Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

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The Natl Parks are loved to death

Post by Nails »

Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pmWe decided the day before to ride up to Rocky Mnt N.P. and by chance I Checked the N.P. website which informed me that we needed a reservation to ENTER the park. What? Ya I guess certain busy parks are requiring entrance reservations for certain times just to drive around and look. We happened to get a reservation that would work for us. So we packed up and rolled north.
You haven't been to Yosemite in a while.

I found that the different parks have their own "protocols". As an example (for RMNP) you can cruise right in if you get there when the park opens. There wasn't anyone in the kiosk to check my pass. (But I did slip in the SW entrance -- apparently the one you left by.)

And for camping at RMNP, you have to make sure you can get an entrance pass (day pass) before reserving a spot. I followed the directions on that series of web pages, but ended up having to pay for my entrance pass -- it didn't ask whether I have a Geezer Pass. (I challenged that and got a refund out of NPS.)

As I recall, the timed entry is just for Bear Creek. But if you get a camping pass (the campground is up there), I don't think you have to get the timed-entry pass.

I talked to a ranger on the phone who clued me in on getting there at opening time. That was after whining that my timed-entry was for 4PM. Another trick he told me about: I think all the parks save some day passes for sale on that day. You evidently got one. But if you reserve a pass earlier, you can't replace it with a better one on the day of. You'd either want to not reserve one ahead of time (what he was recommending) or have someone else in/on your vehicle get it, because it's one-per-customer. (I think they go by both name and email address, or something like that.)

Back to RMNP ... I went through all of that, but my bike broke down and I didn't end up going at all. That's okay -- I had just ridden through the park earlier this summer. There are worse things to waste money on.

Slipping in at opening time also worked at Yosemite -- the lovely ranger woman just waved me through. In both cases, I actually did have a pass. I just didn't need to show it to anyone.

None of this works at Arches: they wanna see your timed-entry pass no matter when you show up, which was problematic for me because my phone's email crapped out (thank you Google -- did you know I don't much like Google?). But at Arches, the rangers had a terminal in the kiosk and could look me up by my reservation number, which I had copied off my desktop at home.

But at Glacier NP, the kiosks don't have computers. The very lovely ranger just smiled, said "I have no way to check this", and waved me through. This was after one unsuccessful attempt to get a day-of pass the day before. These went on sale at something like 7:30 AM, and I tried to snag one at about 7:29:59 -- the second attempt (immediately after), I got a "site overrun" message or whatever it is. My third try, before 7:32, reported that they were sold out. The next day I waited until about 7:30:02 and I got lucky -- but the Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed anyway. Add it to the bucket list.

And then there's Yellowstone. I made it through last year -- was so crowded I couldn't wait to make it out. And this summer, all my reservations (including a room in a lodge) got cancelled for the flooding.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not trying to manage all us tour-ons; rules are rules; so straighten up and fly right! :lol:
Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pmMotorcycle again for the win!
Naw. For the lovely rangers, all you really need is my charming personality. :laughing:
Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pmThe road hwy 40 I think has some excellent switchbacks. It was great motorcycle road.
I got to RMNP from Wyoming (via Walden, CO). It gets to Granby Lake entrance to RMNP just as it would turn into the part of US-40 you rode. It's a target-rich environment for m/c roads up there. I had planned to come down the Peak-to-Peak Hwy from Estes Park to Idaho Springs or so; but I ended up staying with friends in Golden instead. So that's still on my bucket list, along with some of the Front Range stuff you wrote about, further south. And CO-14 between Fort Collins and Steamboat Springs.

God's country.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by GrandpaDenny »

Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pm They had ground the road down 4 inches or more and left swirly grooves in the pavement. It was the scariest 5 miles of motorcycling I've ever done.
That's called "milling" - they mill down the old road surface and recycle it into the new asphalt. In Florida they mill and pave in the same operation. It's pretty cool watching how they pave. Here in Philly they mill the surface then leave it like that for weeks until they get around to paving. Then they almost immediately start carving up the new pavement for pipe repairs or whatever. A prime example is City Line Avenue. They paved it about three years ago, and it has been under constant ripping up and pipe replacement ever since. They JUST repaved the entire section of road a couple of weeks ago. It was so new they didn't even have the final striping done. Got to St. Joe's University and sure enough they were tearing it up again already. I think there must be some kind of utility workers union rule that they can't work on old pavement it has to be new before they can tear it up.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Bonnie and Clyde »

