During 1996, Fred decided to take up Motorcycling again. As part of this renewed interest, we took a “Fly and Ride” vacation on a rental Harley Davidson Motorcycle. On July 17th, 1996, we departed the Harley Davidson dealer in Phoenix, Arizona for a trip north through some of the most beautiful country that you could imagine riding through. The map below shows the route that we took. Click on the red dots or the route highlighted in red to see some pictures from a segment of the trip.
We rode together on a 1996 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic for about 1800 miles over 8 days.
| Date | Start Location | Intermediate Point | End Location | Daily Miles | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7/17/96 | Phoenix, AZ | Williams, AZ | 252 | 252 | |
| 7/18/96 | Williams, AZ | Grand Canyon National Park, AZ | Tusayan, AZ | 115 | 367 |
| 7/19/96 | Tusayan, AZ | Lake Powell, AZ | Kanab, UT | 258 | 625 |
| 7/20/96 | Kanab, UT | Zion National Park, UT | Kanab, UT | 201 | 826 |
| 7/21/96 | Kanab, UT | Bryce Canyon National Park, UT | 122 | 948 | |
| 7/22/96 | Bryce Canyon National Park, UT | Capitol Reef National Park, UT | Bryce Canyon National Park, UT | 289 | 1237 |
| 7/23/96 | Bryce Canyon National Park, UT | Sedona, AZ | 345 | 1582 | |
| 7/24/96 | Sedona, AZ | Phoenix, AZ | 204 | 1786 |
Phoenix, AZ
We began our trip in Phoenix. This is where we picked up the Electra Glide Classic that was to be our home for the next 8 days. These pictures show Fred on the Electra Glide and the palm trees and high buildings that characterize Phoenix which were a stark contrast from the scenery that we were about to see.
Step one before we left was deciding what to bring along. Even though the luggage capacity on the Electra Glide Classic was much larger than the saddlebags on our Dyna Wide Glide, there was only room for about half of what we wanted to take. We learned some useful things from a book called Motorcycle Arizona by Frank Del Monte (Copyright 1994, Golden West Publishers, ISBN #0-914846-99-X).
The first is to separate everything you plan to bring into two categories: everything that is absolutely necessary and other things that would be nice to have along. The next step is to cut back on items in the first category until everything fits. Another useful tip is to roll up clothes (shirts, jeans, etc.) and secure them with a rubber band. This makes clothing items much easier to pack in the storage compartments on a motorcycle.
There was only room for one pair of footwear and we were torn between motorcycle boots for protection and comfortable shoes for hiking. If you plan to do any amount of hiking, the best solution is to buy a pair of ankle-high hiking boots – and make sure to bring padded socks. Also, don’t forget the rain gear and a canteen for water (especially if you are planning a ride in a warm area). Spread out on the bed in the picture below is everything that we packed with us.
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Rather than take Interstate 17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff, we decided to try some of the scenic routes described in the Motorcycle Arizona! book. It was definitely a good move – rather than speeding down the interstate surrounded by cars and tractor trailers doing 75 mph, we took a relaxing ride past beautiful scenery where we seldom saw other vehicles. We drove by Lake Pleasant and through the towns of Wickenburg and Prescott before arriving at Williams, where we spent the night.
We spent the next day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We took a helicopter ride that took us over the canyon to the North Rim. The view from a helicopter was fantastic! We visited the IMAX theater in Tusayan and then took a hike around the west rim of the canyon to Hopi Point and then took the shuttle to Hermits Rest.
We stayed overnight in Tusayan and in the morning drove along East Rim Drive, stopping at several of the observation points. After visiting Yaki Point, we headed toward Page, Arizona to visit Lake Powell.
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a man-made lake running over 180 miles through Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. It was formed from the Colorado River by Glen Canyon Dam, which was completed in 1963. Glen Canyon is a National Recreational Area, with facilities for boating, fishing and camping. Lake Powell was named after John Wesley Powell, an explorer who chronicled the first expedition down the Colorado River.
We took a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam and power plant, which originated at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. Glen Canyon Dam is the second highest dam in the United States. The highest is nearby Hoover Dam in Nevada. The power plant provides hydroelectric power to many medium and small cities and towns of the Western United States. The tour was very interesting and, since much of it was air-conditioned, it was refreshing after driving through the hot Arizona desert.
After leaving Lake Powell, we headed northwest toward Kanab, Utah where we stayed overnight. The ride was scenic and all along the way we could smell sage brush. This is something you cannot experience the same way traveling in a car. The next day we visited Zion National Park.
Zion National Park
Zion National Park is an area of spectacular scenery – cliffs, canyons, greenery, wildlife, and the Virgin River. We rode to Zion National Park from Kanab, Utah, approaching the park from the East Entrance. We spent the morning sightseeing along Zion – Mt. Carmel Highway. The first landmark on this road is Checkerboard Mesa, named for the unusual pattern etched into the cliff by erosion. The scenic drive continues as tunnels and switchbacks in the road allow the rider to traverse the changes in elevation. This was quite exciting from a motorcycle.
There are considerable differences in climate among the national parks in this area of the country. At the Grand Canyon, the visitor is at a high elevation, where it is relatively cool (high temperatures were in the 80’s when we were there, and we needed a jacket when riding in the evenings). At Zion National Park, the roads are at a lower elevation. Unfortunately, this makes it very hot (high 90’s) in the middle of the day. We decided to spend the afternoon touring the Visitor Centers, riding through the town of Springdale and to the west, and finally watching the movie in the IMAX theater in Springdale.
We returned to the park in the late afternoon, riding on the Zion Canyon Scenic Highway and taking a hike on the Riverside Walk Trail. This is where Fred was able to get his fill of wildlife photography, including the squirrel pictured below.
On our way back to Kanab, we took a detour to see Coral Pink Sand Dunes state park. This looked like an interesting place if you were into off-road vehicles, as it was full of exactly what its name described. It was not quite worth the trip when you are on a motorcycle. We returned to Kanab, exhausted from a long day but excited about the trip to Bryce Canyon the next day.
Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon was our favorite of all of the parks we visited on this trip. Its beautiful landscape is made up of unusually shaped red rock pillars known as “hoodoos”. The first thing we did when we arrived was to take a helicopter ride over Bryce Canyon and the surrounding area.
After the helicopter ride, we rode into the park and stopped to take some pictures at the first viewpoint, called Sunrise Point. There were several trailheads at Sunrise Point, and since we didn’t have much water with us so we decided to take a relatively short trail called Queen’s Garden Trail. Once we started to descend into the canyon, we were awestruck. As beautiful as the canyon was from the helicopter, it was incredible to be down in the canyon close up to the hoodoos. We took our time hiking into the canyon, not wanting to miss any detail, and took several rolls of pictures along the way.
After we reached the end of the Queen’s Garden Trail, it was decision time – we either turned around and returned the way we came, or we continued another mile and a half to the Navajo Loop Trail. We were tired already and had even less water, but we were enjoying the scenery so much that we decided to continue on.
It was well worth the extra hiking – the scenery from the Navajo Loop trail was even more spectacular than the Queen’s Garden trail. We hiked past incredible rock formations with names like Thor’s Hammer and Wall Street. The trail out of the canyon was incredibly steep – but we enjoyed the hike tremendously. Hiking is definitely the best way to see Bryce Canyon.
After the hike, we returned to the motorcycle and rode on the scenic drive through the rest of the park, stopping at many of the viewpoints. We returned to the park entrance as dusk approached and were greeted by several mule deer. We definitely got a good night’s sleep that night before we rode to Capitol Reef Park on Scenic Highway 12.
Scenic Highway 12 and Capitol Reef National Park
The 120-mile stretch of Highway 12 from Bryce Canyon to Torrey, Utah was billed as one of the most scenic roads in the United States. We found this to be correct as we traveled the distance. Highway 12 passes by several state parks and a National Forest. It starts out with scenery similar to Bryce Canyon, then changes to desert, mountains, and cliffs, and finally ends up going through the Dixie National Forest, full of Pine and Spruce trees, and climbing to an elevation of over 10,000 feet.
Along the way, we stopped for a ride through Kodachrome Basin State Park, with its colorful red sandstone “chimneys”. We hiked in Escalante State Park and saw the petrified wood boulders there. We rode between Escalante and Boulder, a very windy road that at one point had a 1,000-foot drop off either side of the road. Fred had fun leaning through the turns, while Anita screamed in terror.
But the most incredible scenery we saw along this route was when we reached Capitol Reef National Park, approximately 9 miles from the end of Highway 12 on State Highway 24.
The scenic road through Capitol Reef National Park takes you past beautiful red cliffs. One of these cliffs resembles the US Capitol Dome, which is where the park gets its name.
A small Mormon community named Fruita existed in the park in the early part of the 20th century. Fruita was well known for its orchards. The farmers and families moved away but their heritage is preserved in this old log schoolhouse and the orchards, which are still thriving.
A few miles further down the road was a waterfall. The temperature was quite hot in this area of Utah so the waterfall proved a refreshing spot, especially for these children.
From Capitol Reef, we turned around and drove another 120+ miles back to Bryce. We put in quite a few miles that day but it was a very enjoyable ride. Unfortunately, our trip was almost over as we returned the next day to Arizona, and the town of Sedona.
Sedona, Arizona
Sedona, Arizona is a very picturesque town amid Oak Creek Canyon, south of Flagstaff. Sedona’s red rocks have been seen in many movies and commercials. One popular way of seeing the red rocks is by taking a sightseeing tour on a Jeep. We did this on a previous visit to the area but on this trip, we stayed on our motorcycle and stuck to the paved roads.
The town of Sedona is full of boutiques, galleries, and specialty shops. We spent some time browsing in the shops and purchased some beautiful Indian-made turquoise jewelry.
This was the last stop on our trip before we returned to Phoenix.
Trip Planning
We used the Web extensively in planning this trip. There are many good sites with travel information for this part of the country and seeing the pictures on these sites made us even more anxious for the day our trip would start! We planned our trip fairly late – in May for a July trip – and many of the hotels where we wanted to stay were booked. There are plenty of places to camp but that would have meant more stuff to pack on the Harley. We booked some rooms in places that were more distant from the parks we wanted to visit and then used the Web to wait for rooms to open up in the hotels we really wanted to stay in. Many hotel chains let you check availability and book rooms on their web sites. By checking these sites every day or two, we were able to find openings and ended up in the places where we really wanted to stay.
The following are some useful links to sites on the Web that we used to plan this trip:
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