September 17, 18, & 19, 2021

Capitol Reef National Park

Our plan after the intensity of the White Rim Trail was to take a prolonged breather from the bicycles with Ashley. After Ashley came down to meet us and we took a moment to celebrate our making it there in one piece and her arrival with her own homemade birthday cake, we grabbed dinner from a local brewery before turning in for the night.

The first point on our vacation from our long vacation was a trip to Capitol Reef National Park. I had never really heard of it and knew nothing about it prior to our trip, which is sometimes a great way to experience a new thing. We got up in the morning and tried our best to polish off the birthday cake (and failed… oh well, snacks for later) while chatting with a really genial guy at the hostel who worked remotely doing software development and spent the rest of his time living out of his Subaru and driving all over America for the last year and half or so. It was fun sharing some copacetic energy with someone doing a different type of long-term travel.

We packed all our stuff into the back of Ashley’s Suburban and enjoyed our first meaningful non-pedaled miles in a long time. We made sure to make a pitstop at the Moab donut shop on the way out of town, where the owner gave us the hot scoop that a nearby town was having a melon festival of some kind. We got on the road, and seeing as it was more or less the last reasonable stop for gas before the National Park, we pulled off to check out the melon situation. There definitely was a street fair component that we skipped entirely in favor of checking out one of the farm stands and grabbing a couple weird (and as we would find out, delicious) varieties of melon.

Quaint rural experience box checked, we proceeded along past riveting scenery towards Capitol Reef. As we rolled up, the scenery got not only better, but weirder – steep, layered cliffs stood tall on every side of a bizarrely lush and verdant valley populated with literal, actual orchards of fruit and nut trees. Apparently, the area was first the settlement of various Native Americans, and then an old Mormon settlement, and the orchards they cultivated have been preserved and maintained as an aspect of the National Park.

We pulled into our campsite and got our tents set up, and then beelined it for these insane desert orchards. We meandered along a path for just a half a mile or so from our campsite to the nearest one, which was populated with fully fruiting apple and pear trees, and as long as you didn’t pack a bag with them it was completely free to just pick and eat whatever you wanted. It was wild to be amidst these towering desert cliffs and picking and eating perfectly ripe apples straight off the tree. The local deer population added ambience to the experience, too. We had a riot trying to find the best specimens to take as a pre-hike snack.

Back to our campground, we used the luxury of having a car to see as much of the park as we could in the roughly one day that we’d be spending there, and we drove out to a scenic viewpoint to get a vibe for the place. As we got out there, the weather threatened greatly to rain, with strong wind gusts and really dour, dramatic looking clouds, but it never really actually rained. It just made for very scenic looking pics up on the extraordinary rock formations.

After that, we drove down the road a ways to check out some petroglyphs from the peoples that populated this canyon before the Mormons came. They were very cool, even though you can’t get very close to them (for good reason I guess – people can’t be trusted).

We decided to spend the late afternoon on the nearest hike, up into Cohab Canyon. It was a hike up into and along a preposterously scenic wash in between smooth, organic looking rock formations full of small cavelike holes. We leisured our way up to the lookout point, making time to pose for cool pics amidst the alien scenery, and then headed back down to camp to make dinner when we were satisfied with the sightseeing.

Ashley wins the “Good at Camping” merit badge, and arrived in Moab with a cooler full of food and drinks, firewood, and cooking utensils. It was luxurious to not have to care about it in specific detail so much for once, and we had a lovely time making campfire pizzas over our first campfire of this entire trip (somehow???), as well as s’mores. It was lovely to relax in the cool early fall air next to the warmth of a campfire.

We woke in the morning and made a beeline for the other especially strange aspect of this National Park – a little bake shop that sells homemade pies and sweets immediately adjacent to the campground, in an old pioneer house. Alyssa and Ashley went together and got one of every pie while I stayed at the campsite and heated up some water for some matcha tea and decaf coffee. The pies were an absolutely delicious breakfast, and if my memory serves my personal, official power rankings went: 1) rhubarb, 2) apple, 3) mixed berry, 4) peach. The cinnamon roll wasn’t half bad, either.

Our plan was to do some more hiking and exploring of the park, and then drive back to Ashley’s house in Salt Lake City in the afternoon. We packed up our campsite, got in the car, and the car wouldn’t start – the battery was totally dead. Someone driving by kindly helped us with a jump, and we were on our way. We hoped that by the time we got over to the trailhead, maybe the alternator would solve that problem for us, but… no dice. We stopped at the trailhead parking lot, and turned the car off, and it wouldn’t start again. The battery was toast. We got a different nice person to give us a jump off his battery-powered jump kit, and made the move to just drive to the nearest AutoZone or whatever to get the battery replaced. Oh well! We still got to enjoy a lot of the park thanks to the use of the car in the one day we were there, and even more on the drive out, so it wasn’t so bad.

The drive back was uneventful, though beautiful. We got a sneak peek at some of the occasionally wow-inducing scenery we’d be traversing by bicycle in just a week and a half or so. We stopped in a diner in Richfield, UT that had plaques over multiple tables in the restaurant attesting to all the famous people who had eaten there. I kind of doubt Russell Crowe ate at the next table over but… hey.

We arrived at Ashley’s (newly purchased, first ever) house, and the only thing I cared about was the fact that my baby boy, our cat Jelly, was inside. Ashley is very kindly watching him while we go do our dream thing, and we had the supreme luxury of seeing him again. It was everything I hoped for – he didn’t forget us at all! Cats are finicky, you never know.

September 20 – 26, 2021

Rest days in Salt Lake City

We carved out a solid block of time to take the second extended break of our trip. We managed to pack in a ton of activities even though it was a rest, and we stayed active pretty much every single day that we stayed with Ashley. In roughly chronological order, we:

• went up into the mountains and hiked to a hot spring
• video chatted with some of our distant friends
• visited one of the most amazing breweries I’ve ever encountered, Shades – if you ever see their beers, try them. I’ve never had better insane, out-there beers. The Thai Tom Kha beer is actually mind blowing
• shot an AR-15 style rifle and a 9mm pistol at a gun range
• helped build a shade pergola in Ashley’s backyard
• ran a ton of errands, returned or exchanged some gear that didn’t stand the test of time
• drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to ride our bikes around and take in the otherworldly sights
• made a handful of art projects
• enjoyed a bonfire with Ashley’s friend Brooklyn
• cooked and baked
• watched BOTH Miss Congeniality movies – there’s only two, right?
• spent hours soaking up good, snuggly vibes with our cat
• cleaned and performed much needed maintenance on our bikes after White Rim

It doesn’t really fit into the summary, but it was extremely, super nice to have a place to relax and recover for a few days in Ashley’s good company. Also, what a luxury to be indoors for an extended period of time – I took showers literally every day, because banking showers totally works. It was a very recuperative return to relative normalcy, and I’m thankful we were able to do it. It was also just nice to hang out with Ashley, who we generally only get to see a couple times a year these days.

