utah camping trip - national park tour - mid-may

[denver_whitest185]

so, im going to doing a 6-7day trip down to southern utah starting may 19th. its going to be a national park tour since i'll be touring arches, canyonlands, black canyon of the gunnison, rocky mountain, capitol reef, zion, bryce canyon, and i would also like to spend a few hours on the north rim of the grand canyon since i only saw the south side.

anyways, i already have my route picked out, and im working it out so that there's around 6 hours of riding each day except the first and last day, and the whole trip will be around 2000 miles

i'll be camping out unless the weather turns bad. so, if anyone wants to join for a week of sight seeing and riding on some beautiful roads, it'll be fun.

[Sean]

Sounds fun! Wish I could, but I can't get away for that long. Good Luck!

[denver_whitest185]

well, if you want to, just come riding on the 19th down to the black canyon of the gunnison, and you can pick a route back home for the 20th.

[asp_125]

Sound like an epic ride. Always wanted to ride the Devil's Backbone (UT 12). Can't get away for that long though.

[denver_whitest185]

fyi, the reason why its a 6 or 7 day trip is dependent on how day 5 goes. it starts out on the north rim of the grand canyon, goes north through zion, then through cedar breaks NM, then back to UT 12 to bryce canyon, and then to boulder, ut to spend the night at a spot i know. if i split it into two days, i'll be camping near cedar breaks the first night so that i get a whole day to see cedar breaks and bryce canyon.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

I would LOVE to do that trip!....but the ability to do such is dependent upon a whole lotta factors right now....

[OUTLAWD]

Man...i'm gonna be at a conference in DC and not getting back til the 19th...

maybe I'll be able to get together with ya on another iron butt tour

[denver_whitest185]

hey, i just have to be back by the afternoon of the 26th, so if you want to leave on the 20th or late on the 19th, im down...

oh, after some better trip route calculations (including driving within parks, some side excursions that look worthwhile, etc.) this trip is looking closer to 2300 miles, so i think i'll be stretching this to a 7 day for sure. there will also be a 60 mile strech of a well groomed dirt road.

[OUTLAWD]

"calculations" eh...?

you must be an engineer or something...

so whats this trip 2300 +/- 300 miles and 7 +/- 1 day, with 60 +/- 60 miles groomed (unknown % uncertainty of grooming) dirt road...

If I had some more stout touring tires, I'd be game, but the PP's would prob be shot halfway through, then that might set us back 1 +/- 2 hours...

[Ricky]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I plan on heading out to Moab on the 16th, then one or two other places, but I have no solid plans yet. I have to be back at work on the 21st though...

[denver_whitest185]

"calculations" eh...?

you must be an engineer or something...

so whats this trip 2300 +/- 300 miles and 7 +/- 1 day, with 60 +/- 60 miles groomed (unknown % uncertainty of grooming) dirt road...

If I had some more stout touring tires, I'd be game, but the PP's would prob be shot halfway through, then that might set us back 1 +/- 2 hours...

lol

actually, its 40 miles of dirt, the rest is paved
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Road_400

we could split up that day and meet up at lunch time. you could take the paved way around it, and i'll take the dirt road as long as the conditions are good

dirt route

paved route

[lightspeed]

Will this be a on road trip? I may be interested... What route, etc are you taking?

[R6biker122]

sounds fun. i may be down.

[denver_whitest185]

Will this be a on road trip? I may be interested... What route, etc are you taking?

edited, see below

[denver_whitest185]

So, I’ve been thinking about this trip a lot. I think what needs to happen to make this better is that instead of working our way out to western Utah and then driving back, that instead we should drive out to western Utah the first day and then work our way back. that way the longest part of the trip is done first, and more time is spend out in the area furthest from Colorado, since the point of the trip is to see that area. the area's closer to Colorado can be a weekend trip sometime else.

Just let me know who wants to go and can get the 19th through the 26th available. thanks.

also, to make the trip safer, I bought a mushroom-style tire plug kit and a pump encase anyone gets a flat.

[denver_whitest185]

so, here's my new idea. i like it a lot more and it makes it possible to see Great Basin NP. There's no dirt roads either.

19th - meet up at i-70 and c-470 that morning and drive to Great Basin NP (~10 hours, mostly highway) - buy NP park passes at Great Basin since they include cave tour here
20th - cave tour at great basin NP that morning, tour though Brian's head, cedar breaks NM, and zion np. stay the night at coral pink sand dunes S.P.
21st - head down to north rim of the grand canyon, then back up 89 to hw-12 (red canyon area) and tour bryce canyon NP, spending the night at kodachrome basin S.P.
22nd - head east on hw-12, tour capitol reef NP, south to natural bridges NM, tour and spend the night at the needles section of canyonlands.
23rd - tour the rest of canyonlands and dead horse point S.P., tour arches NP, fisher towers, and spend the night at colorado NM near grand junction
24th - head south to black canyon of the gunnison, then back north to glenwood springs, then head back to denver.

Damn insomnia...

[Jason ON]

Do you have camping places already picked out? I may be interested ...

[denver_whitest185]

yes. we'll be staying at either state or national parks, unless we find a spot off the road to camp for free thats better. The first night will be great basin NP, the second will be coral pink sand dunes SP, the next will be Kodachrome basin SP, then in the needles section of canyonlands, and the last will be in colorado NM. All those places are first come, first served, so there really isn't any way to reserve spots, but the main tourist season isn't till later, so i think we'll be good. US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management area's are free to camp on, so there will be plenty of available area's down there if needed.

[denver_whitest185]

bump, three weeks left till this trip!

the trip described in post #16 is the route i'll be taking still.

Here is the mapquest map of the trip. Points b,c,e,g,h are camp spots. alternate routes are fine if you don't want to drive on dirt or if theres certain areas you want to tour
http://www.mapquest.com/mq/7-3yu2KEAqEHTGdNupoHnU

[Nick_Ninja]

U riding the 06 Ninja 250 on this trip?

[denver_whitest185]

yep


(from last year)

[asp_125]

Wow... epic!

[Nick_Ninja]

WoW --- loaded

[denver_whitest185]

well, now i can spread out the load a bit better

i made this last week. i think it'll work great, although everyone on the ninja250 board thinks it'll get stress cracks from going over bumps with any sort of load. i carried 20 lbs on it yesterday back from denver, and it held up fine. the bracket is machined from a solid block of aluminum, and has intertube rubber glued to the inside to give it a better contact area/dampen frame vibrations...