Dawn at Gooseberry camp

What I failed to mention on the day one post is there are no crowds! The National Park Service limits the numbers of visitors. You have to have a permit to be on the White Rim Trail (Island in the Sky District). That really adds to the allure. Occasionally we saw some 4x4s, a motorcycle or two, and one group of mostly young singlespeeders bikepacking, but for the most part we had it all to ourselves.

We actually had two guitar players on the trip. Tony was the other one. He borrowed Golightly’s guitar and played a song while Golightly played the harmonica. Then he did a Son Volt song. After that I called out “Blister in the Sun.” And amazingly enough he knew that Violent Femmes song and started jamming it. All the girls went nuts.

On day one our guide Bryan said to me, “I think I’ve seen you on the trail?” I said, “Maybe, how about Navajo Rocks or Rodeo?” We compared dates and it wasn’t those trails. He said he was guiding a private group of e-bikers. I thought nothing of it. Then on day two it hit me. I saw the dude on the Klondike trails. He was with two other e-bikers at the top of one of the trails. I was chatting them up. The three of them seemed like they could take a joke, or at least I thought so. I told them about the bumper stickers I made. IT’S OKAY TO RIDE AN E-BIKE, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY BEER!  They didn’t think it was that funny. That’s why Bryan remembered me. I am the smart aleck on the trail!

Day Two Stats

• 27.44 miles
• 1967 ft elevation gain
• More smiles than miles!

Myself, Tony, Dianni, and Amelia

Can you see the Keyhole?

Golightly peeking over the edge

Chris and the never ending view.

Mare soaking it all in

The trudge up Murhpy Hogback.

Like a lizard

Tony waiting for the call that lunch is ready.

Side story: We’ve seen a lot of camp hosts in my day but none of them compare to Sandy at the Horsethief campground. Our campsite was right across from hers. She greeted us and chatted us up. When people were arriving to look for a spot in this first come first served campground she was in the road giving them info. If the campground was full she tried to help them out with alternative ideas. You did not drive the wrong way on the one way road on her watch. And if you were speeding there would be hell to pay. All of this is great, but put us in a predicament. The kiosk where you check in and pay clearly states the campsite must be occupied. Ours was going to be unoccupied for two nights. After much talking bewteen the three parties that were camping we all decided to go with the approach of asking for forgiveness instead of permission. Here we were on our second day, we had just finished the climb up Murphy’s Hogback and three hikers are walking by. The first three hikers we had seen all trip. Wouldn’t you know it, one was Sandy!! Amelia recognized her and Sandy said, “Busted!” Then we all laughed our asses off. She’s the coolest of the cool.

Sandy is the best!

The lunch sites and campsites had pit toilets with artwork from the local high school students.

The Green River

Mare leaping over the Black Crack with Bill and Chris watching. It’s not much of a leap but still scary as hell. You do not want to fall into the crack. It is a 65-foot-deep fissure.

Dianni and Drew talking up a storm. Bill and Mare taking a picture of Candlestick glowing. Candlestick camp is where we spent the second night.

What a magnificent sunset!

The White Rim Singers

I imagine this happens to most people that have an active lifestyle…last summer when I turned sixty five it was a wake up call of sorts. I started pondering about things I want to do and should do while I could still do them. Who knows how many more truly active years I have left. It could be five, ten, or if I’m really lucky fifteen.

The last two years when we’ve been in Moab we’ve always driven out to either Dead Horse Point State Park and/or Grandview Point in Canyonlands National Park and looked down on the White Rim Trail. From above it is amazing and I always thought to myself it must be really spectacular to be on it. That’s the genesis of this trip.

Last fall I contacted Rim Tours and started a conversation. After much back and forth, and with Amelia’s help when I became frustrated, we finally settled on dates for a three day, two night tour. I’m not a big mingle with strangers guy. I wanted a charter trip with only like minded friends. We put together a list of first round draft choices, sent out an email, and to our surprise everyone quickly responded with firm commitments.

It’s a terrific group of folks, and only Amelia and I knew everyone, well almost everyone. There’s Chris who’s an identical twin of our friend Kathy, we’ve been hearing about her for years and dying to meet her. The other person we didn’t know was Drew, but Patty and Bill from Montana vouched for him. Unfortunately Kathy’s husband Mike was a last minute scratch.

The twelve riders on the trip were Amelia and I, The Noltes (Reno, Nev.), Chris (Connecticut), Kathy ( Grand Junction & Massachusetts, her and Mike are vagabonds), Bill and Drew (Helena, Montana), Ken and Golightly (San Diego), and last but not least Dianni and Tony (Fort Collins, Colorado).

It was a little nippy in the morning on the first day but overall we really lucked out on the weather. Around every bend there was vast jaw dropping scenery that just left us stunned and feeling small in the universe. The other really wonderful thing…no internet. We all had a reprieve from the endless news cycle of the trump era. Kudos to the folks at Rim Tours, especially our guides, Jeff and Bryan. It was a dreamlike perfect tour that will be a life long memory all of us will cherish.