But we couldn’t just relax forever… and we got all our stuff together to get back on the road on Monday morning and bike out of Salt Lake City, heading pretty much due south to see more of Utah’s unbelievable beauty.

September 27, 2021

West Valley City, UT to Camping on BLM land south of Lehi, UT

We got up bright and early to make sure all our ducks were in a row to head back out on the road. It was honestly not even bittersweet to leave, it was more bitter than sweet; it was sad to leave Ashley, it was sad to leave Jelly, and it was sad to leave the comforting predictability of living indoors. But we couldn’t just move in, so off we went!

We said our goodbyes, to Jelly and Ashley and Ashley’s cat Cleo, and got on the road in the crisp morning air. After a pitstop to mail some postcards (and eat a grocery store breakfast burrito), we got to biking through the developed area in urban and suburban Salt Lake using the Jordan River Trail. The Jordan River Trail is a super long and super nicely developed multi-use path that follows the Jordan River on its roughly north-south trajectory, so despite having the Wasatch mountains absolutely towering over us on the left hand side all day, the elevation changes were generally very small.

I’d planned for a shorter day out to some Bureau of Land Management land to do some dispersed camping on the shores of Utah Lake. I’m glad we did, because after our first couple hours, it was evident that after a few days off the bikes we needed to get our sea legs again a little bit. We were making sort of slow, tired time, and both my knee and Alyssa’s knee were complaining about being re-enlisted. Alyssa stopped to use a public bike repair stand to inflate her tire, and the pump was actually broken, draining her inner tube fully in the process. We spent a little extra time on a detour to a bike shop that we found on Google that was closed to the public because of coronavirus, but then no one answered the appointment phone number – maybe it was closed forever? We never figured it out. We saw someone watering plants at a nearby house and stopped to ask if they had a bike pump, and he obliged. Our tires properly inflated, we tried to get back on task and biked up and away from the serenity of the bike path on a 4-lane highway that for some reason had a bike lane.

After surmounting a couple long, slow climbs on this busy road, we stopped at the last gas station before nowheresville (literally the last one for like 40 miles on this road – and this was just across the lake from Provo!) to get some snacks for lunch and a quick break. We took turns heading inside so one of us could watch our stuff, and some absolutely garbage gas station pizza later, with a full extra gallon of water we got back on the road.

The scenery quickly changed from rapidly developing suburban tract homes to absolutely nothing at all except the occasional quarry. The relatively untouched Utah landscape is often breathtaking, and with Utah Lake on our left with the cities of Provo and Orem on its opposite shore this was a beautiful tableau for sure. We pushed ourselves in the hot sun over some rolling hills over to the BLM land we’d picked out.

The area was relatively busy with RVs, but spread out enough to have reasonable room to roam. It was a long space of mostly treeless scrubland with a decline towards the shores of Utah Lake and a dramatic pyramid-shaped hill overlooking everything. We did some exploring to find the best spot, and decided to hike our stuff out into the scrub a little bit towards a pair of the only trees around – it was hot enough that shade was a priority. We set up our tent and tried our best to relax for a while. I played mandolin and Alyssa went for a walk up to the top of the hill to meditate.

For dinner, we’d brought a bunch of nice, fresh stuff from the Real Grocery Stores in the Real City we were just coming from (as opposed to the tiny country stores we’d been frequenting). I cooked some herb-y chicken sausages over the open flame of our stove, and Alyssa prepared Mediterranean bowls for them to adorn, with parsley, onion, hummus, avocado, and bell pepper. The final product was absolutely instagram-worthy and also both extremely delicious and pretty nutritious too. It’s nice when you have resources!

We had a chat after dinner, and decided to make staying inside more of a priority in the next stretch of traveling. If you notice that we patronize motels a bit more in the week or two after this, that’s why! Sleeping in a bed is definitely more restful than sleeping literally outside.

September 28, 2021

BLM land campsite south of Lehi, UT to Nephi, UT

We woke in the morning to a windy and moody day. We packed up our campsite and walked our gear out of the brush and back to the road and got on our way at about 8:30. The slight rolling hills along Utah Lake were very scenic, especially with the fast moving clouds rolling along above us, but the 15-20 mph headwind that pushed them along railed against us all morning. We made slow progress to the town of Elberta, where we found both the historic gas station and the normal, supposedly functioning gas station closed. We spent a few minutes snacking and locating a bathroom, which we were not able to do, before moving on down the road.

The road descended into ranch land as we headed farther south, before winding around the base of the short, rocky mountains south of Utah Lake, leading us to a right turn into Goshen Canyon. We climbed gently into the canyon, which was very scenic but moderately difficult climbing. A small creek burbled alongside the road for most of the climb, and eventually the land opened up as we reached the plateau on the other side.

Our moods were a bit sour from the wind’s additional difficulty, and we stopped a few times on the way up the climb to rest and then for a snack on the side of the highway. It was pretty crazy to see how sparsely populated this stretch was even though we were so close to a major metropolitan area – I’m definitely used to the sprawl of Chicagoland.

We rounded south of the small Mona Reservoir, through the town of Mona, and down along highway 28 to the town of Nephi (which I would not discover the pronunciation of until later; like Knee-fy). When I was originally scouting out the route, I’d suggested either staying in motel in Nephi or continuing down the road to camp in a nearby town’s park for free. The windy and freshly-back-in-the-saddle riding of the day had us both opting for the comfort of a real bed, and we decided to find a cheap place to crash here.

