California to Utah Adventure
Road Trip Map
Los Angeles, CA - Baker - Mesquite, NV - Saint George, UT - Zion National Park - Bryce Canyon National Park - Escalante - Torrey - Capitol Reef National Park - Green River - Arches National Park - Monticello - Moab - Monument Valley, AZ - Navajo Country - Laughlin, NV - Ludlow, CA - back to Los Angeles.
Story By Craig Dillmann
On Monday morning October 5th, SoCal members Mike Menezes, Jaguar Steve Sales, Craig Dillmann and future member Matthew Fried took off for a Utah adventure.
It was 100 degrees from Baker to our first night in Mesquite, Nevada — a long hot ride!! The casino Eureka was great. The rooms were 80 bucks a night, huge and clean. The casino had a prime rib special to die for, best quality for under 15 bucks!!! After breakfast in Saint George, the ride got interesting. The first park was Zion National Park and it was absolutely beautiful, with twisty scenic roads. The only problem was that it was very busy, like Disneyland. We had to shuffle about to pass the line of cars or we would have been there all day. A few hours later, we were in Bryce Canyon National Park. We cut through it west to east and it wasn’t as nice as Zion. If we had entered the park on a different road, it would have more scenic.
The second night was in Escalante, Utah, a very rural area with beautiful empty roads, but the trouble is the town has no restaurants. Literally, no restaurants. We had sub sandwiches on a park bench since ordering a pizza would have taken over an hour. The hotel was like a run down Motel 6!!! We didn’t care, we were having a blast!
The next day after bagels at Bolder outpost, we headed north towards Torrey, Utah. I’ve never seen roads like this! Around every curve was something more beautiful: red rocks, rivers, streams. Capitol Reef National Park doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it is more beautiful than Zion. After lunch in Green River, we headed to Arches National Park the long way following the Colorado River. It was getting late so we had to make our way to Monticello, Utah for the night. Wouldn't you know it, I managed to get us lost in the park. When we finally found our way out, the Moab, Utah roads were under construction and miles and miles of back ups. We split lanes and did our best. We pulled into our destination well after 6 pm. The hotel was great. We had the pool and jacuzzi to ourselves after steak dinners!! I’ve never seen more deer; they were all over the place.
Six-thirty a.m. found us in front of the hotel on our bikes ready to roll. Just as I was coaching Jag Steve about the dangers of so many deers, wham 100 feet from us, a car grazed a deer. The deer was fine, but what timing!!
Next stop Monument Valley and on to Navajo Country crossing back into Arizona. A trip to the Grand Canyon was planned but the East-West road along the South side was closed. We decided to head to Laughlin, a very long ride that day. The Pioneer was the hotel of choice because you can pull the bikes up to the rooms. A bit rundown but fair-priced and casino and restaurants were open! We made it home safe the next day. We had outdoor breakfast at the A frame restaurant in Ludlow!! You live more on a short trip like this than most people live in a year!!
