Rate the state- Utah

Finished up Utah on Friday July 9.
Roads- pretty good
Signage- sort of confusing at first. Each town does its own signs in quadrants & vaguely in blocks. Lots of dirt roads without signs, but we never had a problem with getting where we needed to be.
Drivers- pretty good, except for the sheer numbers of RVs & the occasional trying to pass a cyclist with oncoming traffic...duh!
Wildlife- pretty amazing. Pronghorn antelope, ravens, bluebirds, bullocks orioles, western tananger.
Scenery- A+ right up there with Colorado. High dessert plateaus, pine & aspen forested mountains, canyons, natural bridges, cliffs, spires...wow.
Don't think I could live here though. Not green enough except in the mountains where they can randomly close your road for drifted snow.

Hoodoos & canyons & stripes, oh my!

Tuesday July 6 we woke to 34 degrees again, packed up & played tourist for the morning in Bryce Canyon.
Awesome! We walked part of the Rim Trail & if we had a couple days, we'd have hiked down into it on some of the many trails there. Saw pronghorn antelopes & ravens.
Headed out into nast headwinds. Luckily they diminished after a bit as we were climbing all afternoon to Panguitch Lake. Had a beautiful ride through Red Canyon (man made tunnels through the rock) on a wonderful bike trail- a little hillier than Rte.89, but so nice to be out of the traffic. There are hordes of RVs here!
Weds. Is a day off at the lake.

Nearly forgot..... 3,000 miles!

Correction on a best bird- not a redstart, but a Western Tananger! Possibly the most beautiful bird I ever saw.

Goodbye drivers, hello granny gear!

Well, we've been spoiled for 2 weeks having Dan & Piri carry all our gear. Dan left last week for other adventures north. Piri left today for Boulder CO having been our tour guide for 10 days. We'll miss them both as they were great company!
We had some big hills today. Carrying our gear was a seriuos reality check! They took much longer & required more cookie & drink breaks. The weather has been good though, cold at night, but not wicked hot in the day.
No amazing landscapes either, but we'll play tourist at Bryce Canyon before heading to Panguitch Lake on Tuesday. I'm sure those photos will make up for today.

It's great day for climbing!

Cold night in Torrey (45 degrees), but that gave us a great start for our four hour climb up Boulder Mt onto the Aquarius Plateau in the Dixie Natl Forest. We have lots of national forrests...who knew?
Looking back over Capitol Reef, two hearty pedalers, is this the top yet? And the topo map so you can see why it took 4 hours.

Three new birds in one day!
Western Redstart,
Bullocks Oriole,
Ruffous Sided Towhee

Utah still amazes

Not many photos today. I managed to get my phone/camera wet in the desert. Don't ask.
A few hills & some wind, but not bad temperatures for Utah un July.
Just outside of Hanksville we encountered lots of huge mounds that looked like piles of sand or fine gravel. Actually they had a pretty hard baked crust. They varied from nearly black to gray to greenish & some were striated. At one point we were surrounded by them. It was so surreal. Like being on another planet. (sorry no photos)
In Torrey tonight at a nice little campground. Passed this early Mormon meeting house, apparently dates from the first wave of settlers.
Piri drove us to a remote section of Capitol Reef natl park called The Narrows. Never could have gotten there by bike!

Near Glen Canyon

Passing incredible (have I used that word a lot?!) canyons. All the red layers are above us (most recent layer) & all the creamy rock is below us . Both are carved into amazing shapes by water, wind & upheavals. White Canyon had such a sheer drop from the bridge it was a little scarey to even look down to take the picture.
We're camping at Lake Powell... "sparse" as Sharon's friend Piri puts it. I think that's a little generous, but it is beautiful next to the canyon walls & the lake. It was great to have time to get in a swim, too.

Rainbows & goblins

As we left Lake Powell we had a beautiful rainbow. Sharon from the other side of the lake.
More layers of rocks- some sandy, some pocked & the amazing Valley of Goblins State Park.
There are even sand dunes here.
Oh, & a little store built right into the cliff.