We had a good time hanging around camp and watching the light show on the surrounding rock formations. We hadn't seen another person in over 8 hours and wouldn't see another person til later the next afternoon... This place ranked in the top 3 of our all-time favorite campsites... Two days removed from SuperMoon status, but impressive nonetheless... We slept without the rainfly on the tent and it was spectacular. A low of 66º and nothing but bright shiny stars in my eyes all night. This is the view I woke up to... We broke camp and took all the gear off our bikes. We had briefly thought about getting the bikes over the night before so we wouldn't have to think about it all night, but we knew that the water level would be lower in the morning. Still, it was still moving along at a pretty good clip, and the bottom of the crossing was grooved out by the current. Walking across the river was like walking along a whoop section on a motocross track...up and down and up and down. It was mostly sandy but there were some large roundish rolley rocks to contend with. Seeings as how we were a zillion miles from civilization (at least that's how it felt) and we had no idea what lie ahead, we decided to play it safe and walk the bikes across. Eric's TE was first. Eric manned the throttle and clutch and I had hold of the rear. Good thing, as the current tried to sweep the bike away and it was all I could do to keep the thing upright. We made it across without any undue drama and then went back for my supermoto. After both bikes were safely across we went back for all our gear... The ride out of the canyon on the other side was just as spectacular as the canyon itself... These little cacti bloom in tons of different colors... More tomorrow!
This old car looks as though it made a fine travel trailer... Ok, folks...if there are cars and roads on it, it ain't Wilderness® anymore... Where we've been... Where we're going... An odd thing to see on a juniper tree out in the middle of nowhere... Re-attaching my skid plate in the shade :teeth Hmm...which way should we go? I love having options... I'm glad we took the high road... (short posts due to spotty wi-fi...hope it works!)
Although the signs were lovely, they were few and far between and the roads and trails were not marked very well at all. We spent some time looking for the right path. We took the one with "Trail" in the name... Good choice! The trail (more of a two-track, really) was steep with switchbacks, and it was hot so I was resting my machine in a precious bit of shade... How steep was it? Brilliantly red fun! This sign was at the top. Wonder why there wasn't one at the bottom? Now doesn't that look fun, boys and girls? This was a common scene for a long stretch of this track... We could not have hit Utah at a better time. I came home with about 100 flower photos... Almost done!
Thanks, cowboy! We had a fantastic time...really fun stuff out there! I'll try to finish this up if/when I get some decent wi-fi that stays connected longer than 48 seconds at a time...
This is an awesome trip report! I just got back from an 8 day trip in the swell and I can't believe how many pictures you've taken. I have 10 pictures and 15 hours of video. That's it! The write up is an inspiration to document our next trip. If you need anymore ideas of where to ride down there, I have some awesome places you can pick up free super detailed maps with a guide book of all the cool stuff around.
I do seem to have a photography problem, don't I? I've done a fair bit of riding in the Swell and love it out there! The Dick Brass trails are a ton of fun, and it's just such a wild and scenic place. We originally wanted to bring the 2-strokes and ride the Swell again but we just didn't have enough time to prepare. I don't regret not bringing them, even though I love that area.
We climbed up to a plateau that was covered in green grasses and it went on for miles and miles and miles. It was beautiful... Yes, it's lonely, but what a peaceful place to let your bones rest for eternity... Pectol 1896...the Pectol family was partly responsible for Capitol Reef becoming a national monument in 1937... Lots of home-made memorials... We bombed back to our base camp and began the sad and tedious process of loading up.... Left town the next morning and headed over the mountains for home. We had to stop and kill some time. We thought the smell was coming from this but it was our brakes... We cooled off in a nice little meadow... Made a detour or two on the way and stopped for the night after a long, long day of driving. It's always hard to bring one of these trips to a close, but as it began... ...so shall it end... We caught the sunset... And then were fortunate enough to catch the rising of the SuperMoon... The ginormous moon pretty much turned nighttime into day. We never used our flashlights to navigate the desert... We watched the sun come up here, too, but we were focused on the healthy coyote drinking water not 50' away from us. He never knew we were there and trotted on by after slaking his thirst, not a care in the world. Pretty incredible! We also watched 2 hawks building a nest about 50' away in the other direction. These are the types of things that make the desert special for us, and I'm so thankful we got to have this experience. We were woefully unprepared for this last-minute trip, and I had no chance to do any route research prior to leaving home, but it turned out to be one of the best trips we've ever taken. I hope y'all enjoyed coming along with us I'm in Nevada right now, headed off into the wild blue yonder to spend some quality time with my Husky. Ride report coming when I get back. Luckily there won't be so many photos since I'm only gone for a week
MOST. INCREDIBLE. RIDE. REPORT. EVER. WOW. MORE THAN AMAZING. Thank you for posting. I'll be referring to this for some time....
Right on! If you have any questions about the area just shoot me a PM...or I guess I should say "start a conversation" Yeah, there will be more I gotta tell everyone how my 610 with +16,000 miles on it won the top-speed shoot-out on the playa with a lovely 104mph on the GPS. That was with full knobbies and dirt gearing, by the way The pleasure was all mine, Steve! When are you going to come on one of these adventures with us? Playing on the playa made me feel like a teenager
WOW, what a fantastic report. The scenery in that part of the USA is just indescribable, can't wait to go back to the in-laws place in Crawford NE over the 4th of July.....
