Arches National Park

Our hotel room last night was the best one we've stayed in on this trip. As well as a good air conditioner and a great bed, the WiFi was lightning fast. It usually takes me almost an hour to upload a one minute video to YouTube. Last night I was able to do this in about two minutes. That is extremely fast, in my experience.

Today was the first normal day we have had since the the trip began. After a short run south on I-84 we took Highway 6 and headed east. Our first stop was at Tie Junction, a place that grew up to service the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The place has a replica locomotive and a building that was shaped as a locomotive roundhouse with rails radiating from what would have been a turntable.

Formation near Tie Junction

The Whole Story

Replica Roundhouse, Tie Junction, UT

The highway climbed to Soldier Summit at an elevation of about 7500 feet be fore descending toward the town of Price, UT. The highway parallels The Union Pacific Railroad line through the canyon to the summit and then to the town of Helper which was named because that is where 'helper' locomotives would be added to trains to help push then up the grade to the summit.

We pulled in to a rest area on the east side of Soldier Summit and while we were there we met a couple from Texas. They were heading home after a road trip to celebrate the lady's retirement. The guy, who was smoking a huge stogie (cigar) is a community college instructor, and while he wife is retired, he still has seven more years of work before he can join her. He said that he has one cigar a day, but I didn't catch what other thing he said you should do once a day. It was good to meet them. There are a lot of good people on the road and I get to meet a lot of them when I'm riding.

Texas couple at the rest stop

We carried on to Price, UT, where we stopped at Lin's Market near the exit because as we approached town I saw a Starbucks sign and Starbucks stores are few and far between in this country. I upgraded my GPS maps before I left and it didn't even have this location. The next location is in Moab.

The lady at Starbucks was really great. She filled my cup for the refill price and seemed like she was really a happy person. She was a real treat to talk to and when I was leaving she even topped up my coffee for the road. 

We joined I-70 at Green River, although when we crossed the river, it was apparent that it was misnamed. If the person who hung that name of it was being honest, he would have called it Brown River. When we were stopped at the gas station Tom introduced me to a guy who didn't know how to program his GPS. He was heading to a small town in Texas, but he was hoping to make it to Shiprock, NM, tonight. I showed him how to program the device and set him up to get to Shiprock. He was quite grateful and happy to have the visual backup to the sheaf of papers that had the step by step directions printed on them.

Views from the gas stop at Green River, UT

The temperatures here have been quite high, and more than once as I was riding the long distances between towns I thought that if I ever had a breakdown and wasn't helped quickly, I could be dead within a day. This country can be quite unforgiving, and I have great admiration for the first pioneers who braved this land with their primitive technology. Life must have been extremely difficult here in the late nineteenth century.

As we were approaching Highway 191 to Arches National Park and Moab, the temperature dropped considerably and the wind picked up. As we turned onto 191, large raindrops began to intermittently fall, but we seemed to have skirted another local downpour unlike yesterday, when we rode right through the middle of one. One bullet dodged. On the way to the park we crossed the Colorado River which was running high and brown.

The countryside began to change as we approached Arches National Park. We began to see red rock outcroppings, and shortly we were riding between red rock cliffs. it was spectacular because in many places the rock was a bright red. 

Outside of Moab, we entered the park. I was able to enter for free on my Seniors Card, but the other guys had to pay. There are advantages to being a 'Vintage Gentleman' with a National Parks Seniors Card. The Visitor Centre had a good display about the geology and biology of the area and it had the added advantage of being air conditioned. The courtyard has several metal sculptures of local wildlife with warnings that they can become quite hot in the sun. That hasn't deterred a lot of people from rubbing them because there are parts that are quite shiny on some of them.

Whip tail lizard

The road into the park climbs in a series of sharp turns flanked by a red cliff until it levels out several kilometres further on. There is a wide variety of rock formations and two, in particular reminded me of the Sphinx. The looked like two large cats resting on top of rock formations. Tom thought the same thing as I did. 

Highway 191 west of Arches National Park

This profile reminds me of the famous bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti

Bottom layer is easily eroded mudstone

This reminded me of a European cathedral

I stopped several times to take photos and I shot video of the formations as well. The sheer scale of these rocks is overpowering and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to see them. We saw Balanced Rock and the Delicate Arch along with the Salt Valley.  This place has to be one of the world's great geological treasures. I call this part of the country America's Geological Wonderland.

Balanced Rock

Looking over the Salt Valley

The Delicate Arch

Great colour in the rocks

When I was stopped taking photos a man from Georgia asked if I wanted my photo taken. I declined, but on second thought, I probably should have accepted. I don't have a photo of me being here and it would probably be a good memento in the years to come. He was quite interested in the GoPro camera I have mounted on my motorcycle so I showed him how it was mounted and how the remote works. I'm not sure if the family was from Georgia and lives in Utah now of if they have just rented a car here, because it had Utah plates.

Petrified sand dunes

The ride through Arches national Park.

We left the park rather late and tried to find the Moab Starbucks so we could have a coffee and check out room availability. As it was, all that was left were rooms at the Motel 6. We grabbed those and shortly afterwards they were sold out. Moab is rather like Whistler. It a an outdoor recreation mecca, and the geology and rivers support all sorts of activities. Probably the best known is the mountain bike riding on the slickrock here, and the town has several good bike shops. I think that with the heat we experienced today any mountain bikers would be wise to carry a very large hydration pack before the go out into the back country.

Tomorrow morning we'll sort out where we are going to go and what we'll try to see. But, we are in the part of the country we came to see and there are a lot of things to experience so whatever we decide, it will be good.