Southwest Tour - Day 6
Day 6 - Las Vegas to Gallup NM, 832 miles
Still catching up, but getting closer. :)
What's that? Las Vegas isn't 832 miles from Gallup? Not by a long shot, but it is when you start off with one plan, the divert to a different one on the fly. I didn't take as many pictures on Saturday as I had anticipated, primarily because of the route/schedule change.
Originally, my plan had me leaving Las Vegas at 6:00am headed for Hoover Dam. From there, I would run the loop around Lake Mead, take a short jump north on I-15 back into Utah, ride through Zion National Park and over to Kanab UT, down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then down to Flagstaff and ultimately to Albuquerque for the night.
The day would start well enough. By getting on the road by 6:00am, I would miss the bulk of the tourist traffic on the Hoover Dam that I had been warned about. The morning weather was quite pleasant, with temperatures in the low 80s and a light breeze. On the way down to Hoover Dam, you get some great views of Lake Mead.
(I hate that the minivan got into frame while taking the picture)
I didn't get any of the typical shots of the Dam that you see from the south, but rather got pictures from the north as I rode across the dam, parked, took some pictures, then rode back across to the Nevada side of the dam. The trip across the dam was cool. The construction for the US93 bypass around the dam is progressing relatively quickly, and it won't be long before you can't drive over the dam any more due to security concerns. I wanted to make it to Hoover Dam while I could still travel across it, but having been there now, I don't think it will dampen things once the close off vehicular traffic as long as you can still walk across the dam.
After leaving Hoover Dam, I headed back to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, to make the loop around Lake Mead on the west/northwest side of the lake. Again, being early in the morning, traffic was light so it was easy to enjoy the excellent pavement ahead of me. I did notice after completing the route that if you came in from the far north, you could miss the pay booths needed to access the recreational area from the south or west. No worries, Lake Mead would be one of the lowest priced parks that I visited at just $3.00, and the ride plus the view were well worth it.
After the loop around Lake Mead, I met back up with I-15, and continued north up towards Utah. I stopped in Mesquite Nevada for my first gas stop of the day, plus a breakfast stop.
Next on the route was the take I-15 up through the northwestern corner or Arizona into southern Utah, then jump on UT9 over to Hurricane UT and into Zion National Park. It was when I made the trip through Hurricane UT (how an area as far from the coast as this little town in southwestern Utah gets a name like Hurricane is beyond me) that I would get a taste for just how busy Zion would be. People were parking 10 or more miles outside of the park, and taking shuttles into the Park. As I got closer to the park, they had park rangers stationed along the roads asking if people were planning to stop at the park or just driving through. If driving through, you were clear to proceed ... otherwise you were forced to park and take one of the shuttles. Turns out all the parking spots within the park had been taken as of early Saturday morning, so they had to divert people outside the park to keep things flowing.
When I finally made it to the park entrance, the waiting line just to pay to drive through was a good indication of the delay that awaited. They had two lines up, and while there were several bikes in line, it seemed like each spot in line took about 8 minutes on average to pay then move on. The biggest problem seemed to be the $25 fee for cars going through the park ... most drivers decided they needed to pay by credit card, thus slowing down the progress. Fortunately, bikes were ONLY $12 to ride through.
Just after making it into the park, the road slopes uphill, towards a narrow tunnel running through the mountain. It was here that traffic stopped for roughly 15 minutes, waiting on the oncoming traffic to make their way through the tunnel. Some drivers were just driving through ... others taking a very long time to stop and exam every piece of the tunnel while we were stopped waiting for them to proceed. The heat and traffic finally got to me, and I decided to head back towards the west entrance.
Seeing how packed Zion was, and knowing how packed the Grand Canyon gets during peak season, I decided to reroute to miss these two National Parks. I have been through the Grand Canyon in 2004, and had seen almost half of Zion up until the point that I turned around, so didn't feel like I was short changing anything on the trip. That, and it still leaves me things to do the next time I'm riding through the area, or new sights to see when I can get Cass to make the trip out there with me.
Back out of the park, I stopped in Springdale to plan my new route. Still trying to make it back to Dallas by Sunday evening, it looked like I had basically two choices; back to Vegas in order to meet up with I-40, or up to central Utah to pick up I-70. While the I-70 route is on my list of rides to do at some point, it looked like I'd lose too much time heading that far north, and would put my Sunday return in question. I opted instead to back track to Vegas, run down to I-40, and hi-tail it home.
