Ride Southern Utah to Grand Canyon Mostly Dirt
 

Thought I'd share a ride we took last week from Hurricane, UT to the AZ Strip, down to the Toroweap Overlook at the Grand Canyon, and looping back through Kanab and Zion.

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We headed out east of Hurricane, UT on 9 and cut over to 7 going west. We got off at exit 3 to access BLM 1069/5/Mt Trumbull Road. After 50 miles we arrved at the ghost town of Mt Trumbull. There's some pretty cool abandoned structures and old cars as well as a school house exhibit.

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More of Mt Trumbull.....

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Awesome pictures :tup:

Mt Trumbull to Bar 10 Ranch
 

From MT Trumbull we rode south on BLM 1045 to Bar 10 ranch. Bar 10 Ranch has gas, food and lodging, but you need to call ahead and reserve, if you need any of the three. They have covered wagons that you can sleep in. It's a pretty spectacular place!

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Bar 10 to Toroweep
 

From Bar 10 Ranch we backtracked to Mt Trumbull and then headed east over the pass east on Trumbull Loop Rd to Tuweep.

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There was some pretty deep slick mud along the #5 road over the pass. This was just after we pulled the RX3 out of 8-10" deep mud.

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We camped at Tuweep just outside of the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument.

Toroweep Overlook
 

From Tuweep we rode south 13 miles on 115 to the Toroweep Overlook at the Grand Canyon. The last 3 mile of the road requires a little skill to climb over the rocks and such. Toroweep Overlook is at the narrowest section of the Grand Canyon and this road is the only access. It's a very dramatic spot!

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We also found this monster at Toroweep! It was about the size of my hand.

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Toroweep Overlook to Kanab
 

We rode out 115 to 5 to 109 connecting to HWY 389, through Fredonia and then 89A up to Kanab. We spent the night in Kanab and the next day rode 89 north to Mt Carmel Junction, then 9 through Zion and back to Hurricane. Kanab has some good places to eat and Mt Carmel junction has the Thunderbird Restaurant, which has great breakfast.

West of Zion we checked out the ghost town of Grafton which was very cool!

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Looks like a great ride.

I'm also selling this bike by the way....

http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=22471

Thanks!

I really like that part of the US I am thinking of retiring in UT. Looks like it was a real fun ride.

You should! There's a lifetime of things to do and see here, especially on a motorcycle!

Beautiful ride Stevie. Thank you for sharing. I would like to ask some questions about the trip please. Travel time? Fuel consumption? Distance traveled? Thanks.

The whole trip was just over 300 miles in 2 and half days.

Hurricane down to Bar 10 Ranch then over to Tuweep took a solid full day and we were setting up camp about 30 minutes before dusk. I think it was about 120 miles for that first day, but keep in mind over 100 miles of that was off road. We took our time seeing the sights and we did have to negotiate some gnarly mud in a few spots which was a little time consuming.

Tuweep down to the Toroweap overlook, then doubling back and up to Kanab was a pretty easy day and we finished around 4pm. Again, we spent a generous amount of time at the rim of the Grand Canyon. This second day was about 90 miles with about 75 miles on dirt. The last three miles climbing up and 3 miles back to/from the overlook was slightly technical with some rocky sections. It's the type of road that you need high ground clearance to negotiate.

Kanab back to Hurricane through Zion NP was only about 70 miles on all paved roads, but some of the best riding IMO. It's a relaxing and exceptionally scenic easy half day, if you spend lots of time stopping to see the sights and enjoy it.

I haven't topped off yet since I got back to get real accurate MPG, but when I fueled up at Bar 10 Ranch, I took on 1.4 gallons. That was roughly 90 miles into the ride, which put me around 64mpg. I guess thats pretty good considering 60+ miles of that was dirt.

Wonderful ride report. Riding in that area is on my bucket list for sure.