SW Adventure

[Lapchik]

Tuesday May 26, 2026 (forgot to get the mileage again today, but something like 530)

After fueling up on the same continental breakfast available at any mid-range hotel in the United States, I headed out for Page Arizona. I was prepared for heat, but none was to be had today. It only got up to 70°, and it rained off and on the entire way over to four corners and up to Delta colorado. For a little while near Ouray, CO the rain turned into snowflakes.

The first stop of the day was horseshoe bend, which was more of a hike than I was expecting it to be. Well, a long walk anyway. Not much fun when your legs are already screaming from day eight on the road and averaging over 500 miles a day. I think I learned "motorcycle rider" in at least three different languages: Chinese, French, and possibly Hindi. I wore my aerostich as I walked the path, and I only knew how to respond in french. Well, if they were Canadian French it made sense. If they were France French I probably said a bunch of nonsense.

After the bend, I went through monument valley. I got a picture at Forrest Gump point. It was fun to see all the different deserts on this trip, and I realize that my childhood education with roadrunners and coyotes was very inaccurate. The cartoon uses the landscape of Utah, and the plant life of central Arizona. You can find coyotes and in a lot of those areas, and I only saw a roadrunner in New Mexico.

I had to navigate around a little road construction, but I had almost 40 miles of brand new blacktop on my way to four corners. As you approach the monument, the landscape looks like an endless sea of dead dry dirt, that even the hardiest of brush rarely attempts life upon. Between that dull brown expanse and the road, the ditches glittered with sunlight reflecting off of thousands upon thousands of smashed bottles and sun bleached aluminum cans. Every few miles there is a brightly colored sign for a candidate in the Navajo Nation presidential election. $10 entry fee and only a couple minutes of waiting in line, and I have my four corners picture. I walked past a dozen booths all selling genuine native Navajo made jewelry, but I have never been a jewelry person. There was one guy selling T-shirts, and I got myself one of those.

Next up was the moki dugway. The paved road is smooth and wonderful, but the instant it turns to gravel it is absolutely awful. The washboards are so bad your choices are first gear just fast enough to stay upright, or click it up a gear and ride precariously close to the cliff edge. If you try and accelerate in second gear on the washboards, all it does is bounce your suspension around and send your back end sliding. Lots of first gear hairpin turns. I made it to the top, place to go cash, and then headed back down. Similar issues with the washboards, with your options being crawl over them or carry a little speed to float over them and hope your abs doesn't fight you so bad that you go shooting off a corner. A quick stop for the Mexican hat rock, and then I was headed up into colorado.

I rode US550 from Durango through Silverton and Ouray all the way up to Delta. It's a neat road with some good mountain and waterfall views, but I don't think it's one of the ultimate motorcycle roads as some people claim. I've seen the final destination movies, so I had all the patience in the world while waiting for the logging trucks to reach a pull-off to let the tail back drive past.