Rain crashing onto Vermillion cliffs

Alright, I escaped the Injun’s at Mick’s last stand in Kayenta,  Arizona and headed for Monument Valley. Monument Valley was an awesome spectacle.  Out of the flat red sand desert looms these monstrous stone pillars looking very out of place.  Sort of like the hand of God forgot to clean his toys off the floor.   As you pass through the valley your view of each monolith changes and it gives the illusion that these stone beasts are slowly drifting across the desert.

    North into Utah past Mexican Hat.   Another rock formation where erosion has left a huge horizontal stone precariously balanced on a pillar below it.

Mexican Hat

    Utah was a real adventure.  I took Rte 316 North across the valley.   About 30 miles in there were signs saying “Tight hairpin curves, loose gravel, narrow steep road ahead”.   They weren’t kidding. Bad combinations for Maybeline but,  this is the only way North so we will make do.   The canyons in this area are surrounded by sheer drop off cliffs. There are no slopes leading to higher ground.   Just cliffs.   The road snaked across the desert towards the 1000 ft. wall ahead.   I am thinking “so where does the road go?” because as far as I see it leads to the base of that cliff.   It reached the base of the cliff and turned into one of the hairiest places I have ever driven anything, bicycle, dirt bike, anything.   The road turned to gravel, took a sharp right and climbed a ledge on the side of the cliff.   As it climbed on further and further,  it would reverse direction in a hairpin turn on a steep grade and climb up another ledge.   To one side was the wall of the cliff and 12 feet away was the drop into the valley.  If two cars met here, I have no idea what they would do.  I got the impression that only unsuspecting tourists traveled this road.  If this was pavement or if I was on a different bike, it would not have bothered me much but it was gravel and Maybeline is no adventure tourer.  There was one corner that I could see where a dual rear wheel truck had driven down with the outside wheel track drifting off the edge for a few feet and the inside wheel track continuing down the road.  I thought ”this was that guys lucky day”.  A t that point I must have been 500 feet above the valley floor. Any motorcycle course will teach you not to look at an obstruction or hazard coming up.  Look at your way around it.  This is called target fixation.  It is human nature to look at the obstruction and it is also human nature to drive exactly into where your eyes are focused.  It sounds simple but it is not.  You have to train yourself to break concentration on the hazard and concentrate on your path around it.  If you would not lose a lot of people to the cliffs, this would be the ideal place to teach this lesson.  Thankfully, the gravel road continued for 3 miles and crested onto the plateau to a paved road again.  Another winding road for 30+ miles without a soul in site.

Grand Canyon

On to the town of Fry Canyon for gas(according to my map).   Fry Canyon turned out to be a beaten down motel with a gas pump out front and a broken gate across the entrance with a sign reading “closed”.   I was in trouble. the next town on the map was 96 miles away and I did not have even close to enough gas to cover that distance.   There was a truck in front of one of the rooms and the air conditioner was running so I knocked on the door.   I figured I could get some gas if someone was here.  No one answered.  I was desperate so I rode over to the ancient looking gas pump with the broken glass over the rolling indicators to see if it was on.  Yeah, I was going to steal some gas and leave a few bucks. I had to! ……. The pumps were shut off.

The road in this area wound through narrow canyons with rock walls three feet on either side.  There was no place to stop if I had to.   It climbed up and down hills, sometimes for as much as 8 miles at a time so on the down slopes I would kick it into neutral and coast to conserve gas.  There was still no way I was going to make it to the next town on the map (if that really was a town).   I knew things would not always work out and that something would happen sooner or later but spending the night in this desert, miles from the nearest town was looking like a bad situation.   If any of you have seen the movie “The Hills Have Eyes”, this was the place.  Another 30 miles and suddenly a sign!!!! “Gas!!!!” “Food!!!” one mile down the road to the left.  It led to the Hite Marina.  A boat ramp on the Colorado river.  It was closed too but,  they had left the power on to the pumps for credit card customers passing by. Yeah Baby!  

I continued on another 50 miles to Hankesville,  Utah which consisted of a restaurant, a motel,  and a couple of gas stations (one closed).   It was dark out and the motel had a vacancy (big surprise) so that was it for today.  Besides it was thirty miles to the next town and that’s if it wasn’t closed.  I talked to a guy the next morning in the resaurant who informed me that due to the recent drought, the Colorado river was low, Fry Canyon and the marina serviced boaters who passed by.  Business was down so they closed.  He also informed me that a couple of miners worked the local mine and lived at the Fry Canyon Motel. He said “Your glad they didn’t answer the door”! I didn’t ask why or what they mined. (human flesh? The hills do have eyes)

Maybeline does gravel!

Southern Utah is a different place.

Hairpin turns