Bob Palin's Blog

Last weekend the forecast for Torrey said highs in the low 90s, about as hot as it gets normally, so I decided to head north in search of cooler weather. I've been eying the Uinta Mountains for a couple of years now so that's where I headed, not wishing to rough it I decided on the KOA in Manila, about a mile from the Wyoming line and, importantly, with WiFi :grin: The red square is where I planned on riding, Torrey is just below center of the map where the red T is, about 280 miles from Manila Not exactly wilderness camp... Day 1 This map has the rides from Friday (red), Sunday (yellow) and Monday (blue) on it, it is about 15 miles across the width of the map. The mountains are the Uintas and it is the Ashley National Forest, Vernal is just south of the map with Flaming Gorge just to the east, Manila to the north. The ride started at the bottom right corner, there is a little hiker there but he's a bit hard to see. My plan was to follow the Outlaw Trail which was set up a...

After several days of 80F+ weather the tables turned and June 6th took us back to March weather! Snow on Thousand Lake Mountain north-east of Torrey Peeking at winter on Boulder Mountain The Teasdale Stegosaurus After taking a few pictures around town I headed up into the high country on Utah 72, known as Sweeper Madness to it's motorcycling friends. Sweeper Madness The wind was blowing so hard up here the snow was plastered to the sign. This viewpoint is at about 8000 feet, it was 34F with a 50+ mph wind gusting higher, at times it was hard to stand up and my ears froze! Looking east over Cathedral Valley to the Henry Mountains Looking south at Hen Hole Peak From here I continued over 72 to I70 but stayed off the freeway and took the remnants of old US 50 which is a dirt "frontage" road for most of the way to Salina. In the Torrey area the snow settled down to about 7000 feet (right above town) but while I was eating lunch at Mom's Cafe in Salina, which is quite a bi...

© Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Snow on the Henry Mountains After another cold snowy day on the 29th the sun returned leaving a fresh blanket of snow on the Henry Mountains, this is the same view of the mountains I have from my house, not bad eh? The dog is one of Nancy's, they often come out to meet me when I'm walking down to the river though they don't leave her property. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Juniper Waking Spring is trying to emerge, the new cones are starting to grow on the juniper trees, there's just one berry left in the middle. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dog Walking Zane down by the Fremont River, it's running pretty well with the snow melt. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Growing Urge Over the winter they refreshed the tar snakes on River Drive, some plants just have that need to grow though... © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Willows ...

© Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moto Central - The Chuckwagon Winter returned after a week of warm weather, it was 27F when I took this in the afternoon. The Chuckwagon is Torrey home central to motorcyclists from all over the country. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Torrey Schoolhouse The old Torrey Schoolhouse and meeting room. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Castle The Castle from the west, snow is beginning to fall. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Castle © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Castle I got a bit carried away with pictures of the Castle, this one is taken from the east, note that the cottonwood has its first leaves, the weather fooled it. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Castle Taken from the Fremont River, although my boots are waterproof that doesn't make the water any warmer, brrr. © Bob Palin 2007 . . . . . . . . ....

I've been going to Death Valley on Martin Luther King weekend for a number of years now with a couple of BMW motorcycle groups. Staying in the valley itself has become expensive and crowded in recent years so we now stay somewhere relatively nearby, this year it was in Pahrump. The weather in Utah was snowy so I didn't ride down there but took my Tundra instead. Dante's View - it was cold - 24F here in the morning. The view point is 5,475 feet above the lowest point in North America which is at the base of the cliff from where this picture was taken. On the far range of mountains just to the left of the edge of the picture is Telescope Peak at 11,049ft, the drop from the peak to the valley is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. The white surface is salt beds. Death Valley is of course very very dry, there is little pesky vegetation to get in the way of the geology (though over 1000 species of plant do grow in the park). This is a view from the back side of Zabriskie Point....

After the rather cold ending of the ride the week before I decided to head out into the desert where it would definitely be warmer. And it was. One of my favourite loops is to go down through Capitol Reef NP and take the Caineville Wash out to Cathedral Valley then climb up Thousand Lake Mountain and go over the top to UT 72 and home. At this time of year the mountain is buried under several feet of snow but I knew there was a dirt road from Cathedral Valley north to I70 and that it didn't get too high so that was my plan. That is in fact exactly what I did, but it didn't go exactly how I expected it to... The wash meets the road just south of Capitol Reef National Park and this time it actually had water in it, that should have been a warning to me. Caineville Wash is desert with sparse vegetation but Thousand Lake Mountain is visible to the west to provide picturesque scenery. Entering Cathedral Valley from the Middle Desert, the large monument in the c...