Colorado & Utah?

[Craigatcsi]

I need a Vacation! Work has been Very stressfull the last couple of months and I want to break my new Trike conversion in with a longish road Trip.


We need to add Colorado and Utah to our Map so that we have all if the states west of Iowa.so, I plan to take a week or so to do those two states.


I can't walk much, so our site seeing is pretty much always from the bike. We have been thru Colorado in a Cage before but not on a bike. What places do you recommend?


I know there are MANY things to see but I am only going to take a week, (7ish days), away from work.

[iaff84]

I need a Vacation! Work has been Very stressfull the last couple of months and I want to break my new Trike conversion in with a longish road Trip.


We need to add Colorado and Utah to our Map so that we have all if the states west of Iowa.so, I plan to take a week or so to do those two states.


I can't walk much, so our site seeing is pretty much always from the bike. We have been thru Colorado in a Cage before but not on a bike. What places do you recommend?


I know there are MANY things to see but I am only going to take a week, (7ish days), away from work.

50 across CO into Moab Utah. Do Arches and upper and lower Canyon Lands. Then South through Monument Valley. Have done this trip over 20 times over the years. Just way to much to see so we did it 2 weeks at a time over the years.
Just that area alone will get you back again and again.
Dennis Swan

[leo3wheel]

If you take that route, Mesa Verde, Durango and Silverton can be visited on way home. Rocky Mountain National Park in north Colorado is also very nice. You can also climb Pikes Peak.

[Lucky]

Hard to go wrong in that part of the country. Wolf Creek Pass, Million Dollar Highway,and on and on. RIDE SAFE

[Pegasus1300]

A must do if you come to Utah is Utah 12 from Torry to Escalante thru Boulder Over Boulder Mountain, calf Creek Falls. You can't see the falls without walking but it is a great ride, Stop in Bicknel for Pickle Pie. Ride up over Fish Lake. Ride thru Bryce,you can see most if it without walking very much. The road north out of Bryce to Antimony is a great road.Up US 89 from Zions to Long Valley Junction then up to Cedar Breaks and the back side of Zions. Very little walking involved and fantastic sights.Great riding out of Monticello UT. Back door into Canyon Lands and many fine views without too many steps. If you get interested PM and I'll look up the roads on a map and let you know.

[Craigatcsi]

My wife and I have been watching the replies and appreciate all.

After watching the food channel this evening, we got to talking about our upcoming trip. She said that we should try to hit some 'non-traditional' or 'non-franchise' restaurants. We would really like to try some different kinds of foods.

So, if any of you folks can think of any along the ways, please speak up.

craigr

[Craigatcsi]

Here we are in Silverthorne, CO, on our way home - kinda. We want to hit Rocky Mountain Park also. So, we ARE heading home, just the long way.

