whole way. if i continued east to the end of route 6, i would end up in provincetown, ma. there was a sign outside of bishop, ca which gave the distance of over 3200 miles.

starting out of bishop, it was already in the 90's by the time i left. i grabbed some ice from the hotel ice machine and put several cubes in some of the pockets of my coat and pants. it's a trick alex saw someone do when we took a tour in arizona a few years ago. by the end of the first hour, the ice had melted and everything was dry. it did help quite a bit, though.

i was basically riding through huge valleys or basins the whole way, with mountains on either side. once in a while the road would wind up the mountains and over a pass but then right back down to the valley floor. i had no idea that nevada was the most mountainous state in the country.


u.s. 6 north of bishop, ca - 09/04/2006

the landscape on either side was always impressive. It needed to be as there wasn't much else to see. Even though u.s. route 6 isn't "the loneliest road", it was still quite desolate. at one point, there was a sign saying "next gas 90 miles". after the gas station at the 90 mile mark was another sign saying "next gas 67 miles". luckily i was getting about 50 miles per gallon and didn't run out again.


rear view landscape, u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006

but it was often the weather that was more interesting. most of the valleys were very warm, approaching 100 degrees, but the mountains were much cooler. as the clouds developed during the day, they would stretch across both the mountains and the valleys, but it would only be raining above the mountains. i could even see the rain as it came out of the clouds from many miles way. often i could even smell it. it reminded me of a passage i had just read in ted simon's jupiters travels. he was describing the rain clouds in south africa, with the rain coming out of the clouds like octopus tentacles.


rain clouds, u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006


rain clouds, u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006


u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006

when it was sunny, there were some great views.


u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006


u.s. 6, nevada - 09/04/2006

once i made it to the campground i thought i was safe, but just as i was setting up my tent, it started to rain. i got the rainfly on and everything inside before anything go too wet. a few hours later, this double rainbow appeared. you can just barely make out the second rainbow above the brighter one.


ely, nv - 09/04/2006