Utah RrrockS!

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Ryanstones · #1 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:59 pm

Wow, phenomenal trip...33 days, mostly tent camping. We went to 6 national parks; Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyons, Arches, Colorado Natl Monument, and Rocky Mountain. We put 7-800 miles on the quads on National Forest Roads and trails and at Little Sahara SAND DUNES and The Piaute Trail. Plus I got in a VERY solid weekends' work in Iowa that'll allow me to pay for the trip!

We started planning this trip about 2 years ago, to go see the BIG ROCKS and ride the DUNES. We never really camped together before so this was a real adventure. Left Pensacola on June 17th and returned July 19. 6,200 miles and 548 gallons of gas (11.3 mpg, TUNDRA!) Took 1300 digital pics with 1033 good ones. I've pared them down to 55 for this trail tale though.

1st stop Joes valley resevoir about 2.5 hours from the dunes. After 4.5 days on the road together it was a little tense.
We're driving thru barren wasteland desert and i can tell Suz is near panic that she will be camping here. Then the road cuts up into a canyon and we finally come out at 7200 feet and a beautiful lakefront campground. You can ride to the trailheads from the campground and it was AWESOME.

Ryanstones · #2 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:00 pm

Through aspen forests and alpine meadows filled with wildflowers of every color we rode the winding, switchbacked roads and trails to 11,500'
That was the only place with cell service! Riding in the snow was a riot for us Floridians.

Ryanstones · #3 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:02 pm

PHENOMENAL!
We'd come all prepared to be hot, but the 39degree nights nearly froze my butt off.

The BLUE sky out there just blew me away!

Ryanstones · #4 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:03 pm

I've never traveled in the mountain west and this place really knocked me out. flowers everywhere!

Ryanstones · #5 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:05 pm

Best pic of the trip? The altitude gave us all a little trouble the first week. Shortness of breath, pain in the chest, weakness. We got over that and by then the lack of humidity and soft? water kicked in drying out the skin so bad it cracked and split on our fingers! Other than little sahara and moab the weather was like the finest florida spring day, the whole trip. Cool and dry

A couple local guys showed us around a bit and they were really amused with me posing the 'dale. LOL.

Ryanstones · #6 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:06 pm

Mountain trout! um, um good. Nice folks gave us a dozen fresh ones.

Ryanstones · #7 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:07 pm

Really nice effort put into the trails. A lot of what they called trails were more like roads, but when it went to Quad trail it was the absolute best.

Ryanstones · #8 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:08 pm

The 'dale ripped these trails up!

Had to open the V's airbox to get it to run right, but it got great mileage up there

Ryanstones · #9 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:10 pm

:ride:

Ryanstones · #10 Post by **Ryanstones** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:11 pm

Suzanne was awesome out there! By far the most miles she'd ever done in a day. about 60 this day. This tough spot put a chill in her though. Hundreds of feet down on both sides of the road.

Notice the dead fir? trees. There were 1000's of them weakened by drought and killed be some imported beetle. The whole area was a tinderbox.

Cannondaleriders

Utah RrrockS!

Utah RrrockS!

OH yea, SNOW!

Brrrrrr

art pic?

I could get used to this!

uh yea!

ATV heaven

whoohooo!