We made a pitstop at a really very nice grocery store in town to get supplies for the next few days (and had a funny transaction with a guy who worked there – Alyssa asked him if the store carried smoked salmon, and his reply was, “We’re just country bumpkins out here, we don’t have stuff like that”) before proceeding on towards the first motel down the road. It had an alluring retro sign and vibe and the price was exactly the same as the chain motel down the road, so we opted for the ‘cool’ one.

The woman at the desk was super friendly, and insisted that I see the room before I agree to take it for the night. The room was twice the size or more of your average double queen, and also we were already here so yeah duh we’ll take it. We spent the evening relaxing in the bath and bed, enjoying the relatively luxury not just of the room size but of sleeping inside. As we chilled indoors, the world outside also chilled – a front rolled through as we slept, and the temperature dropped to its coldest since we’d left home, down into the 40s. Suddenly it was fall!

September 29, 2021

Nephi, UT to Salina, UT

We got up around 7 and got our things ready to go, only for me to find that my front tire apparently had a slow leak that flattened it completely overnight. On top of that, the front moving in dropped some rain overnight and it was our first really cold morning of the trip so far. So, I took some of the cold morning time to patch my flat, and soon enough, we checked out of our enormous luxury motel and got going towards our target for the day of Salina, UT.

We rode a few very scenic and mostly flat miles down Highway 28 to the small town of Levan, stopping at a Conoco for a warm beverage, bathroom, and snacks before heading further south. We enjoyed the warm-up of a tea with honey and vanilla for Alyssa, and a hot chocolate (and Chex Mix, and a bag of Rips…) for me. We lingered for about an hour or so, enjoying the slow morning and waiting out some of the chilliness.

Back on the road, we made pretty decent time – the route was fairly flat, and took us past Yuba Lake and Yuba Lake State Park, which were very beautiful. Frankly, every section of this north to south route through Utah was stunning, as you’re framed by mountain ranges on either side more or less the entire length of the state, with idyllic ranches stretching between the road and the foothills. It’s postcard worthy in its own right.

We had a spicy tailwind that helped us make great time, and we flew through the more remote stretch of road on our day’s itinerary. One slightly crummy climb into the wind later, we crested a plateau and descended toward the close-together towns of Gunnison and Centerfield. We knew we wanted to stop for lunch, and weighed our options (which were pretty plentiful!), landing on a food truck that was permanently stationed in someone’s front yard serving Mexican food. We rode the tailwind down to the south side of town and grabbed our most delicious tacos since Davenport, IA – it was still chilly to eat outside in the shade of the yard, but the food was worth it for sure.

After lunch, we made a quick pitstop back up to the nearest gas station to fill our water bottles and charge phones for a few minutes. I got myself another hot chocolate to bolster my warmth for the road, too. As we were getting ready to go, we had a short chat with the woman working the register, who seemed to find our story pretty interesting, asking us a bunch of questions about logistics and routes and things. She had a quarter pizza leftover behind the counter from lunch and kindly offered it to us to take with us, which I gladly did – why not? Free dinner! It was a lovely gesture.

Back on the road, we rode through another somewhat remote stretch of primarily ranches. Both Alyssa and I were still shaking the back-in-the-saddle vibes and the miles were adding up – we were both getting pretty tired after 55 miles or so. We rode into the interstate-adjacent town of Salina ready to call it a day. We stopped to snap some quick pics of the scenic and very Utah downtown area before heading just out of town south to a campground I’d chosen ahead of time. I was riding a few miles ahead of Alyssa and went to check in, only to find that they’d already closed for the season! The possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind, even in spite of how cold it was all day, and I was deflated after having already shifted gears to “I’ve arrived for the day” mode.

Thankfully, before we’d left for our trip, Alyssa’s lovely former coworker Jean had offered to cover a stay someplace when we wanted bailing out. Alyssa called in that favor and Jean booked us a night at the Super 8 near the interstate, and all we had to do was roll up and check in. It was a tremendous kindness and instantly very helpful in fighting the “oh man now where the hell am I going to sleep”-blues. We checked in, reveled in the clean, pressed niceness of a major chain motel, ate some microwaved leftover pizza and settled in.

Plus, since we’d be staying inside someplace with WiFi, I was able to join my friends in our standing Wednesday night D&D campaign. I took over the back room near the front desk and had a nice time with my friends from far away, while Alyssa relaxed and did our laundry. The motel was truly a salve and saved our otherwise really nice day of riding – thank you Jean!!

September 30, 2021

Salina, UT to Wild camp south of Marysville, UT

We woke to another near-freezing Utah fall morning. We seemed to need to adjust our routine of waking up at the crack of dawn, because now it meant hopping on the bikes in the frosty morning air.

So instead of heading out right away, we were enticed to breakfast by a sign across the street at the insterstate-side Denny’s – it claimed to be “America’s #1 Denny’s” and to have been rated as such for the last 2 years running. I mean, I’ve had Denny’s before but I’m down to see what type of game America’s #1 Denny’s brings!

We had a fully average Denny’s experience, each of us getting a Slammer which is basically the 2 of everything that every diner has on the menu. For America’s #1 Denny’s, it was slightly underwhelming; it was still nice to while away the coldest morning hour or so indoors, sipping warm drinks and eating breakfast.

Post-America’s #1 Denny’s, we got to rolling. We only had a tentative target for the day, some BLM campsites that folks online had marked out, or just pulling off into BLM land if we didn’t want to bother heading up the ridge to find the former. We took a back road to scoot away from Interstate 70, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery as the road cut through some sandy, rocky bluffs on its way over to the next state highway. The wind was in our face a little bit but it was impossible to mind too much, the scenery was really very beautiful and unexpected on this little connecting leg.

We headed down state highway 118 toward the town of Richfield, which oddly enough we’d already been to once on this trip. We stopped in Richfield with Ashley to get a new battery and have lunch at the famous-customer-claiming diner. It was a different experience entirely to bike into town, and we rolled through in the late morning to make a pitstop at a gas station. Richfield is at the base of the huge Monroe Peak, an 11,223 foot tall mountain that towers almost 6,000 feet over the surrounding area, so it’s obviously insanely beautiful – either by car or by bike. As we biked out of town it was a stalwart companion to our left the entire way, and made for some pictures that they might as well put on the “Welcome to Utah” sign.

