Tropic to Salina

Sat 25th June

Last evening we decided to ride into Bryce Canyon, hoping to get some good pictures in the evening light.

Everyone says that Bryce Canyon is the best but both Bob and I were a little disappointed. Maybe it's because we have been in canyon land for a few days now and been in the wild and woolly bits.....

....Bryce is a bit like the Grand Canyon. It's somewhat sanitised and a little too organised.

For those fed up with pictures of rocks.

We didn't manage all the viewpoints last night and I suspect we missed the best. Our intention was to go back into the park this morning but we were up half the night (alarms on the bikes kept going off).

There was also work to do (Bob's headstock bearings loose again. My left fork leg loose and throttle cables out of adjustment). It was gone 11am before we were ready and decided to give Bryce a miss.

We decided to ride North to Salt Lake City then across to San Francisco, rather than West, leaving Death Valley & Yosemite til later (getting up into the mountains to some cooler air and a change of scenery were the deciding factors).........

.

Red Canyon

So it was west along Highway 12, through Red Canyon before turning North up Highway 89. At Panguitch the annual balloon festival was taking place. The Hot Air Balloons had all gone long before we arrived (so no photos). Lunch was an ice cream and a chat........

....... with the local Highway patrol. They were reluctant to let me take it for a spin (shame).

One of the big pluses of travelling is the people you meet in the most unlikely of places. At Koosharem we stopped for a drink and met a guy (Shane Bartholomew) who insisted on paying (thanks Shane). He's a keen off road motorcyclist who's off-roaded in the Copper Canyon a number of times and like Craig ridden the Baja race (Do you know him Craig?).

The lack of sleep last night finally took its toll.