All the Way to the Water - Day 6

 Day 6: You’ve got mail

The morning came early that day. We had arrived in the daylight last evening and took the time to get a good meal the night before at the Spaghetti Factory. I had been craving some spaghetti for 2 days already and we decided it was time for a good meal and several beers before we went to sleep. In fact, the hotel even had a pool adjacent to our wing and we managed to find our way into the water for some relaxing float time, and few beers more.  Last night we had used this extra time for some “reorganization” of our personals. As one travels by motorcycle, space utilization becomes paramount and staying organized is truly important in order to pack and find the things you need each day. After a few days of hard riding and late night arrivals followed by early morning departures, our personal belongings’ had become a bit more burdensome than was convenient.  It was time to solve this nagging little problem with some creative thinking and proactivity. 

Thanks to Bills sleuthing, yesterday we had found a good deal on a hotel room; however, it was a nice hotel in downtown Provo, across the street from Brigham Young University. We were right outside the university football stadium and in downtown.   The students were all hustling about, getting to class, or where ever they had to be as we packed our bikes for the days ride. The ride to Frisco Colorado was a little over 400 miles and by our recent standards an easy days ride so we were in no particular hurry.  The load in was easy thanks to our room being just around the corner from the parking lot and we had stayed on the first floor.  Simply walk around the corner, and you were standing by the bikes. We had organized our belongings last night and packed carefully so we could execute our plan to redistribute our respective loads. Last night we had decided to lighten our loads and decompress the baggage by sending a special package home. The post office was a few blocks away and the self-serve option for a medium size-packing box was available in the lobby even before they opened for business so off we went to arrange a special delivery.  Stopping at the post office we quickly addressed boxes to ourselves at home, and mailed home our dirty clothes.

Heading out of Provo we elected to take Highway 6 southeast for about 130 miles where it hooks into Interstate 70 to Colorado. This would make the fourth National Scenic Byway I had ridden this week and this one was no disappointment. The first National Scenic Byway I was on was Highway 12 going through Idaho and the national forests that dominate the northern panhandle. This highway is actually designated an

All-American Road

and is known as the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway because it follows the original Lewis and Clark expedition trail. The

Historic Columbia River Highway

is another

All-American Road

and follows Highway 84 through Oregon along the river.  Mount Hood Scenic Byway in Oregon follows Highway 26 to Government Camp and to the top of Mt Hood and continues in a loop around the mountain. Now Highway 6 in Utah, the

Dinosaur Diamond Highway

designated as a National Scenic Byway leads out of Provo and southeast through the mountains’ toward Colorado.

As Highway 6 exits Provo it winds through a gap in the mountains, following a canyon through and out the other side of the westward most ridge. This canyon is narrow and deep as it cuts through the rock. It forms a natural passageway for all sorts of travelers with a railway, a highway and a river running through. Anyone who wishes to travel east west has two choices, Highway 6 through the canyon for 130 miles until it intersects the interstate, or around the longer way on the interstate, which first swings southwest and then back eastward. The higher speeds on the interstate is a fair tradeoff for this more direct route as one can arrive faster by going farther however we had a lot of time with a relatively short day in front of us and a scenic highway through interesting country in front waiting. 

This cut in the rock also created a natural wind tunnel as the mountains funneled the elements through the canyon. The residents take full advantage of this by capturing the energy with a network of windmill turbines all converting wind power to electricity.  These 10 wind turbines all were located just beyond the neck of the canyon walls where the wind would be at the highest speed and pressure regardless of the direction through the canyon.  On the day we went through the turbines were all turning slowly creating electrical energy to feed the need of Provo and the surrounding area.

Once through the cut in the ridge the road widened and started to meander its way through the rugged countryside. Finding a way through the mountain gorges and having enough room for a major railway arterial as well as a 2-lane highway surly must have been a significant engineering endeavor. This road having been designated as a National Scenic Byway left no doubt that those who decided this had been there and knew their business. For 100 miles, the road swung left and right as it found its way, and the changing scenery offered explosions of color at every turn.  It was mid-September and fall was approaching, and at elevations, the colors were well under way as the change occurred from summer green to fall reds, yellows, and oranges.

After completing the scenic ride along Highway 6 we junctioned onto Interstate 70 eastbound to Colorado. While still in Utah, the landscape had changed considerably. The area was no longer hill country but rather it seemed to be more plains with buttes along the way. The high flat tops and irregular shapes of the buttes reminded me of Radiator Springs from the Pixar animated movie Cars. Each of these buttes jutting out onto the plain lead into a box canyon. The high tops and walls are as much as 2000 feet tall above the lower plain and the tops are flat and spotted with Juniper and Pinion trees. These are the “Book Cliffs” that run 200 miles from Helper, UT to Rifle, Co.  The Book Cliffs are joined by the Roan Cliffs near Green River, UT and form the longest continuous escarpment in the world. We followed these cliffs nearly the entire way into Grand Junction, CO, over 200 miles. Another 180 miles to Frisco, CO. in the Rockies.