Continuing south, we eventually linked up with Sevier County’s excellent bicycle path system. Near the town of Elsinore, the main, freshly paved, separated bike path follows a county highway through breathtakingly beautiful scenery, with blue mountains towering over tan and sage early fall ranch land. Combined with a tailwind, it made for absolutely tremendous bicycle riding – and only increasingly so, too. After we passed the town of Sevier, still on the bike path, the path takes a route through an absolutely stunning mountain pass. Steep, rocky cliffs sharply enclose the Sevier River, and the path follows the river through to the other side on mostly flat grading. It was like riding my bike through a painting, and had me reeling with enjoyment the entire time. I even took a video while pedaling through it just to share my enjoyment with folks later.

Out the other side, we descended into the town of Marysvale. I was ahead of Alyssa by a handful of miles, because she stopped just after the pass to take her scheduled call with her therapist. I headed to the Marysvale gas station to get a snack, drink, and while away the time a bit waiting for Alyssa to catch up.

After a little while eating Skittles in the chair in front of the gas station, Alyssa rolled down into town. We decided that since we didn’t even know where we were camping really, we could take a break here and eat dinner in town before heading out to set up camp. The pizza place across the street looked great, and as we walked our bikes across the street I realized that whoops, I have my second flat tire in 2 days. Just unlucky this time, I’d managed to hit a piece of wedge-shaped glass that worked its way through my tire.

We went inside and placed our order, and I popped back out to fix my other tire. The timing worked out almost perfectly, and by the time pizza arrived at the table I’d already managed to find, repair, and remove the culprit from the tube. Dinner was delicious – I’ll admit, I was skeptical of small town Utah’s ability to provide me with Actually Good Pizza, but Tomatoes Pizza Pie in Marysvale did a great job. Not just small town Utah great! I saved the last few pieces for breakfast in the morning, and, my flat repaired, we headed out of town to find a suitable campsite for the night.

We were loosely heading towards a state park maybe a dozen miles or so down the road, but were able to find a lovely spot on BLM land just off the road on our way there. We pulled off and down a small hill to the banks of a stream, with a copse of trees mostly blocking the sight from the road and vice versa. We set up our tent, and with dinner taken care of, got to relaxing. The evening was cool, so we both hopped into our sleeping bags – Alyssa read, and I worked on some digital art on my iPad before turning in for the night.

October 1, 2021

Wild camp south of Marysville, UT to Panguitch, UT

The cool evening was foreshadowing for the coldest morning of our trip yet, and we woke to a literally frosty morning down by the creek. Our sleeping bags had only just kept us warm, and we hurriedly decamped, trying to get on the bikes as soon as possible in order to pedal up some warmth.

The next town was another 8 or 10 miles up the road or so, and they were pretty close to freezing. Without real gloves, both of us were pretty cold by the time we rolled into the town of Junction and stopped into the gas station on Main St. We whiled away some time in the generous seating area in the gas station, warming up with some hot chocolate and reheated leftover pizza. The man working there was super kind and let us warm up for as long as we pleased.

We waited until the sun came up over the ridge, which signaled that it was probably warm enough to get back on the road. Our next major riding goal was to make it to Las Vegas by the 11th in order to meet up with my lifelong best friends, Doug & Jack, who were flying out to spend a few days with us there. After I miscalculated the daily mileage necessary to make it there on time, we were very tightly budgeting our time on the road. We really only had time enough for one rest day between here and there, and we decided to take it in Bryce National Park, to maximize our sightseeing (and to check Alyssa’s final Utah National Park off her list, having visited the other 4 already). So, our goal for the day was the town near the base of the climb up to Bryce – Panguitch.

A relatively shorter day, we planned to power through to Panguitch and check in to a cheap motel early in order to have as restful a day as possible before climbing up to Bryce and camping for a few days. The riding was beautiful, mostly descending after the tiny town of Circleville (which had a sign I still think is funny that read “Free Worms” with an arrow pointing to someone’s house. If I wanted free worms, couldn’t I just dig for some?).

We made a pitstop soon after at Butch Cassidy’s childhood home, which is a lightly interesting roadside attraction now, complete with information signs and “put your head through the cutout to pose for a portrait” type entertainment. We took the time to walk around and pose for some pics doing our best ‘outlaw’ before getting back on the road.

The scenery was, as with all of Utah, extraordinarily beautiful. We rode alongside a rocky ridge for the better part of the morning, its drama an energizing backdrop to our relatively easy riding for the day.

After a relatively short ride, we rolled into Panguitch. Our cheap motel was right at the north edge of town, so we reached it immediately and got all checked in (as with a lot of cheap motels, they were totally forgiving of our early check-in). We chilled in the room for a bit, got cleaned up, and sorted out some finer details about our stay in Bryce (like, do they have firewood? Can we even have a fire? Thankfully, both ‘yes’). We used the opportunity of being in a ‘real’ town to grab lunch from a restaurant, a fish-themed joint on the other end of town with pretty delicious food, even though I personally didn’t have the fish, just a chicken sandwich. We also used the opportunity of resources here to do some shopping for the days ahead, grabbing groceries for our stay in Bryce as well as some hot hands hand warmer things to ease the freezing mornings.

Our to-do list taken care of, we retired back to the motel to rest. Alyssa relaxed inside, and I took a long phone call on the patio with my sibling Andy, catching up, and kindly giving me some advice on my Etsy store. After that, I took another call with my parents. It was really nice to catch up with folks on a crisp evening in south central Utah, meandering around the parking lot of our cut rate motel. By the time I was done chatting, Alyssa was already asleep, and I spent the rest of the evening tweaking things on my Etsy store on my iPad per Andy’s suggestions before heading to bed.

October 2, 2021

Panguitch, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park

We got up pretty early, much to our cold-averse chagrin, in order to get to Bryce Canyon National Park as early as possible to get one of the first-come first-served campsites. We got up and out of the motel pretty quick, and made a pitstop on the far eastern side of town to grab coffee and pastries from a coffee hut. Espresso huts were my absolute favorite daily part of touring in the Pacific Northwest, and it was great to stop in to (a really good) one here too. For those not in the know – for some reason, the Pacific Northwest has tiny trailers alongside the major highways at pretty frequent intervals that serve absolutely excellent coffee. This was much the same! We got some tasty warm beverages and great kolaches (something we’d only seen in Colorado and Utah – a stuffed pastry with a buttery soft, biscuity dough), cinnamon rolls, and pastries to take with us camping.