Day 17 we spent in Denver. My wife decided she wanted a new helmet as her old Nolan was "Not as comfortable as I remember". I googled the location of Revzilla.com in Denver and we tried on some helmets. Thankfully the sticker price was a shock to her so we didn't buy one. Then we played a round of Mini Golf and had lunch. That evening we caught the baseball game.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Nails »

GrandpaDenny wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:24 amthey mill down the old road surface and recycle it into the new asphalt.
Around here that's called chip-seal, which is usually put down on some secondary road like the former dirt roads in my neighborhood. They usually replace what they "mill" up with new pavement. I guess that's because we got plenty of dirt roads.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Bonnie and Clyde »

Day 18 255 miles Denver to Grand Junction Co

We had been watching the weather and it was forecasted to rain later in the day westward. So we decided to go as far as we could before the rain stopped us or until she was done. I had seen on the map Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction and kept that as a possible side stop.

West on Hwy 70 some pretty stunning scenery good road. My 1st time on it.
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We stopped in Vail for an early lunch and to see how the other half lives
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Back on the road
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It was a little after 3PM when we rolled into Grand Junction. It had clouded up considerable and was sprinkling off and on. At the fuel stop I mentioned the Colorado National Monument. We decided with it being later in the day and the storm moving in we would go and see the park and stay the night in Grand Junction. It turned out to be a good idea. The Monument was the biggest surprise of the trip. If you haven't driven or rode the loop thru the park its totally worth the detour.
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We grabbed a hotel room in G.J. and as soon as I got the parked the clouds just let loose. Timing was perfect. The hotel let us park under an overhang. Once we got all settled in the room, I watched the weather report. Major thunder storms thru the nite and the next day. Flash flood warnings and possible road closures. We wanted to hit Moab, Arches NP, Canyon Lands NP, and Capital Reef NP on our way home. The storm was not helping with that. Flash floods in the desert are nothing to play with especially on a bike. We checked with the front desk about staying another nite without having to move rooms. We could so we decided to stay another day to wait the storm out so we could hit those other parks.

Day 19 held up in Grand Junction. It rained all night and thru the next day. We did some laundry and took an Uber to Cabelas' and the mall to shop and walk around so I didn't go crazy sitting in a room all day.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

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Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:14 pmWest on Hwy 70 some pretty stunning scenery good road. My 1st time on it.
Oh god yes, that section of I-70 is awesome -- stellar Rocky Mtns dump right into stellar Red Rock Country. And you can see it all from a damn freeway!

I saw a lot of stand-replacement fire in your photos. A couple years ago, I-70 was seriously washed out due to post-fire flooding. I'll look for vids of that, of major debris flows running down side canyons that you passed, taking out whole sections of I-70.
Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:14 pmWe stopped in Vail for an early lunch and to see how the other half lives
Well, THEY get there in their little private jet. Sorta like Tahoe on steroids. (But tell me, where do the folks who clean the rooms live?)
Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:14 pmThe Monument was the biggest surprise of the trip. If you haven't driven or rode the loop thru the park its totally worth the detour.
Oh god yes. Again.

There are interesting alt routes south of the plateau, through the Paradox Valley by Lone Cone. There are dirt roads to Moab over the Manti-La Sals. It's just freakin' incredible that anybody can go ahead and live there.
Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:14 pmDay 19 held up in Grand Junction.
Curious to find out whether you took Castle Valley to Moab. There's more. There's more. (And way more than that if you're on a more dirt-worthy machine.)

When my daughter was six, we took a two-week ski vacation through there. Stayed with friends in Grand Junction. I won't blather about it, but I just wish I could do a brain dump about how special that was. Suffice to say, it's a pretty awesome place in the winter, too.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by GrandpaDenny »

Nails wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 4:42 pm
GrandpaDenny wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:24 amthey mill down the old road surface and recycle it into the new asphalt.
Around here that's called chip-seal, which is usually put down on some secondary road like the former dirt roads in my neighborhood. They usually replace what they "mill" up with new pavement. I guess that's because we got plenty of dirt roads.
No, chip seal is gravel and oil, that's all. Common way to pave rural roads especially up in the mountains in PA. Oil is sprayed down, gravel is spread on top of it, and the weight of traffic smushes everything together.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by GrandpaDenny »

Nails wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 4:42 pm
GrandpaDenny wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:24 amthey mill down the old road surface and recycle it into the new asphalt.
Around here that's called chip-seal, which is usually put down on some secondary road like the former dirt roads in my neighborhood. They usually replace what they "mill" up with new pavement. I guess that's because we got plenty of dirt roads.
Negative. Chip seal is gravel and rock chips laid down on top of a layer of oil. It is not always compacted, the weight of traffic accomplishes that. Up in the mountains around here in PA they chip seal the roads every year or two. They just lay it down on top of the old. Once upon a time asphalt paving was done like that, the new layer put down on top of the old. That is no longer allowed, the road must be milled and the millings recycled into the new paving material.

