Day 5 - The Grand Canyon and Zion National Park

SOUTHWEST ADVENTURE - Day 5
Starting Point: Flagstaff, AZ
Destination: Mount Carmel, UT
Day 3 mileage: 395.4
Cumulative mileage (GPS): 3211.7
Cumulative mileage (Odometer): 3269.4

We started Day 5 - Sunday - leaving our unremarkable hotel in Flagstaff, AZ at 6 AM. The long days with little sleep are starting to catch up with me. Each day, we arrive at our hotel, unpack, and find a place to enjoy dinner together. When we return to the room, I have to make necessary adjustments to the route (which sometimes - and especially last night - require judgements call regarding what we have time to do) and distribute the route to the other riders. This day was filled with wonder and adventure. I might have had time to write a more detailed report of the day's activity, but we decided to find lodging in Moab for the next two nights before going to bed, and this proved to be a challenge. We needed five rooms for two nights, and nearly every hotel in Moab was full. Who knew? Annette and Elizabeth worked together on this and finally found us a place. Once reservations were made, we called it a night. We did upload a few iPhone photos, and I'll leave these here. The detailed report and more pics (Warning: MANY pics!) will follow these images from the road.

Four of us - Randall and me, along with our wives - visited the south and north rims of the Grand Canyon on our 2012 ride. I had never seen this masterpiece of creation prior to 2012. Trent, Matt, and Steve had never visited the Canyon, so I was more than happy to build a return visit into the 2015 ride. This time, we opted for the less-visited north rim only. In addition to visiting the north rim again, I decided to take a closer look at options, and found some new viewpoints to check out.

While the Grand Canyon was the targeted highlight for the day, and while we knew we were pointed toward Bryce Canyon and Utah 12 the next day, we decided to try to squeeze in an optional quick visit to Zion National Park. With this being the case, we set out on another of those aggressive ride days.

There was no breakfast offered at our hotel in Flagstaff, so we set out early, looking for something to eat. We settled for McDonald's, grabbed some food, then headed north on AZ 89. We stopped at Navajo Bridge for a break and some nice views of the Colorado River before continuing on our way.

Headed north on AZ 89 toward Page.

A nice break for all of us - with restrooms and an opportunity to grab some pics. 

Navajo Bridge

The Colorado River

Randall and Elizabeth

West toward Jacob Lake, where we would make the turn south to the Grand Canyon

Through the Kaibab National Forest

Wildlife on the ride from Jacob Lake to the North Rim

Looking for something a little different this time around, I used Garmin's BaseCamp to zoom in on the area around the north rim and found a new treasure - the road to Cape Royal Viewpoint. Instead of going straight to the lodge at the north rim, we headed off on this road, not sure what we would find. We were rewarded with a fun ride that was all paved, and which took us to multiple beautiful overlooks at Cape Royal, as well as a nice stop at Walhalla Overlook on the way out. In the interest of time - and because we were ready to eat - we skipped Point Imperial and headed for the lodge and lunch.

Cape Royal Road - well-paved and worth the ride in and out

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a nice lunch at the lodge at the North Rim, we headed back toward Jacob Lake, where we would ride north and west on our way to Zion National Park. We actually rode right past our hotel for the night, in Mount Carmel, Utah, as we continued on toward a late-afternoon visit to Zion. We found Zion to be more crowded than when we had visited previously, with fairly heavy traffic through the park. We rode through, stopped for a quick visit at the Visitor Center, and then headed east toward our hotel. While the visit to Zion was abbreviated in the interest of time, and to get us out of the traffic, we still enjoyed the ride and sights that are not to be missed. Here are a few of the many images Annette and I captured along the way.

 

Leaving Zion, we backtracked on UT 9 to reach our resting place for the night, grabbed a quick dinner at the hotel, took care of the lodging issue in Moab, and called it a night - after a day that was filled with visual overload, as we tried to absorb the grandeur of all God has created in this part our country. Amazing and awe-inspiring, for sure!