On the road, we immediately started the climb up to Bryce. Bryce Canyon is sort of the beginning of the Grand Staircase, a series of eroded layers of earth that literally looks like a giant set of stairs leading all the way to the Grand Canyon. As a result, in order to get there, you have to climb to the top of the stairs so to speak. We huffed and puffed our way out of town, turning left onto the highway leading up to the National Park, working up a constant grade the whole way.

Before the National Park, there’s Red Rocks State Park alongside the roadway encompassing the beautiful red rock formations (some of which are arches large enough to drive your car through, which is pretty neat) that give it its name. Around that point, a bike path picks up off the main highway, and we climbed in relative peace away from the traffic. The climb itself was kind of a toughie, as the bike path definitely didn’t need to be graded with the same gentle regularity that the highway did, but we eventually made our way up.

Alyssa had a lot more vim and vigor than I did that morning, and beat me to the park by a few miles. I’m thankful for it, because she was able to snag us a campsite. When I arrived, we scoped out some of the surroundings – the Visitor’s Center, the General Store, et cetera, before really settling down to relax a bit. We sat in the warm sunshine with a pair of cold beers from the General Store, playing music together (“Willin’” by Little Feat – a song about long haul trucking, which is basically what we’re doing, right?). It was a lovely way to relax on a beautiful fall day.

We planned to save our sightseeing for our ‘rest day’ here, and whiled away most of the day relaxing in the sunshine. We grabbed a bundle of firewood from the store and got it roaring before sunset in order to cook some hot dogs up for dinner, an easy camping favorite. I’d snagged some ketchup and mustard packets, so we could even dress them up all fancy-like. Dinner was delicious, and it was really nice to sit around the warmth of the campfire as the stars came out above us.

October 3, 2021

Bryce Canyon National Park rest day

We woke up in the chilly morning air once again, although not quite as cold as our last campsite 2 days prior. We took our time getting moving with nowhere to go, luxuriating in a ritual we have almost never made time for – morning coffee. We warmed our hands on our thin titanium mugs and sipped away the sand from our eyes as we got ready for our day.

We got going in the late morning to do some sightseeing – which in Bryce Canyon, means hiking. We chose the route that the Visitor’s Center calls “the best 4 mile hike in America” or something similarly effusive. We dropped down into the canyon itself, descending insanely beautiful colored rock walls into valleys full of pine trees and hoodoos, stretching way up overhead. As we neared the exit of our particular loop, we climbed a very tight and scenic slot canyon that empties out into a tightly switchbacked wall of pale tan rock (apparently called “Wall Street”), shuttling you all the way back up to the rim of the canyon. Who am I to say whether it’s the best hike in America or whatever, but it certainly is extravagantly beautiful, and we had perfect partly cloudy and warm weather to enjoy it.

Almost as soon as we climbed out of the canyon, the weather started threatening rain. It was maybe in the forecast, but the chances were anything but certain. Riding a bike everywhere as my only mode of transport for the last few years has taught me to always bet against the weatherman, because they’re wrong more often than they’re right – in this case however, I would’ve lost that bet. By the time we got back to the campsite, it was cloudy and moody, with a light drizzle beginning. We moved our stuff under shelter from the rain, and Alyssa hopped in the tent. Meanwhile, I decided that if we were gonna get firewood (which we needed to cook our dinner plans for the evening) I’d better do it now before the rain rolled through. I hopped on my bike and made my way the mile or so to the General Store, and just as I arrived, the skies really opened up. It was the first real rain I’d seen on this trip, and it’d hold a candle to the crazy thunderstorms back home in Illinois. Torrents of ice cold rain whipped down amidst huge gusts of wind, and the temperature dropped probably 20 degrees. I took shelter inside the awning of the General Store with a hot chocolate (of course) to wait out the storm.

Unfortunately for us, the store was also sold out of firewood – the nearest place to get it was up the road back into town. The shuttle at the park would take me there since I didn’t want to ride back up that way if I didn’t have to, but it did make me muse for a moment on how annoying things can sometimes be when you don’t have a car. I waited for a break in the rain and came back to the campsite to leave my bike and grab my jacket, leaving Alyssa to nap in the tent while I solved our fire issue. The rain and the front that brought it had been so cold that the droplets on our tent had turned to ice, which was sheeting on the vertical surfaces of our rain fly. Definitely chilly!

I walked down to the shuttle and took it out of the park and up into town, buying two bundles of wood from the private campground outside the park. I was still betting against the weatherman – no way was it going to keep raining or be too wet for a fire, I wouldn’t have it! I caught the shuttle back and was booted off for not having a park entry receipt (boo – I was the only person on the shuttle and it was literally raining, and I had two bundles of firewood. Apparently “I’m staying at campground loop D, site 106” isn’t a good enough line. Yes, I’m still salty!). I managed to get a fee waiver from the nice lady at the private campground, and made my way back to camp with my hard fought firewood in tow.

My second bet against the weatherman paid off, and by the time I returned the rain had stopped. I immediately got started setting up the campfire in order to prep our dinner for the evening – campfire roasted potatoes with cheese, charred green onions, and sausage. The campfire lit right up and was roaring in no time. Dinner took forever, as it often does over a campfire, but it was absolutely delicious. We asked the folks at a nearby campsite for anything we could use to fish our foil packets out of the fire, and in exchange for a couple metal pokers I shared our potato bounty when we were all done.

Our campfire now as hot as can be, we relaxed the rest of the night in its warmth, burning through our two bundles of wood, watching the stars and Milky Way come out between the rolling clouds. Our third campfire of the trip and only our second to ourselves, it was lovely to zone out and watch some cowboy TV to unwind (and to stay warm by as the night inevitably cooled). Alyssa went to bed while I used up the rest of the firewood, taking an enjoyable moment of solitary silence in the dark Utah night.

October 4, 2021

Bryce Canyon National Park to Orderville, UT

Up again on a pretty chilly (upper 30s or so) morning, the cold propelled us to break camp pretty fast. I stuck a few warming packet things in my shoes (the ones designed for that, anyway) and cracked another one to keep in my pocket as we ascended back out of the park and towards the bike path that brought us in.

