The Road Less Traveled: Day 4 - AZ 60, Salt River Canyon, and AZ 89 / 89A

SOUTHWEST ADVENTURE - Day 4
Starting Point: Show Low, AZ
Destination: Flagstaff, AZ
Day 3 mileage: 382.4
Cumulative mileage (GPS): 2816.3
Cumulative mileage (Odometer): 2866.1

My original post at the end of Day 4 was brief and to the point: Annette is here, so I'm not writing about anything tonight. Part of the reason for the this has to do with the fact she is not a fan of me staying up late writing, going through photos, or editing videos. More importantly, I just wanted us to enjoy the evening together. So we did. Almost a month later, I'll fill in the details on a great day of riding.

We don't make many hotel reservations before leaving on our motorcycle adventures. If we are going to be at a popular destination (such as Yellowstone in 2014) or if hotels are scarce (such as in western Montana last year), we'll make reservations in advance and make sure we reach our goal destination. Most days, because I want to maintain the flexibility of changing our route or stopping early due to weather, fatigue, or mechanical difficulty, we don't make reservations. I choose our intended destination based on the availability of suitable hotels. If the girls are with us, they start making calls as we ride sometime after lunch. When the girls are not around, we have to do this work ourselves.

On the previous day, we stopped for gas in Eager and discussed whether to stop there for the night or press on to Show Low. Once we made the decision to continue on, I made a call to choice #1 in Show Low (a Hampton Inn, I think), only to discover there were no rooms available. At this point, I made assignments to each of the guys to call hotels and check on availability. Someone talked to a Days Inn who had five rooms, so we reserved them and started on our way. The Days Inn proved to be a good choice for the night... nicer than we expected, where we could park right outside our rooms. Laundry facilities were available, there was a free cooked-to-order breakfast the next morning, and there was a good restaurant right across the street. All was well.

After a good night of rest and a hearty breakfast, we set off for Phoenix to pick up Annette and Elizabeth. Our 170-mile route to the Hilton Airport was almost entirely on Arizona 60. While we could have taken a more northerly route, I chose to route us to Salt River Canyon Overlook. Often, when we route ourselves to a scenic location like this, the ride to get there is uneventful. This was not the case with AZ 60. We were pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable (sweepers with frequent elevation changes) and scenic the route was. After a couple of scenic overlook stops, we arrived at Salt River Canyon Overlook, which proved to be a nice stop.

Leaving the overlook, we set our sights on getting to the girls, wanting to waste no time, as the temperature was rising. We had no idea at this point in the day how hot it would get. Arriving at the hotel, we enjoyed a quick reunion with the girls, then set off to grab lunch. We had asked them to pick out a place close to their hotel, and they did. We arrived to find a long line out the door of the barbecue place they had suggested. Not having time to wait in line, we decided to find something else.

The temperature was 107 when we left the girls’ hotel. And for some reason, I routed us on AZ 60 on our way to Wittenburg, Prescott, Jerome, Sedona, and Flagstaff. This was already a tall order in terms of time and distance. AZ 60, nice from Show Low to Phoenix, turned out to be absolutely miserable through the city… stop and go in extreme heat, with few options for lunch. In restrospect, I should have routed us north on I-17 to get out of Phoenix, then west on AZ 74. So much for hindsight. Extremely hot, we stopped for a long lunch at an Applebee’s, where we cooled off and hydrated. This choice, though necessary, would cost us later in the day.

After lunch, we set our sights on AZ 89 and Prescott. A review of this part of our route included in the ride summary reads like this: "The scenery on the mountain of the red rocks is phenomenal. Every turn presents a breath taking view. If you rode no other road in Arizona, this should be the one!!!" Road can become steep at certain times and very twisty ... you may have to take breaks to allow your brakes to cool (depending on your speed).” The ride to Prescott was all of this and more.

Arriving in Prescott, we rode down Whiskey Row, stopped to walk around the town square, grabbed some ice cream, then set off for Jerome. We were pushing pretty hard at this point, as we knew getting to Flagstaff by sundown was going to be challenging. At the same time, I was determined to stop in Sedona and check out this artsy little town. We rode to Sedona in 2012, our first visit to this part of the country, but didn’t have time to stop. This year, I had several scenic locations built into the plan, and was determined to see at least some of them.

While we had a wonderful time riding through Jerome and Sedona, the sad truth is, as I watched our ETA in Flagstaff, we had to make the painful decision to ride through these great little towns without stopping. I was not happy – but, in light of the time we arrived in Flagstaff (no pun intended), we made the right call. We checked into our hotel, had a late dinner, then called it a day.

Here are some more images from Day 4: