Day 13 - Zion to Moab

We’ve spent our last night in Zion NP for this trip. We ate breakfast and were ready to leave by 8am. The rain that had begun yesterday afternoon had stopped but the humidity was very high and there were many low hanging clouds making for great scenery.

Zion marks the west-most destination in our travels. From now on, we’ll steadily make our way eastward back to Virginia.

Today’s route took us out of Zion NP via the Zion-Mt. Carmel highway heading east towards Hwy 9. We  would follow Hwy 9 east to scenic Utah Hwy 12. We would follow Hwy 12 for its entire length to Hwy 24 which we would take eastward to I-70. I-70 east would take us to US191 which would take use straight into Moab.

As we left Zion, we ascended from the canyon floor and into the low clouds. It was foggy for an hour or so.

We soon reached Hwy 12 and for the next 280 miles we were treated with fantastic vistas, twisty roads, interesting rock formations and other visually amazing sights. Today’s entire route was non-stop beautiful scenery; easily the most scenic ride I’ve ever taken…all 350 miles of it.

Hwy 12 took us down into Bryce Canyon and then into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Grand Escalante area is huge, with soaring rock formations.

Hwy 12 guided us up and over Boulder Top reaching a maximum elevation of 9,600 feet. There were signs of freshly fallen snow at the top of the mountain with even a little slush still on the road way in locations. We were surprised by how many climates we seemed to go through today.

Temperatures fell to their lowest of the day (37F) at the top of the mountain. The views were incredible, with the tall birch trees still in their winter dormancy. We remained quite comfortable with our heated gear.

At the intersection of Hwy 12 and Hwy 24, we stopped for lunch and topped off our fuel tanks. At this point, we only had 150 miles left on the day and wouldn’t need any more fuel stops.

Hwy 24 was just spectacular as Hwy 12 passing through the Capital Reef National Park and following the Fremont River. The mountains turned orange and red again.

As we passed through Hanksville, UT, Hwy 24 straightened out and the land opened up to long, distant vistas. We could see a storm brewing off in the far distance. The XMWeather display indicated that the storm we were seeing was between us and Moab.

When we reached I-70, we were approximately 3 miles from the rain. We decided to go ahead and put on our rain gear before entering I-70. Behind us was beautiful fluffy clouds and sunny, blue skies. Ahead was dark gray. We had a laugh putting on rain gear in the median.

Not long after merging onto I-70 east, we encountered some light rain. When we exited onto US191, the rain picked up and we were glad to be in our rain gear.

As we entered Moab the rain stopped. We pulled into the hotel at 3:30pm (local time) and unloaded the bikes. We set out for dinner at a local establishment, Moab Brewery and had a great dinner.

Tomorrow, we’ll visit the Arches National Park and take a scenic ride along Utah Hwy 128.