What is the White Rim Trail you ask?

Per the National Park Service, The “White Rim” is officially the White Rim Sandstone, a light-colored rock layer deposited approximately 275 million years ago as wind-blown beach dunes. Because this sandstone is more resistant to erosion than the softer red shale beneath it, it forms a massive, flat “bench” or terrace that rings the Island in the Sky mesa of Canyonlands National Park.

Here’s the crazy thing: the White Rim Road was constructed by the Atomic Energry Commission in the 1950s to provide access for uranium miners during the cold war. It’s a 100 mile unpaved loop, of which we did 82 miles.

Day One Stats

• 28.9 miles   
• 1,737 ft elevation gain   
• More fun than imaginable

Friends meeting friends at the Rim Tours office. The day had finally arrived. The air was filled with excitement.

From their office it was nearly an hour drive to the start. By the time we got there we were all chomping at the bit to get going, but first there was a safety talk and a review of the map showing our route.

Part of the safety talk was a demonstration of the correct way to look over the edge of a cliff: Crawl towards the edge, lay down on your belly and look over as Dianni and Amelia are doing. I said no thanks and never got close to the edge!

Team photo

The Shafer Trail, this is what we rode down to start the ride!

Musselman Arch, some folks call it an arch some a bridge.

We all oohed and aahed at it for a while. That’s Ken and Golightly in the foreground.

Here’s a nice team photo perspective shot.

Hoary tansyaster

Young lovers, well maybe not so young anymore, and other’s body parts. Everyone was digging the warmth of the rock while waiting for lunch.

Typical lunch spread

Lunch with a view

A happy Greg Harris

Kathy with Mr. & Mrs. Fancy Pants that own an Airstream wrestling with the tent set up.

The evening light was beautiful. That’s Nolte walking towards the camera and Amelia and Mare walking away.

The little small human specs are Chris and Amelia!

Gooseberry campsite

Golightly brought his guitar and harmonica. He even prepared a song book for everyone with lyrics. It was pretty cool hanging out and singing. Ken and Chris are in the pic.

Stay tuned for day two! I’ve got some great pictures and stories to tell.

I like to believe a beautiful sunset is a precursor to a great tomorrow. It doesn’t always happen, but this time it did!

We’d been doing a lot of riding in Hurricane and Moab, so on the day before our big three day, two night bike tour of the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park we went for a hike. There will be a lot more on the White Rim in another post.

It was a beautiful drive up the UT-128 with the Colorado River on our left. Amelia saw this hike on the Instagrams. The chick that posted it said you had to eventually walk in the creek to get to the waterfall at the end. So we all decided we’d just go until then. I had on my Keen sandals in case I got wet, not what I’d wear for a six mile hike. The trail zig zagged across the creek. Eventually I had enough of not having the correct support for my feet (old guy problems) and announced it was time to turn around. The husbands were with me, the wives not so much. They wanted to keep on charging with the hope of getting to the end. So we negotiated…they would charge forward for a half an hour then turn around. The husbands trudged back to the parking lot for a wonderful tailgate charcuterie and cold beers.

Bundled up at the trailhead: Tony, Amelia, Dianni, Nolte, and Mare.

Chilly, but beautiful day on Professor Creek.

Desert Mule Ears

Mexican Hats

Dwarf Indian Paintbrush

Soon the zig zagging began. We must’ve crossed the creek at least fifty times.

Mancos penstemon

There were multiple side slots that quickly dead ended.

Heading into one of the side slots.

Tony and Dianni in another dead end slot.

The husbands had already turned around in this pic.

The end of the road.

Video of the dramatic waterfall at the end.

Greetings from Quail Creek State Park, Hurricane, Utah. A sunrise to behold.

Back on the road again, finally! Four months between trips in the Airstream is way too long, but sometimes that’s how life is.

I almost named this post The Revolving Door in Hurricane. All week we had friends coming and going. It’s a good thing I’m social 🙄. First our South African friends, Mike and Nats, arrived the day we did and stayed two nights. Marlene and her family rolled into town at the crack of dawn on Tuesday. They Airbnb’d it in town and left on Friday. Ed from my Thursday night ride group was in town with his wife and was able to squeeze in a ride. The Noltes got here on Wednesday evening and are caravaning with us in their van to Moab.

We did all the usual rides: Church Rocks, JEM trail, Gooseberry Mesa, Wire Mesa, Little Creek Mesa, and Barrel Roll in St. George.

The town is called Hurricane for a reason. The afternoon winds were too much at times. Gusts of 35 to 40 mph started to grate on us. This stop was probably one day too long.

I’m sad to report, the Dixie Pizza Wagon that’ve I’ve raved about in many blog posts has had a change of ownership. I have no ill will towards the new owners. I hope they have success. It’s just not the same vibe anymore. One could say the charm is gone.

Sego Lily, The Utah state flower.

Mike at Church Rocks

Nice perspective view of the red rock at Church Rocks.

Singlespeed!

Prince’s plume on the JEM trail.