We stopped at the Sinclair gas station in town to warm up with a warm beverage and sit indoors for a few minutes. The back room at the Sinclair in Bryce Canyon town has a couch to sit on, I think for folks waiting for car repairs, but we took up the thing and spread out a little bit to enjoy our coffee and hot chocolate – surrounded by the heads of some 10 or so deer and other animals mounted on what felt like every vertical surface. Ambience!

Alyssa was faster to finish her drink and snack, and I think was eager to get some miles in, and got on the road a few minutes before me. I followed behind in the still chilly morning, struggling up the subtle climb back to the bike path. Once I got there, the struggle was over, and the slightly rough climb we’d taken into the park became a fun descent on a winding path through beautiful scenery. As I descended out towards the road near the state park, the dramatic valley we’d left to get here rose in front of me in what felt like an optical illusion, like the ground was curling up to meet me on the other side of the long valley.

Down at the base of the valley, we turned left back onto Highway 89 and back towards the south to continue on our general path towards Las Vegas. We stopped again at the town of Hatch, at the lovely little Sevier Coffee Co. for a quick snack and breather some 20 miles away from our campsite. While we sat outside in the warming sun enjoying our breakfast (granola for Alyssa, and a very delicious breakfast burrito for me) folks caught interest in our bikes and intermittently chatted us up about what we were up to and shared their encouragement at how far we’d come already. It was a nice, positive tone to the whole moment, and with a downhill trajectory for the day and tasty breakfast in our bellies, we got back on the road in good spirits.

Our ride was, go figure, stunningly beautiful. I know I’ve said it before, but Utah is just generally a tremendously beautiful state, and it wears early fall extremely well. The colors of the trees and early fall foliage just beginning to turn, paired with the deep blue mountains and bubbling streams make for a view so good from almost any angle that I found myself laughing out loud more than once as we proceeded down Highway 89.

Google spent the middle of the ride challenging my patience with yet another elevation rating of “mostly flat” for our day – which included inclines and declines so steep that there were at least 3 or 4 grade warning signs as we rode on. Alyssa rode ahead of me all day, and I especially lagged behind her on the climbs. She texted me encouraging words from the top of a hill I’d yet to climb, and by the time I got up there she was already gone. I stopped into the gas station for some sour Skittles and asked the clerk if it was downhill or uphill from here to our goal for the day, just past Orderville, UT. Her response was slightly confused but certain, something like, “Oh, I mean, it’s definitely downhill from here. I think it might be kind of flat for a minute but it’s definitely downhill”. Bolstered, I refilled my water bottle and got back on the road.

She was definitely right – starting right about then, we began what was maybe a 2000 foot descent at continuous rate all the way down off the high plateau at the base of Bryce Canyon. Still trailing Alyssa, we both descended straight through the town of Glendale and into the town of Orderville. Alyssa texted me that she was waiting for me on the main drag in Orderville, and I caught up with her in front of the grocery store and gas station.

She’d been in town long enough to get the lay of the land, and had checked out the local motel, finding out that it was only $60/night with tax included, and had themed rooms. Our RV Park motel that I’d reserved down the road a few miles suddenly sounded a lot less appealing considering it was some $10 more expensive and didn’t have a Wild West room. I called ahead to the other motel and cancelled my reservation, and we checked in to the Parkway Inn.

The Parkway was run by a firecracker of a woman named Dixie’s and appeared to be owned or co-run by Dale. Dixie helped us get checked in, chatting with Alyssa about how her daughter was due to have a baby the next day. She gave Alyssa her personal cell phone number in order to help coordinate our stay and help us with anything we needed. We were checked into the ranch-themed room, which was replete with handmade ranchy details – handmade headboards, hand finished sink fixtures and themed art all over the place. It was a great deal at $60!

Our next day was planned to be a big one – we were going to ride up to the east entrance to Zion National Park and try to hitchhike through the 1.1 mile long tunnel that brings you into the park proper in order to descend through the park on its scenic switchbacks. However, the weather forecast looked abysmal – nearly 100% chance of rain at some point, especially overnight, and especially right around the middle of the day when we might be doing that tricky bit. We decided that if it rained overnight and the roads were wet when we woke up, we’d just call it and take an unplanned rest day, stay here at the Parkway Inn, and try again the next day.

Dixie and Dale were totally cool with our plan, and even helped us by letting us do our laundry for free in the motel’s laundry. We got settled in to our room for the night, enjoying our kitschy-cool theme room. I cooked a dinner of pasta with pesto, a replay of a meal we’d made on the White Rim Trail, and we watched Halloween-y vintage horror movies on TV the rest of the night.

October 5, 2021

Orderville, UT rest day

We woke in the morning, having prepared for the possibility that we were leaving, only to find that it had definitely rained overnight. The ground and streets were still pretty wet in the cool morning, and even though it wasn’t currently raining, we trusted our gut and bit the bullet to take an unplanned rest day there at the Parkway.

Dixie and Dale told us we’d need to move to another room, as someone else had already booked the ranch room before us for this second day. We were fine with this and wanted to see some other themed rooms anyway. Our things as prepared to move as they were going to be anyway, we went for a quick walk down the road to the local rock shop, which also sold espresso drinks and homemade donuts. I got a decaf latte and we got a batch of raspberry funnel cake-like donuts, and chatted up the owner for a little while. He wasn’t native to the area, and had nothing but effusive praise for this part of the country – go figure.

We headed across the street to get some snacks and food for the day at the Dollar General, and we grabbed a bunch of “best we could do at the Dollar General” type food – soup, trail mix, and some miscellaneous snacks for the day.

Headed back towards the motel, the weather took another turn for the worse – the wind picked up, and icy cold rain began to fall. We got misted by the time we got back to the motel, and we felt vindicated in our choice to skip riding for the day. When we got back, Dale was getting our new room ready for us, and we had a quick chat out under the awning of the motel. Dale is an energetic, kinda weird, enthusiastic guy, and within a minute or so he told us we should move to Orderville and open a bike shop. Also, that there are secret encoded messages in TV and movies, but that touches more on the “kinda weird” side – it was charming either way, and both Alyssa and I found him fun and interesting to talk to.

