Glenwood Springs to Moab

Cock a doddle do. 6am. Time to get up you lazy ........7am thumb the starter and away we go  taking the long way again.

 A little cooler then yesterday with an overcast sky keeping it that way.

A pretty ride to start beside bubbling water on one side and cliffs on the other. Trees, corners, fields we could almost be home.  Except Grizzly's don't live there, but they do here.

We came upon some old coal ovens that are being restored to their former glory right beside the road.

More typical American boring straight roads. :)

We took 65 to the Skyway road climbing up, the temperature plummeted but it opened into beautiful views of dramatic valleys below.

We found ourselves in a Rocky Canyon. Yeah! Wild West! It can't get any better than this.

We stopped at a town called Grand Junction for an early lunch.   A little bit of interstate work for about 10 minutes and we left Colorado and entered Utah.  It was like flicking a switch into desert with a capital D.  80 degrees one minute. 100 the next.

We where riding in a group of three bikes. Due to our status as users of a GPS we lead.

75 MPH is the speed limit and the lanes of opposing traffic are separated by a very wide median strip. Often 100 meters away from each other.

Cruise control - click. GPS - watch.  World roll by you - check.

We turned off onto 128 near a settlement called Cisco.  It was a bit bumpy and we headed for the hills we could see from the interstate. 10 minutes later we were in for something that you cannot capture on a little camera.

A massive canyon carved from red rock was our companion for the next 20 plus miles. The shapes were classic as from an old cowboy movie. The scale was immense. The spectacle was simply awe inspiring. We were wrong earlier-it could get better.

We stopped when Gerry needed fluids. We agreed it was leaving us speechless. We have never seen anything of the sort. Pancakes rocks, Punakiki? Pffft!

Are those Injun smoke signals????

The desert is thriving with life if you look

Rare flower of the desert

I reckon we will all get ambushed.

Its amazing what water can do. This is the result of a massive snow melt, flood and resulting erosion.

We arrived into Moab early, roughly 2pm.  Too early to get into our rooms. Hmmm. Why did we get told 7am start??? Moab is a funky little town. Loving it at first glance and we have a very nice room for the next two nights.

Gerry took a swim and Mark took a recce around Arches National Park. He chickened out on having a long stay when some particularly ugly thunder clouds made an appearance. Wimp.

Tomorrow Arches and Canyon Land Parks await. We are also lucky with the weather as its "only" around 100 degrees. It can get seriously hot around here and we are nearly acclimatised to 100 (late 30 degrees Celsius now.)

As we travel more and more around America it dawns how "right" a Harley is here. It is steeped in the culture. The look, feel everything about the brand is of this land. It takes from both Indian and settler culture. Its part horse, part industrial age. You see the cues everywhere in art, fashion, museum exhibits-everywhere. The riders and there riding "gear"also can take their cues from an amalgam of these things. It comes as quite a shock to learn the Harley culture is not just a marketing mans dream sold to customers. It is also truly American. Hmmm. Didn't know that.