2020 No Rallys Camping Trip

[aviationfred]

With Rallys being cancelled or postponed all over the country, I have decided to take a 10 day tent camping trip to Colorado and Southern Utah. There are plans to meet up with a couple of FJ owners during the trip. Departure will be 6:00am May 15th. Unfortunately I will not be riding one of my FJ's. Some electrical gremlins popped up this week on the 95 and the 90 is not set up for long distance riding. The VFR will be used instead.


Fred

[aviationfred]

My 9 day camping trip has begun. A very wet start leaving this morning. Cleared up in Kingman. Rode through Dodge City Kansas and into Colorado. Camping West of Ponche Springs, Colorado at about 8000ft elevation. Tunes for the evening, and planning the routes for tomorrow
543 miles for the day

Fred

[aviationfred]

Video of Skyline Drive from yesterday

https://youtu.be/TjUYHQa1xIo

https://youtu.be/RLAnDmSKmB0

Fred

[aviationfred]

Riding into Salida, Colorado

https://youtu.be/KJQLoUOJFfI

Fred

[giantkiller]

Riding into Salida, Colorado

https://youtu.be/KJQLoUOJFfI

Fred

Thanks for sharing the adventure with us Fred. Watching that pickup passing you in the beginning of the video. Reminds me of one time my buddy and I were riding back from BIR. He was on his FJ (that later became my FJ1350r) and I was on my 87 FZR 1000. We were cruising along, on a long stretch of 2 lane hiway @ about 120mph. And out of nowhere comes an older 2 wheel drive Nissan pickup. Passed us alittle faster than that truck in the video. We just stayed a ways behind him. Figured he'd catch any cops ahead. He was going alittle over 130mph. He turned off about 10 miles later. Was the dangdest thing. Looked totally stock.

[aviationfred]

Day 2

Rode up over Monarch Pass and down into Gunnison. Stopped for a bit of On the Road lunch. The serenity of Mountain Air, a Crystal Blue Lake, and Tortilla's with Ranch flavored Tuna Fish. The best lunch I have had in aong time. Onward to Hwy92, a brilliant road. Dropped down into Crawford. Picked a new road and went up Hwy65 and over Grand Mesa. Much more snow than I expected up there and many of the lakes were still partially frozen over. The biggest surprise was the canyon between the town of Mesa and I-70. 224 miles for the day. Half the mileage from yesterday but 100 times the curves. 


Fred

[aviationfred]

Day 3 Colorado/Utah trip. Left out of Grand Junction, CO. and road I-70 to Hwy 128 into Moab, UT. Absolutley stunning view. Words and photos can not describe it. Unfortunately Arches National Park is still closed. Decided to just blaze on down to Mexican Hat UT. Stopped at the Wilson Arche. My out of shape a$$ had to climb up inside it. Pretty steep climb, but I made it. Not much to see between there and Bluff, UT. The scenery changed real quick and the the Mexican Hat Rock came into view. A little jaunt down a gravel road and I was at the base. I headed down towards Monument Valley. I got a couple of BUCKET LIST photos from the Forrest Gump Point. Found a nice KOA just on the other side. One heck of a campsite view. 253 miles for the day.

[aviationfred]

Day 4, The Moki Dugway

I rode back into Mexican Hat this morning and got another shot from near the Forrest Gump Point. The rocks were lit up by the morning sun. Made it to the Moki Dugway. I thought the dirt/gravel section was longer. Actually only about 4 miles. Got video of it and then went back to the top lookout point for some photos. While there, my campsite neighbors from Montana came putting up on their Thumpers. Got some more video going to Muley Point. A short video from Muley Point is at the end of the photos. I didn't go all the way to the end but got some great photos where I stopped. Back to the paved road and came across a rock formation called Jacob's Chair, crossed the Colorado River as it becomes Lake Powell, found some Petroglyphs Mark another item off my Bucket List, and another rock formation called Chimney Rock. It got really warm and very windy from Hanksville into Capitol Reef National Park.
212 miles for the day


Video of riding The Moki Dugway https://youtu.be/ru8mfg-_3yE

Video of the ride out to Muley Point.. a stunning cliff top view at the end.https://youtu.be/3-GeAHxqqk4

[Firehawk068]

Awesome stuff Fred!
You're picking some great routes, and places to see..............

[racerrad8]

Fred, keep one eye on the weather. We had minor storms pass through Sunday and today we got more than a half of an inch.

The storms yesterday appeared to be almost across Nevada heading east.

Safe travels.

Randy - RPM

[aviationfred]

Fred, keep one eye on the weather. We had minor storms pass through Sunday and today we got more than a half of an inch.

The storms yesterday appeared to be almost across Nevada heading east.

Safe travels.

Randy - RPM

Thank you for the heads up. My route today is to St. George with stops at Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. They are suppose to be open. Today's forecast looks good with it being windy in the afternoon.




Fred

[roverfj1200]

Thanks for the posts Fred.

Loving the pix.

[aviationfred]

Day 5.
Hit the road and headed South on Hwy12 with Zion National Park as my destination. Riding through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was like riding through land that had melted. Zion National Park is something to behold. Words can not describe what the views are. The one mile long tunnel was really awesome. In a couple of the photos you can see a hole in the cliff face. That is actually holes cut into the side of the tunnel that let's fresh air in. Rode into Hurricane, UT. and met a fellow FJ1200 owner. We have a ride into Zion National Park tomorrow. Found a free campsite on BLM land, got all set up and sat down to eat some dinner. A brush fire kicked off just to the west of the campsite. Then a Sheriff's deputy showed up and told everyone that we had to evacuate. Hastily packed everything up and relocated to another BLM free campsite a few miles west.

[FJ1200W]

Thanks for posting all of this Fred, I feel like I'm there!

[aviationfred]

Day 6

Not much riding today. Met up with a fellow FJ1200 owner who is local to the area. We rode into Zion and saw the sights. We did get a special viewing of about a dozen Desert Bighorn sheep coming down off of a peak. There is a photo of them, but I had to really blow up the shot to see them. I also tried to get them on video. Not sure if you can make them out. I did get some video riding through the 1 mile long tunnel. Only did about 70 miles for the day.