We relaxed for a minute, and Dale had our new room ready for us. We got our stuff and moved two doors over to the Wild Wild West room, which was absolutely bonkers. It had a stock tank for a bathtub and a shower head that was built into the ceiling, all of which was right next to the bed. It was ridiculously nice, especially for $60. Every detail seemed handmade, I assumed by Dale himself. The attention to detail was lovely, and we both reveled in all the little knick-knacks around the room (including the not one, but two windows into the bathroom).

We spent most of the day relaxing, watching more horror b-movies on TV. It was probably the most stationary rest day we’d had on the trip so far, and we both soaked it up. It rained on and off for a lot of the day, sometimes pretty hard, and we felt very correct in our call for the day. As the rain stopped, we grabbed dinner from a food truck in town that made taco bowls and soda cocktails (a very Utah thing – non-alcoholic pop mixed drinks for Mormon folks. I had a Dr. Pepper with cream, vanilla, and lime). In the late afternoon I got out of the room to make some calls on the phone and stretch my legs. I chatted on the phone with lifelong friend Doug for a while, caught up on life news back home and talked about his and Jack’s forthcoming trip to Las Vegas, which was only a week out at this point!

Back in the room, Alyssa drew a bath in the insane, enormous bathtub for us, and we watched Kiss Me Deadly from the comfort of said stock tank bathtub. It was generally relaxing and we openly declared our intent to use all this accumulated restful energy on a big riding day tomorrow.

October 6, 2021

Orderville, UT to St. George, UT

Up early and ready to go by 7:30 or so for our big riding day, we checked out of the relative comfort of the Parkway Inn and got back on the road to Zion.

We headed south to Mt. Carmel and made the big right turn that not only would take us to Zion, but marked our overall turn to the west instead of just straight south as we’d been going for the length of Utah. The riding was easy up until Mt. Carmel and as soon as we took the turn we began the climb up to the top of the canyon we’d be trying to hitchhike into.

As we came up one of these climbs, I saw a cargo van pulled over on the shoulder ahead, and some younger folks walking around the areas on either side of the road. As I rode up, one of them flagged me down. He was a photographer from Spain working as part of a crew hired to do a product shoot for an athletic wear brand, and they were scouting locations here for a shoot on the following Monday, in 5 days. He saw us coming and put 2 and 2 together, and asked if we’d be interested in participating in a photo shoot.

Much to my chagrin, my first thought was that we were essentially already racing to Las Vegas to meet Doug and Jack, who had plane tickets in and out already purchased, and come Monday we’d already be in Nevada. I said more or less as much to the guy, and he was chipper and understanding about it, but if I could turn back time I would have tried to bend over backwards a bit more to make it work – it was truly a right place, right time type moment, and I have some regret at not connecting the dots fast enough to “yes, and” an insane opportunity like that. In the 30 seconds of conversation before Alyssa rolled up after me, this interaction had already occurred, and she didn’t have much of a chance to catch up to the topic at hand before we rode off. Definitely a bit of a regretful moment, as nice as it’d be to see my friends; oh well.

After that interaction, Alyssa rode on ahead of me towards the entrance of Zion National Park, and I followed a mile or two behind taking pictures of the rapidly changing scenery. While we were still climbing up, it was hard to even notice the effort with how ridiculously beautiful the views were getting all around me – the rippled, multicolored rock formations that Zion is famous for only coming more and more into view with every turn.

I paused for a moment at the entrance sign to the park to pose for a self-timed picture; I was really very proud to have made it all the way here under my own power. We’d visited Zion the typical way back in April/May of this same year, and it felt surreal to be rolling down the same road on my bicycle some 6 months later.

Meanwhile, Alyssa had worked her way up the entrance line and paid the entrance fee to the park for both of us. At other National Parks, we’d gotten in without paying by virtue of the usually-present bicycle path that often circumvents the fee station. Not that it’s not worth paying for, but since we were only riding through the park this time instead of staying we were both like “aww, oh well” about it.

That feeling lasted all of about 5 seconds, because as soon as we got back on the bikes and onto the road towards the tunnel, the scenery became full-on astounding. The Checkerboard Mesa near the east entrance to the park looks like something out of a sci-fi illustration, and the winding, perfectly smooth road around its curves was an absolute joy to ride. I found myself laughing out loud with enjoyment, and even pulled out my phone to take a short video of Alyssa riding ahead of me. The traffic was slightly busy but I didn’t even care – the views were already worth the ride and the price of admission combined, and we hadn’t even really entered the canyon yet.

Several incredible miles of riding later, we arrived at a long line of cars, all waiting to enter the tunnel. The 1.1 mile long tunnel is only wide enough for traffic to cross it one direction at a time, and it is explicitly illegal for bicycles or foot traffic to cross it. Our plan was to hitchhike, and we propped our bikes up near the line of cars and Alyssa ran off to find the nearest pickup truck. On our first try, the lovely couple from Florida (whose names I unbelievably never asked for – I’m so sorry kind people!!) agreed without hesitation to ferry us and our bikes through the tunnel, and they pulled into one of the very few parking spots next to the ranger station at the head of the tunnel to greet us and pick us up.

We threw the bikes and all the bags in the bed of the truck as fast as we could, so they wouldn’t lose their place in line. They themselves were on a cross-country road trip, and could only make enough room in the cab for one of us to ride inside, so Alyssa agreed to ride in the bed with the bikes. I hopped in the cab, Alyssa hopped in the back, and we headed towards the tunnel.

We made very nice conversation with our new friends as we waited our turn to enter the tunnel. They were zigzagging across America, visiting National Parks and chasing warm weather as they went, aiming to return to Florida in time for Thanksgiving or Christmas. They were full of questions for us about our trip, and I was happy to tell them all about it. Soon enough, we were waved on through the tunnel and away we went. The tunnel is pitch black in the middle due to its curves, and the only light comes from occasional viewpoints carved out towards the canyon below. Alyssa and I had driven through this same tunnel with Ashley in the spring, and it was just as fun to come through it the other way with all of our worldly possessions in tow.

The reveal on the other side of the tunnel is one of my favorite sights I’ve ever seen in my life, and my diaphragm forced a laugh out of me out of pure excitement when we rolled through the exit to the tunnel. The towering, red and orange rock formations standing tall above us and the delightfully verdant Virgin River valley well below us painted one of the most intensely beautiful, almost unbelievable vistas of this entire trip.

