I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This year all my motorcycling is being done on a Suzuki DR650, AKA Putt Putt. This is the story of Putt Putt’s and my trip to the canyon country of Utah.
Ralph and Howard at the Needles Overlook
My wife and I live in northern Arizona back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and traveling through the canyon country of southern Utah was always a favorite. I’ve been back to Arches on several occasions since then, and I’ve always loved going there, but on this year’s trip to Utah on Putt Putt, I decided I wanted to head into some of the more remote parks, to experience, as much as possible some of Abbey’s country.
So my motorcycling companion Howard and I met up in Grand Junction, Colorado a week ago to head into the desert.
The first day of our ride goes through one of my favorite areas of the state – Utah Highway 128 that runs along the Colorado River through canyons leading up to the popular tourist town of Moab. The road is often bumpy and the unwary rider can come upon unexpected patches of gravel. It is narrow, winding, and has almost no shoulder in places. In short, it’s the perfect entrance to canyon country.
A view of the La Sal mountains in the distance from Utah 121. That’s the Colorado River off to the right.
As we rode our motorcycles past the entrance to Arches National Park, we could see the cars lining up to enter into the popular spot. And as much as a part of me wanted to join them, this trip was about trying to go where the crowds were not. So instead we kept heading north and then west out of Moab to get to the Island in the Sky unit of Canyonlands. Despite only being about 30 or 40 miles from Arches, Canyonlands had only sparse crowds, with about half a dozen or so cars in the parking lot of the visitors center. There were people present everywhere we went there, but they were never loud and overwhelming.
Looking over the Green River from the Island in the Sky unit of Canyonlands National Park.
John Wesley Powell wsa a one-armed Civil War veteran who led the first successful expedition down the entire length of the Green and Colorado rivers through the canyon country of Utah and Arizona. He’s one of my heroes. The most exciting thing about him was his Western river explorations, but his most important accomplishment was his work on Western water policy.
Lunch was at the Peace Tree Juice Cafe in Moab. Although the temperature was a 102 degrees, the humidity was a fairly comfortable 10 percent. A cool meal of pita and hummus along with plenty of ice water was just perfect.
Our final destination of the day was the Needles Overlook just north of Monticello.
This Bureau of Land Management spot is about 30 miles off the main road and truly is remote. By the time Howard and I got there, were were the sixth and seventh persons to sign into the guest registry for the day. And what a view of the Needles section of Canyonlands.
The Needles Overlook.
I’m not going to give exact directions on how to get to the overlook. It’s not hard to find, but well worth the effort. There’s also a campground not too far from the overlook that makes it easy to see the overlook at sunrise or sunset.
We finished are ride through the eastern part of Utah with a morning visit the following day to Natural Bridges National Monument. Like Canyonlands, this is a remote park with relatively few visitors. It’s a also great place to see three natural bridges which can be seen from overlooks or from more ambitious hikes. What struck me about the bridges is how well they camouflage themselves because the layers of rock on the bridges match the layers in the surrounding canyon.
Can you see the natural bridge in this photo?
Coming up next – Putt Putt travels to some busy parks.