Gould’s Rim, part of the JEM. The important thing is Molly’s nipple in the background.

Three hot Mtb chicks on Gooseberry!

The amazing rock of Gooseberry Mesa.

Nats, myself, Amelia, Mike and Marlene at Gooseberry Point.

A table with a view.

Indigo bush

Mare and Amelia on Wire Mesa.

Ed snapping the selfie of myself, Mare, Amelia, and Nolte at Wire Mesa.

Amelia and Mare on Little Creek Mesa.

Lucky me with three girls at Little Creek Mesa swimming hole.

Stansbury cliffrose. The fragrance is magnificent.

I’m happy to see the Jackalope legend is alive and well! This was on the host’s golf cart at Quail Creek.

The best campground shower award goes to the new loop at Quail Creek.

And now reason 1,238 to get off the couch and get outside!!

That’s right, we saw another Gila Monster!! This was on Barrel Roll in St. George.

And we got a video of the Gila Monster!

Spectacular sunrise the day before Thanksgiving.

We typically stay in town for Thanksgiving. It was my mom’s favorite holiday. This year, six months before the trip, we made reservations for McDowell Mountain and Usery Mountain Regional Parks. That’s how it is nowadays, if you want to stay at either one of these Maricopa County Parks you need to book that far in advance.  Well, our niece Alex and her family recently moved to Prescott, so we canceled the Usery part of the trip and spent four nights with them.

Alex is my cousin Kahl’s daughter. Yeah, yeah, I know, that technically makes her my first cousin once removed. F that stuff, we are her uncle and aunt and she’s our niece. Her two brothers, Thomas and Chris, are our nephews. We are really close with all of them. Whenever we can spend time with them it’s a big treat. And now all three of them have kids. Being a grandparent must be really special, it’s special for us just being a great uncle and aunt.

Alex told us over and over that her horseshoe driveway was steep. She wasn’t kidding!

Miles and his great uncle

Alex and Amelia, happy together

Amelia, Miles, and Jackson. We all did one lap around the court house plaza before heading over to Bill’s for pizza on Wednesday night.

If you happen to find yourself in downtown Prescott you must go to Bill’s. The pizza was excellent.

Nice whimsical to go boxes

I squeezed in one ride on Wednesday while the girls and Miles hiked. This is the aptly named Tunnel Vision trail.

They adventured off the fire road and got on single track. I heard there were a few precarious moments.

Thanksgiving Day we all went out for a little fresh air stroll.

Grand Canyon Black Tarantula. It was a real surprise seeing him.

She’s still completely smitten with him.

Jackson, Miles, Amelia, and Alex on their big Christmas tree cutting day outside of Williams. I was a little under the weather and stayed home.

The perfect one

Amelia cut down a little one and we brought it back to San Diego.

What a great thing! A kid playing in the dirt.

Adios Prescott. I’m sure we’ll be back soon, now that we have family there.

Sonoran desert

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day.
Little Amy wants to play,
come again another day.

Sun, sun, out you stay,
Warm us up for all the day.
Little Amy wants to play,
Warm us up for all the day.

We left San Diego on Tuesday and it started raining before we left the county. Then it rained on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A couple of days of rain is always nice, six days, not so much. I’m a blue sky, sunshine kinda guy. You can’t control the weather so you adjust and roll with it. We were still able to squeeze in rides and a hike between downpours.

On Monday, our last full day, we awoke to blue skies and sunshine. It was glorious.

This is our fifth stay at McDowell Mountain Regional Park. That says a lot about a lot of things, mostly though it says their E.I. Rowland campground is really nice. If you’ve camped here before and have a favorite site, beware, they have renumbered the south loop. So site #74 isn’t #74 anymore. They have added 14 new sites in the south loop. None of the new sites are open yet. Someone did a crappy job. The sites were raised then paved. The dirt underneath is collapsing. And if that’s not enough, the electricity to the sites isn’t working. There’s no telling when they will get it all squared away.

Somewhere on the US 95 on the way to Quartzite.

We spent Tuesday night at the Scaddan Wash in Quartzite.

Quartzite is busy this time of year, it’s “the season.” All the crowds are at the LTVA’s (Long Term Visitor Areas). No crowds at Scaddan!

Look at this beautiful bike! But where are the gears?

It’s pretty cool riding amongst the saguaros.

This is one of the trails at Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve. It’s a little more challenging than the tame trails at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

Seems like we always get at least one incredible sunrise while we are here.

The biggest crested we’ve ever seen!

I tweaked my back a little so one day we hiked up to Tom’s Thumb instead of riding.

It’s a short steep 2.2 mile one way hike.

The serendipity of the universe! Half way up we saw this rock. It was the only painted rock on the entire trail. Amy and her dad…I’m tripping out about it.

When we reached the top it was reminiscent of Black Butte, Guadalupe Peak, and Table Mountain, our view shrouded by the clouds.

It’s a hike worth doing for sure if you’re in the Scottsdale area.

I sure miss my buddy Rheinhardt. He passed away on Christmas Day last year.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!