At the first pulloff, our new friends pulled over to let us out so we could enjoy the ride down the switchbacks into the park. They helped us unpack our mountain of belongings from the back of the truck, and then bid us a friendly farewell as we set to reassembling our bikes.

We lingered for a few minutes there, posing for proud pictures, enjoying the sights, and talking to folks who were doing the same. Everyone else seemed just as excited for us as we were, and we probably set some of the tone with the grins plastered on our faces out of giddy joy at the tunnel ride, great reveal, and anticipation of the insane downhill ride into the park.

Pictures taken and enjoyment soaked in, we got on our bikes and began our descent. I made sure to take another short video of the first turn on the switchbacks just so I could remember the view in motion and not just in photos. It was truly one of the most insane stretches of road so far on the trip, and really only Canyonlands has it beat I think. We screamed down the switchbacks, outpacing car traffic even though we were craning our necks every which direction to take in the wealth of sights and sounds all around us as we descended into the canyon.

We rode the downhill all the way to where the road meets the Zion bike trail, and we were so wrapped up in the views that we missed the turn by about a quarter mile. We hopped back onto it and rode alongside the Virgin River as it worked its meandering course through the length of the park towards its west entrance. We took this path all the way past the same exact campsite we’d stayed at when we had been here in the spring, and I felt some nonsensical conceptual loop close in my mind – we’d made it all the way back to this very spot under our own power!

We rode straight through the park and out the other side to the town of Springdale, which is basically the resort town that abuts the park itself, stuffed full of restaurants and gear rental shops and gift shops galore. We had an errand to run here in town, since this was the first bike shop we’d seen since Salt Lake City; Alyssa wanted to have her wheel trued, since it had developed a slight wobble that made her a bit uneasy on fast descents like the one we had just done. We popped into Zion Cycles, staffed by only extremely helpful and chill folks, who let us store all our stuff there while they trued her wheel right away. With nothing else to do, we walked to grab lunch while we waited.

One tasty chicken sandwich later, we returned to the shop in time to receive a freshly trued wheel. I used their compressor to put some air in my tires, and after some kind encouraging conversation (and helpful directions for later in the day), we were back on our way.

Aside from the initial climb into Zion, most of the rest of our route for the day was downhill. In an attempt to capitalize on this, we planned for our longest day of the trip yet – over 80 miles to St. George, UT, to a Warmshowers host we’d arranged for the night.

We left Springdale and continued down the highway towards the southwestern corner of Utah. The scenery remained so beautiful I’m running out of ways to describe its beauty – every turn revealed new colors in the earth around us, and every descent had us re-meeting the Virgin River as it carved its path towards Lake Mead in Nevada. We had a screaming descent (even I reached almost 40 mph) into the city of Hurricane, and didn’t even bother to stop for water – we were making such fast and easy time downhill that we didn’t need it.

We continued on Highway 9 through to the western edge of Hurricane, where Alyssa decided to stop for water before we turned south along a new highway at the suggestion of our new friends at Zion Cycles. We filled our water bottles at a Best Western, patronizing their ice machine and water bottle filler and fancy schmancy bathroom (so this is what nice hotels are like, huh?) before heading back on the road south along Highway 7 to St. George.

Highway 7 was, go figure, also insanely beautiful. The mountains that surround St. George and Hurricane are terrific arrays of blues, reds, oranges, and earth tones, and it seems that every turn reveals new, fascinating arrangements to wow you. The road itself had a huge shoulder and low traffic, and we continued to make excellent time. We did a big loop around a large reservoir before gliding downhill all the way to the entrance to one of St. George’s somewhat extensive bike paths.

The bike path followed the Virgin River once again, this time right alongside its banks, as it meanders its way through the city of St. George from east to west. St. George generally had the feel of a retirement community – not just retired folks out and about, but the subdivisions and homes all felt like new construction developments tailor made for sunbirds to flock to in the wintertime. It felt a bit like riding through Oak Brook, IL, just in tremendously beautiful desert environs.

We made our way along the path so quickly that despite taking over an hour break for lunch and hitchhiking through a tunnel earlier in the day, we actually beat our host to his house. So instead, we posted up at a Culver’s for a well-earned pre-dinner frozen custard and cheese curd treat. It was a deserved pat on the back – even with the downhills and all, we’d still made great time and put in more miles than any other single day of our trip so far (including a lot more climbing than the newly displaced 2nd longest day). Once we got the go-ahead, we headed over to our host’s house.

Quick side note: on the way to his house, we saw a bobcat just walking alongside the bike path! It was probably 15 or 20 feet from us, and close enough to watch for a good thirty seconds as it stalked around before heading back into the bushes alongside the river. Wildlife!

Bob greeted us in his front yard with his very friendly dog. Bob is a private charter pilot and cycling athlete and enthusiast, and although he and his wife raised 4 boys in their home in St. George, everyone was out of the house now (either moved out or out of town) leaving just Bob to hold down the fort with us.

He immediately had an energy that both Alyssa and I have come to greatly appreciate from Warmshowers hosts on our trip – Bob had toured across America on a tandem with his wife, and even though he did it supported, that type of riding gives you an appreciation for the things we find the most helpful out of that interaction. He greeted us warmly, showed us where to put our things, pointed us to the laundry and shower, and told us he’d see us whenever we were ready to have some dinner. Absolutely the quintessential host.

We did just that – got freshened up, put some laundry in, and headed upstairs when we were ready for dinner. He had laid out a great spread of chicken, quinoa, and other sides. We all sat at the dining table together and enjoyed a lovely and interesting conversation – about bike touring, about his history as a pilot, about his family’s history with Mormonism (and about some of the odd quirks of the Mormon religion). Bob was an easy conversationalist and both Alyssa and I felt comfortable and at ease relaxing over dinner with him.

After dinner, I took my leave to join my friends; it was Wednesday after all, and everyone was playing D&D. Alyssa relaxed in our bedroom for the evening, and I finished the laundry while I chatted online with all my increasingly distant friends.

After D&D, I relaxed for a moment in the den in Bob’s basement, reveling in the efforts of the day and of the whole collected trip so far that’d brought us here. It had been one for the books, and I went to bed very proud and happy that we were out here doing this crazy thing, and thankful that I had Alyssa to share it with.