Tour de moto dans l'Utah

Today you arrive in Salt Lake City and transfer to your hotel. Overnight.

This morning you will pick up your motorcycle and your exciting trip through the biggest and most beautiful landscapes in North America can begin. Utah has something for everyone – from
brilliantly colored canyons, across endless desert plains, to thickly wooded and snow-covered mountains. From Salt Lake City you pick up Hwy 15 South, just past Nephi exit 222 – follow SR 28 to SR 24 and that will take you all the way to Torrey. Prepare yourself for tomorrow’s ride down Hwy 12 – the most spectacular Hwy in all of Utah. Overnight.

The day starts with a scenic ride down Hwy 12 through Dixie National Forest and along the Grande Staircase Escalante Monument towards Bryce Canyon. Here, you should take some time to visit and overlook the fabled red pillars of red rock created about 60 million years ago in a prehistoric lake. You continue on Hwy 89 (Hwy 9 at Mount Carmel Junction) over to Zion National Park. Even compared to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, Zion exudes a much stronger sense of nature. Here, you and your bike make immediate contact with the environment. Zion National Park contains more than 70 percent of the state’s native plant species. Within its 229 square miles are the plateaus, canyons, waterfalls, creeks and narrows – altogether, a very beautiful place and the perfect blend of road and land. Overnight.

You might want to enjoy the beauty of Zion National Park this morning before you continue your journey and head east ride Hwy 9 back to Mount Carmel Junctions and pick up Hwy 89 here. A scenic ride indeed…arches striped red, brown and white dot the landscape and you are riding long straight roads. You cruise the Vermillion Cliffs and from here it’s only a few miles to Page. You are in Arizona now and in Navajo Country! Legend has it that this barren land was a bewitched place, where the trees died of fear. You overnight in Page.

From Page you continue further east and enjoy a ride through the Navajo Indian Reservation. Take Hwy 98 all the way south until you hit US 160, make a left turn and head over to Kayenta, an old coal and uranium mining town. En route make sure to stop at Navajo National Monument, located in the northwest quarter of the reservation, to see two of Arizona’s biggest and most beautifully sited cliff dwellings. As you continue on Hwy 163 you will come to the classic Wild West landscape of stark sandstone buttes and forbidden pinnacles of rock, poking from an endless expanse of drifting red sands – you arrive at Monument Valley, which straddles the Arizona/Utah stateline. Here, you find yourself in a perfectly distilled scenery, the location for many famous Western movies. Continue your ride on Hwy 163 up to Bluff, where you pick up Hwy 191, your road to Blanding, which is your stop for tonight. Originally a trading center for the surrounding stock ranches, Blanding was settled in 1905 as a result of an irrigation project that still waters abundant crops of hay and grain. Several trading posts in Blanding deal in American Indian arts and crafts.

Todays journey will take you further north and you leave Blanding on Hwy 191. You are in for a ride along the Manti-La Sal National Forest, which punctuates the scenic wonders of southeastern Utah. The forest consists of three mountain blocks that rise above the surrounding desert as islands of green. Along the eastern Utah border near Moab, the La-Sal Mountains rise 12,721 feet above sea level. This part of the forest provides climatic relief to the desert of the Colorado River Plateau. Follow Hwy 191 all the way up to Moab, located at the foot of red cliffs and the La Sal Mountains. Moab enjoys unusually mild weather because of its lower elevation. The town, which overlooks the Colorado River, was familiar to Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch and other outlaw gangs. Overnight.

As you continue your ride on Hwy 191, you can enjoy a scenic ride along Arches National Park, which certainly is one of the least terrestial places on this planet. Massive fins of red and golden sandstone stand to attention out of the bare desert plains. Apart from the single ribbon of black asphalt that snakes through the park, there is nothing even vaguely human about it. Ride Hwy 191 up to Price, the largest city in eastern Utah. Coal is so prevalent in this area that road cuts reveal solid black seams, but the town itself is lush and green, thanks to irrigation provided by the river Price. Just outside Price you will head up north and over Soldier Summit to I-15, which will take you back into Salt Lake City. Now it’s time to return your motorcycle and transfer back to your hotel. Overnight.

Today your Big Country Run will end with your departure flight back home.