From the Mountains to the plains (Colorado to Kansas)

I must have been a mountain man in a past life because as soon as we hit the Kansas Prairies I wanted to be back in Colorado but the journey must continue.

We were up early today as usual and had breakfast, packed the bikes and hit the highway.

Today we pretty well went from A to B on the state highway and only had the odd stop for the 300 miles or so as there really is not much to see on this stage of the trip as is is mainly flat wheat country with a lot of small farming communities dotted along the way.

This is very hot country and the temperature slowly climbed to 38 degrees celsius.

We arrived in to Dodge City mid afternoon and after checking in we went to a WalMart to purchase a couple of things before heading back to the motel for a quick beer and a Thai meal.

Clint and Charleen used this time to replace their back tyre as it was nearly down to the canvas.

Some more photo's below.

Our last view of the Colorado Mountains - We were sad to leave.

And another view....

Kerry loved this portrait.

The Kansas prairies. (No hills)

Our usual stop at each state border continues...

Beautiful part of the world - Colorado

We awoke to find another cold morning which was not unexpected as we are still over 6,000 feet. After another continental breakfast at the our motel we headed off with the warm clothes to start with. After a short 30 miles or so we rode in to Aspen and what a beautiful place it is. The place is well laid out with beautiful trees and flowers and we thought it would be a nice place to have a coffee even though we have not been riding for long. We found a lovely bakery and settled in on the sidewalk with our coffees and watched the town wake up. Clint and Charleen sampled the bakeries buns and gave them the thumbs up. Kerry wandered around and took some fabulous flower shots (See photo's) as there were flowers everywhere and the town looked so beautiful.

After dragging ourselves away we followed the river towards the summit of Independence Pass which was our new record for the highest elevation. This road is closed all winter so is a popular ride for motorcycles as the road, scenery and twistie bends are incredible.

When we got to the famous Pikes Peak turnoff Clint and Charleen headed up Pikes Peak to have a look while Ken & Christine and continued on to Fountain Colorada and checked in to our motel.

Some more photo's below.

Riding through the Rockies

Our highest elevation so far!

A bunch of happy bikers enjoying the scenery.

Our sturdy steed at 12,000 feet.

Kerry having fun with her macro photography.

Rocky Mountain High (Moab to Carbondale) Colorado

A couple of the things I love about this bike trip is the fact that the scenery can change dramatically in a matter of 10 minutes and the other is that the company is so good. We have a lot of laughs during the day whether it be at some ones expense or not or how we are handling driving on the right side of the road but thats another story.

We left Moab at 7.30am and did a loop through another National Park before heading to the Colorada border where we took our now customary border shots. While taking shots Christine found our first Rattlesnake but it was only the skin.

As we progressed in to Colorado the scenery gradually changed and we started climbing again towards the Gunpowder Ridge Ski Resort. The temperature drops quickly as we get higher and we ended up at 10,850 feet and the scenery was quite stunning.

The rest of the ride in to Carbondale was motorcycle heaven and we arrived in town after 11 hours on the road.

We finished the day off by having dinner at a fabulous American diner across the road.

Here are some more photo's that we took today.

Across Utah (Torrey to Moab)

Another cool morning start but this time Clint and Charleen had a relaxing day riding at the rear as Kerry and I did the lead today.

Over the last couple of days we have been riding through very dry hot country and today was no different except that we finally encountered some water. We reached the Colorado River which will eventually run in to the main part of the Grand Canyon which we will see in a couple of weeks. Clint found a fabulous viewpoint from which we took some fabulous shots. We were quite excited to see the river as it has a long history with the Grand Canyon.

Kerry and I have had an intermittent problem with our intercom as it sometimes cuts out and we can't communicate with each other except for hand signals. This has created quite a bit of fun as we sometimes misread the hand signals and we sometimes have some explaining to do when we stop. This will be rectified when we get to Tulsa as the suppliers will be at the WingDing.

We called in to see the Natural Arches National Park and saw some spectacular arches that have been carved through the Canyons. Before we left Australia we purchased a National Parks Pass and so far we are way in front compared to what they charge here for each entrance.

We stopped for lunch about an hour out of Moab and while we were there a thunderstorm came through and Kerry and I and Ken and Christine donned our wet weather gear but Clint and Charleen decided to brave it but five minutes down the road we hit 95 degree weather and for the next half hour we broiled in our wet weather suits. The area where we stopped to change out of them turned out to be a spectacular hole in a ridge and we ended up getting some great shots of the area.

It was very hot riding in to Moab and we were greatful that the motel was air conditioned and pleasant.

We topped the day off with a nice meal and wine at a Italian restaurant.

Some more photo's.

Cedar City to Torrey (More Canyons)

Up early as usual and off again by 7am. Once again it was quite cool and as we headed north to Bryce Canyon it got so cool that we had to stop and rug up. The scenery along the way was a mixture of open farmlands (Ranches) and heavily eroded Canyons which made some awesome sculptures. We stopped every now and again to take some photo's and Kerry was also brave enough to take some movie shots from the back of the bike.

We are now deep in to cowboy country, actually last night while we were eating a cowboy came in to eat and we were surprised to see that he still had his spurs on his boots.

Our first major walk today was at Bryce Canyon which is quite spectacular with its eroded columns. It looked like a scene out of the medieval times as some of the scenes looked like castles and ramparts. The walk was quite hard as we were at 10,000 feet and once again it was hard to breath. Kerry got some shots of a deer which she was pleased with. So far she has photographed quite a few animals.

We had lunch at a small cafe near the canyons and I tried the chilli beans and they were so good that I had them for dinner tonight as well.

We all had dinner across the road from our motel and the bill for Kerry and I came to the grand total of $12.

Tomorrow we will be leading the ride to Moab so if we don't get lost you may all hear from us again.

The Zion Canyons (Rest Day)

Question. What do motorcycle riders traveling around the USA do on their rest day do?

Answer. Jump on their bikes and do a day trip around the the Zion Canyons and the Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Once again we started out in the cool morning and as we rode up to Cedar Breaks it just got cooler. When we arrived at our first stop I found out why, we were at 10,350 feet. The views over the National Monument were breathtaking (See photo's). The canyons were laid below us and looked like they were sculptured from a scene out of science fiction. There were pretty ski villages dotted around as well which gave the area a European feel.

We called in to a village for lunch and found a really nice homely cafe which had great chilli beans and home made apple pie. Needless to say we left there feeling well fed and watered.

We kept on going around to the Zion National Park and did a walk to a lookout which looked all down the canyon. We were about 1,500 feet above the canyon. By this time the temperature was getting in to the nineties and at around 7,000 feet ABSL were were getting short of breath.

The ride back down to Cedar City was all down hill with huge mountains on both sides but was very hot. We called in to Walmart to buy a phone charger as ours gave up the ghost a few days ago.

The six of us finished the day off with a great meal just opposite our motel and retired at 9.30pm but it is still light.

Observations so far;

American are very friendly people who love to talk to Australians.

Americans are courteous drivers compared to Australians.

Americans love their food and eat big meals.

This is a big country and we are only seeing 9 of the 50 States.

Check out the photos.