I also was in the Moab area around the time of the proposed meet-up, I think a few days before. I stayed in the RV park in Moab for several days, then went to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park for a couple of days. I stayed at the Needles Outpost there - only $15/night plus $6 for a shower (they have to truck all their water in).
Here's the rig at Needles Outpost:
There were tons of these orange flowers all over the place:
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I saw three or four SMBs around, but never with anyone in them, or just driving by.
Once set up, I got around on my motorbike, riding the back roads. I've finally had the time to put videos together of my explorations.
On the first day, I rode out Kane Creek Road, through Hurrah Pass and down to Lockhart Basin. Here's a link to the video:
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/M...ahPassPop.html
On day 2, I rode up Poison Spider Mesa, but didn't get very far. It was way too rocky and sandy for me!
On day 3, it had rained overnight so the dirt roads weren't in any shape for riding. I spent the day in town, shopping and such.
On day 4, I planned to ride around the La Sal Mountains just east of Moab, starting by riding up the Onion Creek Road, getting onto the La Sal Mtns Loop Road, then riding through the three passes in a big "S" pattern. That was a great ride, starting with typical Utah rock monuments, riding up Onion Creek with it's nearly bazillion crossings (none of them deep), then onto the snowy peaks of the La Sal Mountains. Unfortunately I got blocked by snow twice, once on the very rocky Miners Basin Road, and once at Geyser Pass. The road through Geyser Pass was closed until
the day after I was there! As a result, I was only able to ride one of the three passes, but instead took part of the Kokopelli trail back to Moab, where I took one of the two spills of the day. Fortunately, neither rider nor bike were hurt!
I just finished my video of the day 4 ride:
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/M...alMtnsPop.html
This video ends at the parking lot to the Slickrock Trail. A few moments after I got back to the parking lot from the trail, a Sportsmobile was pulling out. I didn't have time to get off my bike to talk to them
You can see that at the very end of the video. Does anyone recognize it?
I spent my last day in Moab riding around the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands NP: First to Dead Horse Point State Park (only $5 entry fee for motorbikes), then over to Mineral Bottom and back to Moab via Potash Road, always striving to take the least direct route possible
except when it looked like thundershowers were on the way. Dead Horse SP was well worth the side trip!
It's too far for me to drive back to Southern California in one day, so I stopped at Capitol Dome NP and rode the Cathedral Valley loop after going to the back side of Factory Butte. I don't recommend the Factory Butte road unless you like a lot of sand wash, which I don't! The Cathedral Valley road was in great shape - saw some minivans and other low-slung cars along the way. I could have taken my SMB, but that wouldn't have been as much fun. Here's the video from the motorbike:
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/M...ValleyPop.html
Finally, I stopped a lot to take photos and post some of them to my website, here...
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/T...tm#Utah2016-05
You can go through the photos much more quickly than the videos, but you don't get as good a sense of the surroundings.
I want to go back next spring, maybe a little later in the year so the snow on the roads will be melted...
- Steve