Just another day in paradise, started out with us getting a little earlier start at 6:50 AM, but we needed to fuel up yet so when we finally got rolling after the gas stop it was the usual 7:10 or so. It cooled off nicely overnight so we had some liners in, but the temp rose quickly so Larry shed his at the gas station, while I kept mine on until we'd been on the road for 45 minutes or so. This would be another day of no special waypoints to get, but our main goal was to see the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Coming out of Flagstaff, we were on US-180 through the Coconino and then Kaibab National Forests. It was nice riding save for the occasional slow poke cager (that's motorcycle talk for car driver). Being the law abiding citizens that we are we patiently waited for legal passing opportunities.
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| Day 12 Track |
US-180 dumped us out onto AZ-64 which we took north directly into the South entrance for the Grand Canyon National Park. We stopped there for a photo Op.
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| Larry at South Entrance to Grand Canyon National Park |
We then got in a pretty lengthy line of cars to pay to get into the park. They had three lines open but the cars were pouring in. It took about 11 minutes to get through and paid and then we got up to the parking lot which is 4 more miles past the gate. From there we dismounted and walked into the visitors center. Checked out some of the exhibits, than found out that the 20 minute move they usually run was down for repairs so we had to settle for an 8 minute alternative which was pretty good. It covered the geologic formation of the Grand Canyon and was quite interesting. Then we walked out to the "pinnacle" of the South Rim. OMG is all I can say. If you've been here you know what I mean and if not you really need to get this on your bucket list. The photos are nice and all but they just don't truly convey the awesome nature of this place.
I took way more photos, but don't have time to upload them all tonight. All told, we spent a little over and hour before we mounted up and headed out east on AZ-64. The ride out was just OK. The road was nice but there was a lot of very slow moving traffic that took a lot of the fun out of it. Eventually we would finally work our way around them and get on a roll though. It was a 53 mile run out to US-89 just south of Cameron where we crossed the Colorado River. There we turned north, and had an 80 mile run up to Marble Canyon where we would cross the Colorado River again as we turned back westward again. By this time it was hot - in the 90's and we were hungry. A GPS search of the route ahead showed an interesting sounding place - the Cliff Dwellers Restaurant so I put in the waypoint and we rode the 9 more miles to it. It turned out to be a decent place. It was pretty busy and so the service was a bit slow. There was nothing on the menu for under $10 but that wasn't too surprising given the remote area we were in. At least it wasn't another fast food place. I actually got a pretty healthy meal - a veggie wrap with sweet potato fries and it was quite good. The scenery wasn't too shabby either as this photo I snapped shows.
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| Today's lunch stop |
We spent just over an hour here due to the slow service but we knew we didn't have too far to go yet. It was another 70 miles up to Kanab UT where we would find a hotel to spend the night. When we crossed into UT we lost an hour (back onto Mountain Daylight Time - because Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time). At any rate, it was 3:45 PM when we got into Kanab.
Today's Stats: 288.6 miles in 7:53 elapsed time, 5:15 saddle time.
