Day 32

I had a good sleep and woke up hungry, there wasn't a doubt as to where to have breakfast. Time to go back to Mom's Cafe. I sat down and had some pancakes and bacon, yummy. From there I rolled out of town to the I-70 west for a few miles. I then went south on Hwy 24 at the town of Sigurd. The drive south was nice, great wide open hills, just huge vistas. At the town of Torrey I stopped and gassed up and asked some fellow riders of the direction they came. They said Hwy 12 is the road they just took, said it was Po-Po free and no cows on the road. Cool! Thanks for the heads up guys. I was delighted when I started down the 12, man is it a nice curvy, scenic road. It is a must do if you are ever in the area. The terrain goes up and down and all kinds of curves. What a fantastic ride, I saw the most amount of motorcycles on this road than I did any other, including the Dragon. There were so many BMW GS, and Suzuki Vstroms on this road. I have to admit, I do like the Beemer GS bikes and the hard luggage, that's a sweet set-up if ya ask me. The weather was awesome with a few hazy clouds overhead but mostly sunny. There are parts of the ride that reminded me of the Grand Canyon on a small scale. This road has all types of terrain, from the twisties next to rock walls, high mountains with colorful trees and big views. It is an eclectic mix of rides. There was one part that snaked across the top of a good size hill, several hundred feet high. Each side of the road dropped off to the bottom with no guardrails it was maybe a quarter mile long, like that. It was funny riding on a 2 lane road and not even having a shoulder on the side of the road. Just imagine road, curves and cliffs on either side. It was cool. Riding through the area makes me want to go back and visit Moab, as there were tons of rock outcropping that remind me of all the pictures that I have seen over the years. I knew that Bryce Canyon Park was going to be my next stop, and so I needed to find a place to stay for the night. I came across a KOA campground in Cannonville. So I rented a cabin for the night as the temperatures at night were getting extremely cold. I made a fire, roasted some dogs, heated some beans and kicked back and watched the sun go down. Man what a way to end a fantastic day of riding. I uploaded the photos of the day to the computer, but thats all I could do, as there wasn't a cell signal to go online with. Starting the fire was fun, I did it with the little magnesium starter, where you scrape shavings off and use a striker to make sparks to ignite the magnesium. The shavings were in a bundle of dried grasses and twigs that I picked up around the cabin site. I got my survival practice kick in for the trip. The Dragonfly camping burner is awesome too, wow what a powerful little, compact burner that is. It has the ability to burn all types of fuels, so it is very versatile. The KOA campgrounds at this site are super clean and nice. The cabin was great, it had a set of bunk-beds and a queen size bed too. It had the basic electricity and chair and wall table. On the covered porch there was a swing bench, and it also had the picnic table, grill, and fire pit. For 40 bucks it was so worth it. You had to walk across the grounds to take a shower or use the restroom but hey, its part of the deal. If I was on the road with a bunch of people, fellow riders, I would recommend this as a great way to save money. It could easily sleep 4 people in the small cabin, split 4 ways, thats cheap. With the proper camping supplies it would be lots of fun, a nice fire an few brews with a grilled burger.....fun stuff. So I crashed out after the fire burnt down, and slept comfy in my bag on the queen bed. Oh yeah, these cabins had portable heaters in them so it stayed toasty as I slept. The nice thing about this campground was that it is located about 12-15 miles from the entrance to the Park so its not expensive like the other places near the entrance. I think I'll do more of this type of lodging and camping on other trips. The day saw me ride about a total of 200 miles as I did some side roads.

Here is the great road pictures from the day...
























Some of the KOA campground and cabin



Cookin'


These were interesting clouds at dusk



Other shots..