So both chip seal and asphalt are basically oil and rocks, what's the difference? Asphalt paving has everything mixed together - the aggregate, tar, oftentimes recycled tire rubber, sometimes seashells (like used to be done in Florida), recycled pavement millings, etc, and is put down in layers and compacted mechanically (rolled). Chip seal is basically gravel on top of thick oil (aka asphalt - there are two basic types of crude oil, paraffin-based and asphalt-based).
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Nails »

Dunno. I've seen them use ground-up asphalt instead of clean gravel and call it chipseal. Maybe it's a desert thing. Maybe just a wacko homeboy thing. But it seems to hold up about as well as anything else ... once they had a properly compacted prism.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by GrandpaDenny »

Nails wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:25 pm Dunno. I've seen them use ground-up asphalt instead of clean gravel and call it chipseal. Maybe it's a desert thing. Maybe just a wacko homeboy thing. But it seems to hold up about as well as anything else ... once they had a properly compacted prism.
The difference is how it's laid down really, not so much what it's made of. If the aggregate (gravel chips, rocks, recycled paving, whatever) is mixed in with the oil/asphalt/tar it's "asphalt". If's it's laid down on top, it's "chipseal".

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program :rolling:

A milled road is indeed scary to ride on, as is a grated bridge. The thing to remember is that the wiggling isn't that the bike is going to come out from under you, it's the bike finding it's own way. Relax and enjoy the wiggle, don't try to fight it. Yep, it's scary. Yep, it feels weird. Relax the arms and the shoulders, don't try to fight it. It'll be OK. The scary part is that the bike isn't staying straight like we think it should be all the time. Just let it do its thing. Then it ain't so scary!
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

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Day 20 350 miles Grand Junction, Moab, Arches NP, Canyon Lands NP, to Richfield UT

Being held up in Grand Junction a extra day I looked at my Paper map extensively looking for interesting routes. We decided to hit Arches, Canyon Lands and Capital reef NP's if possible. We got a reservation time to get into Arches NP. We woke up early knowing it was going to be a long day with a lot of sights to see. The sky had cleared and the roads had mostly dried. 70 west to hwy 128 into Moab. Stunning. No other way to put it. A great day to be on the bike riding in an amazing place. Ive rode the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Adventure bikes and this ride along 128 was just as stunning.
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Fueled up in Moab
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Got inline for Entry to Arches NP
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Then a loop around the park
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Then shot up to Canyon Lands NP
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It turned out to be almost a 12 hour day on the bike. Totally worth it. Epic day. We rolled out of Canyon Lands and headed towards hwy 70. We topped up the tank just outside the park. Then bombed it into Richfield UT on fumes. There was a stretch there of 180 miles of no fuel. Anyway we ran out of time for Capital Reef NP and my wife couldn't wait to get into bed.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Nails »

Awesome.

I always remember Arches as being much bigger than it really is.

(Well, I also remember Arches as just driving in and camping. Or set up the camera, trip the timer, and run under Delicate Arch to kiss my ex -- nobody else around.)

There's just so much to check out in Utah.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Bonnie and Clyde »

