What a sensational day on the bike!  I love Utah.  If you have a bike licence get over here and ride.

Today I took in a number of Utah’s National Parks and I have to say my jaw was on the ground.  The scenery was stunning.

I left the motel this morning at 7:30 and beat the crowds to the Bryce National Park.  It is 18 miles to the end of the road to Rainbow Point which is at 9115 feet (2778 meters)

And few more pictures from within Bryce.  I also saw a lot of really little squirrels in Bryce which I didn’t see anywhere else.  Sorry no pictures, there were no posers.

From there I went onto Zion National Park.  Zion took much longer to go through as there was a lot more traffic.  I was also doing it as a double back … ie went to the other entrance, turned around and came back.

Zion was very different to Bryce in that the rock formations were quite different.  The road also took you to the bottom of the Canyon.

Zion had a couple of tunnels through the formations.  The longest tunnel was over a mile long with very little lighting so it was quite dark.  However the bike did sound very good!!

By this time I had consumed about 4 hours putting me behind schedule.

The scenery moving though Utah is just stunning.  It was designed for bikes.  Everywhere you looked was great.  Always fighting the temptation to stop and take another photo.   Maybe that also contributed to running behind schedule.  Mmm. Maybe.

From Zion I made my way down to Arizona via Kanab.  A picture coming into Kanab.

And heading out of Utah.

The Glen Canyon is on the border and the water is quite an interesting colour.  Here are a few pictures of the dam at Glen canyon

And the dam wall

And the cool bridge over the Canyon.

By this time the bike was showing that the air temperature was approaching 120F and it was getting hard to stay cool.

As I past Page there was an intense storm brewing down south exactly where I was heading.

By the time I got to the turn off to go to the Grand Canyon I was worried about timing and weather.   It was over 120 miles out of my way, I was going to get there late, and I was going to get very wet – again.  Which meant that I would need to stop short for a second day. Potentially missing the time I had to be back at Salt Lake City.  I sat at the intersection for some time going over the maps and timing.   Finally I waved goodbye to the Grand Canyon and turned left.

I caught up with a Norwegian couple at a Navajo service station.  They were also in the US rising.  But unlike me they were riding for three weeks.  I wonder if work would miss me…?

From here I made my way back up to Utah via Monument Valley.

The famous Mexican Hat

And then as I got closer to Moab the sun was going down which gave the formations around Moab nice colours.

I pulled into Moab at about 8:15pm.  Had a feed and wandered the streets where  I found this hat.

Although I think today’s hat should have been a bandana.  I must learn how to put one of those on.

Total milage for the day 500 miles.