So far, our 07Venture / NEW Hannigan conversion has performed well, (other than the reverse, which the dealer still can't get to work right). Otherwise, I think that three wheels has some Perc's over two wheels after all. Though it was quite a workout on a lot of roads through the mountains. This is where the two wheels has it made. It looks like I will have more of a workout to go back over the mountains. The stability and comfort has it tops in my book!
Oh, and also, I LOVE the attention it draws. We had stopped for gas at one station and I struck up a conversation with an older man that happened to be from France. In his broken English, he explained that he and his family are on a tour. He then, again in broken English, said something about his Grandchildren and pictures. Well I thought he wanted me to use his camera and get a family picture of them. Wrong. Pretty soon 6 or more people got out their vehicle with cameras - taking pics of our Trike! Once we figured out what was going on, my wife and I went to move from the Trike and the Grandfather said 'NO! You stay by the motorcycle' - They wanted US in the pics. Then a couple of the teen boys walked closer to check out trike. I let them climb on for pics. THIS thrilled them, which thrilled my wife and I. After doing the Pic thing with them, they did the usual thank yous and they took pics and movies of my wife and I heading down the road. This REALLY made our day! It was great to see this much enthusiasm.
Well, this story isn't over! The next day, while sitting in a restaurant, in Moab, two of these boys approached our table and, in broken English, say 'you remember us.' They thank us again, etc.. I then ask if they would email me a couple of their pics once they get home. He said he would of course, so I gave him my email address. - I am really looking forward to these. Anyway, as we were leaving, we walked by their table on our way out. Four of them followed us out to take more pics! So, I had to do it........ I offered rides. Wow did they go for this! While giving one a ride, the others were taking pics. I even gave their Grandmother, who spoke nor understands English, a ride. With each of these, when I left the parking lot and a couple of other places, I really cranked her up. I never got over 50ish, but in a short distance..... The only one that really commented was the Grandmother who, while I was getting on it, said 'Wee Wee!!' (This means Yes, Yes). I was impressed that this Grandmother was very comfortable and loved the acceleration! While I was giving rides, one of the Frenchmen that stayed at the restaurant explained to my wife that they do have m/c's in France but not Trikes. I didn't know this. We really enjoyed all of the attention and look forward to the pics!
My wife used quite a few suggestions from this post as well as those from Venturerider. - Again, we appreciate those suggestions.
We spent THREE days in Moab, UT. It started as a 'Day of Rest' to recuperate from a few LOOONG days of riding. We then found a couple of places to tour that were close to Moab, so we stayed another night. We stayed at Comfort Suites, other than the higher price, we were very happy with it. It is a VERY new Hotel and right on the main drag of Moab. I enjoyed Moab enough that I could've stayed there another night or two.
The scenery in that area was really gorgeous! It was definitely NOT what I was imagining. The temperature was cooler than I expected. But, did you know that it rains in the desert? And it can rain HARD!!! While going across Monument Valley, we could see it raining miles ahead of us. I ask my wife if she wanted to put our rain gear on..... 'nah, we will be alright, just ride thru it'. Wow was this a mistake!! We hadn't wore our helmets and were dressed in T-Shirts. We were wearing goggles though. At one point it rained so hard that I lost sight of the car 30' ahead of me. I slowly pulled to the side of the road. The white line on the side of the road was all I could see. There was a large Pickup behind us and even though I had stopped, he stayed behind us. My wife and I believe that he did this to protect us from other vehicles hitting us as we were stopped. We made it through okay, other than being soaked. When we came to a town, we stopped at a gas station, changed clothes and put our rain gear on.
We hit rain again today as we were traveling I-70 east. Hopefully we can avoid rain the rest of the trip, but I doubt it.

more to come......

craigr

[leo3wheel]

Sounds great! Glad you are enjoying yourselves!

[Craigatcsi]

Well, we made it home safely. We stayed our last night in a Comfort Inn in Silverton, CO. This is the WORST Hotel I have EVER stayed at in my many years of traveling. - My wife awoke in the night to find a bug crawling on her. Then, when she went into the bathroom, there were more crawling across the floor, and we were on the third floor!! The next morning I complained to the owner and he apologized, Gave us our money back and explained that they are trying to get rid of them. I asked another couple if they had seen bugs and they said the wife had seen many crawling across the floor. I guess it wouldn't have bothered me as much if we had chosen one of those $29.99 Hotels, but not at one of the higher priced. I did notify Corporate. I know that ANYWHERE can get a bug or two, but this place clearly has issues.
Other than the Hotel incident, I rate this vacation as one of our best. We both thoroughly enjoyed our Trike conversion though we miss the leaning and the gas mileage. We got as bad as 18 and as good as 26mpg. I told my wife and others that we will be repeating our trip to CO & UT and, we have friends that say they will join us!


craigr

[leo3wheel]

Craigr,

Glad you had a great vacation with your trike. Too bad about the bug incident. We always have this concern too. We will be heading out that way at the end of this month. We will fly to Denver and rent a cage, no rental trikes available and too expensive anyway. We will join a motorcycle rally at Canon City and then head off on a tour of 13 National Parks. Like you, we are so excited!

[Pegasus1300]

Read your posts over on VentureRider. Glad you made it home safe. Now we need a restaurant report. You said in an earlier port that you wanted to try some local non franchise places. What did you find? Any must eats? Any "avoids" at all costs? RhinoRiders of the World Unite "Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride"plate #72.