Day 21 Richfield UT to Ely NV 235 miles

We decided over night to skip Capital Reef NP and save it for another trip with other NP's thrown in. SO we decided to just cruz into Ely NV and be home the next day. Late start wife slept late. No biggie short day. About 75 miles out of Ely NV I started feeling a thunk thunk thunk on the rear wheel. That's not good. Tire pressure monitor showed no air loss and it didn't feel squirmy. So I kept going. Then I noticed it was only when I leaned the bike over in a left turn. So its not a wheel bearing might be a screw. Again no air loss so I kept going. We rolled into Ely and fueled up then I checked the rear wheel. I noticed a huge bubble on the sidewall and part of the tread. That's not good, and shouldn't be trusted anymore. Well we got a room and I started looking for a bike shop for a tire. Well there are none in Ely NV. A side by side shop said nope try the auto parts store. They had some used MC tires but no 15 inch. I looked at the Car tire shop for a 165/80/15 car tire and no luck. Bummer. Ely is only 345 miles from home. Battle Mountain is 175 miles and has a bike shop. I didn't feel safe riding up there with my wife on back. I could order a tire on line and wait a day or two for it and mount it. We were so close to home, let's just see if we can get a ride and not pay for hotel rooms so. So I made the call to my good friend for a ride home in his truck bike in the back. He said he could be there the next day. So we had come to the end of the ride. We visited the Ely train museum the next day waiting for my friend to pick us up. He arrived and we found a loading dock near by and rode the bike into the back of his truck and strapped it down and headed for home.

When we left the Conti Tour tire had 1,800+ miles on them. They now had 7,263 miles. The front looked great (its still on the bike) the rear had some tread life, but a belt had let loose. Long story short Continental warrantied the tire and sent me a free rear replacement. They come with free towing and trip interruption reimbursement. I just sent pictures of the tire on my warranty claim and was told to take it to my dealer and have them do the warranty swap. That was great I thought. I would have been happy with a $100 credit towards a new tire. Over all Epic trip, covered a lot of ground and saw some amazing stuff. Bike was flawless except for the tire.

Ely Train Museum
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FHL1eWUxpyfYN5TPA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SuyoK6tp4m1ikHDM6

Tire once home
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1rLtZdoLfiUq8q9V7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TxzU3UFvzP2Mqnn88
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UckLQPVR5yfftqt18
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Nails »

Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 5:43 pmWe decided over night to skip Capital Reef NP and save it for another trip
Okay, when you say Capital Reef, I jump to jeep trails. But you're talking about the short bit of Hwy 24 through the north part of the park. I rode through there in May, from Bryce to Natural Bridges. It honestly didn't register with me that I was even in Capital Reef.

Yeah, some really special parks along that way. I rushed through, which was a mistake. Better to "save it for another trip". (Okay, I also got an attitude about Yosemite-level jammed parking lots. But that's just because I didn't expect it from being there years ago. Bring hiking boots.)

I've done a lot of 4WD exploring through SE Utah; and Capital Reef has some bucket-list ADV routes. Like the Burr Trail, which runs from Boulder, UT to the dirt road that runs N-S along the "reef", including a a jeep version of the Moki Dugway. (My Best Man, driving in from California, had totaled his Civic in the Bay Area the week before my wedding ... but still drove it down the Burr Trail to New Mexico, with three cases of wine in the back! He's the guy I stayed with in Nevada City, when I got snowed on in May.) And there is, or was, a ferry at the south end of Capital Reef that took my Scout across the lake. Happy times.

Anyway for the XII, I highly recommend Hwy 24/95, especially near Capital Reef and down past Hanksville. And Hwy 12 toward Cedar City and Zion. I wrote about this in May.

I also spent a night in Ely. Got there late and left early, freezing my butt off. Not really much there -- except a car rally that had consumed almost every room in town. I had a lousy dinner at a casino and took a hot shower, zoomed through Great Basin NP, and into Utah.

Your tire was major ugly. Glad for your friend and that Continental treated you right.
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by GrandpaDenny »

Bonnie and Clyde wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 5:43 pm Long story short Continental warrantied the tire and sent me a free rear replacement. They come with free towing and trip interruption reimbursement. I just sent pictures of the tire on my warranty claim and was told to take it to my dealer and have them do the warranty swap.
Wow I didn't know that about Continental tires. That alone could put Contis much higher on the list of preferred tires! Glad you guys didn't get into a disaster!
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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Bonnie and Clyde »

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Re: Road Trip 2022 5,726 miles

Post by Xarlo »

Covering over 5,700 miles and visiting National Parks is definitely a dream ride. I bet the Dinosaur National Monument was fascinating. It's always cool to see something that takes you back in time. Your route through the scenic roads and Flaming Gorge must have been stunning, especially with those curvy switchbacks. It's great that you had such an interesting travel partner in your wife, too.
Speaking of travel, I recommend checking out Branson if you're ever passing through Missouri. I stayed at these hotels, and it was a fantastic experience with its comfortable accommodations and proximity to local attractions
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