We planned on doing a bike ride in Capital Reef
during the early morning hours. A few reasons for a
fairly early ride...beat the heat, finish before the wind increased, & car traffic. At 8:00 AM we mounted the bikes & left camp well
before most people were driving into the park. We headed down the Scenic Drive for 7 miles towards the end of the pavement.
Since we were so early we decided to add a side trip down the Grand Wash dirt road to the
trail heads for Cassidy Arch & Grand Wash... only a mile & a half. Riding the bike allowed us to see more of the canyon walls. An added bonus was still no car traffic so we could stop and take a few pictures of the wildflowers.
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| Howard's Evening-Primrose |
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Largeflower skeletonweed
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| Pale Evening Primrose |
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| Scarlet gilia |
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| Uranium mines and 'glowing' people |
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| Bill riding his Sunny Daze EMB |
We turned and rode back to the pavement to continue the ride to Pleasant Creek Road. Just
before we hit the pavement Bill asked a couple if ‘they were
glowing’ after we spotted them looking in the old uranium mines at
Grand Wash Junction. The conversation between the men went on for a good amount of
time...discussing electric mountain bikes vs regular bikes. Forty-five minutes later
we finally turned the bikes back on and continued on our ride...with the temperature a wee bit
warmer.
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| View of Golden Throne in the distance |
It was a beautiful
ride with red rock cliffs to the north and lots of color along the
road. Only 1 car drove past as we rode along the Pleasant Creek's dirt road for 3 miles. The ride ended when Pleasant Creek actually crossed the road. Since we
couldn’t see the bottom of the creek bed we decided to turn around and
head back to our campsite.
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| View from our campsite |
Our total ride for the day was 22 miles in about 2
½ hours...absolutely love my EMB.
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Golden Throne from Pleasant Creek Road
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*click pictures to enlarge
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