Running back south, I made it back to Vegas around roughly 3:00pm. It was a bit frustrating to be back in Vegas where I started at 3 in the afternoon, when I had started the day so early to make good progress. My original plan had me in Albuquerque by 9:00pm that evening, and there was no way I could make that plan now. Adding to the time frustration, the wind had definitely picked up, along with the heat. As I rode through Vegas, Cass called to check in on my status, and while I was able to talk with her for awhile, the wind eventually turned to a cross-wind making it difficult to hear her on the phone as well as adding noise to her end of the call. I decided just to slab it out with the goal of making the New Mexico border before I stopped for rest.
A quick stop in Flagstaff for a quick chow break, combined with a face shield change and donning the Gerbing gear as the temps were starting to cool down significantly. Actually, from about the time I hit Kingman AZ, the temps had calmed down to comfortable levels, and the wind was now less of an issue. By Flagstaff, I needed something to act as a windbreaker, so putting on the Gerbing without actually powering it up did the trick.
I ended up making it to Gallup NM right around 11pm MDT and decided to call it a night. I managed to secure a room at a Red Roof right off the interstate. Up to the room, I set up the laptop to upload my pictures to smugmug, then turned in for the night.
Still catching up, but getting closer. :)
What's that? Las Vegas isn't 832 miles from Gallup? Not by a long shot, but it is when you start off with one plan, the divert to a different one on the fly. I didn't take as many pictures on Saturday as I had anticipated, primarily because of the route/schedule change.
Originally, my plan had me leaving Las Vegas at 6:00am headed for Hoover Dam. From there, I would run the loop around Lake Mead, take a short jump north on I-15 back into Utah, ride through Zion National Park and over to Kanab UT, down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then down to Flagstaff and ultimately to Albuquerque for the night.
The day would start well enough. By getting on the road by 6:00am, I would miss the bulk of the tourist traffic on the Hoover Dam that I had been warned about. The morning weather was quite pleasant, with temperatures in the low 80s and a light breeze. On the way down to Hoover Dam, you get some great views of Lake Mead.
(I hate that the minivan got into frame while taking the picture)
I didn't get any of the typical shots of the Dam that you see from the south, but rather got pictures from the north as I rode across the dam, parked, took some pictures, then rode back across to the Nevada side of the dam. The trip across the dam was cool. The construction for the US93 bypass around the dam is progressing relatively quickly, and it won't be long before you can't drive over the dam any more due to security concerns. I wanted to make it to Hoover Dam while I could still travel across it, but having been there now, I don't think it will dampen things once the close off vehicular traffic as long as you can still walk across the dam.
After leaving Hoover Dam, I headed back to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, to make the loop around Lake Mead on the west/northwest side of the lake. Again, being early in the morning, traffic was light so it was easy to enjoy the excellent pavement ahead of me. I did notice after completing the route that if you came in from the far north, you could miss the pay booths needed to access the recreational area from the south or west. No worries, Lake Mead would be one of the lowest priced parks that I visited at just $3.00, and the ride plus the view were well worth it.
After the loop around Lake Mead, I met back up with I-15, and continued north up towards Utah. I stopped in Mesquite Nevada for my first gas stop of the day, plus a breakfast stop.
Next on the route was the take I-15 up through the northwestern corner or Arizona into southern Utah, then jump on UT9 over to Hurricane UT and into Zion National Park. It was when I made the trip through Hurricane UT (how an area as far from the coast as this little town in southwestern Utah gets a name like Hurricane is beyond me) that I would get a taste for just how busy Zion would be. People were parking 10 or more miles outside of the park, and taking shuttles into the Park. As I got closer to the park, they had park rangers stationed along the roads asking if people were planning to stop at the park or just driving through. If driving through, you were clear to proceed ... otherwise you were forced to park and take one of the shuttles. Turns out all the parking spots within the park had been taken as of early Saturday morning, so they had to divert people outside the park to keep things flowing.
When I finally made it to the park entrance, the waiting line just to pay to drive through was a good indication of the delay that awaited. They had two lines up, and while there were several bikes in line, it seemed like each spot in line took about 8 minutes on average to pay then move on. The biggest problem seemed to be the $25 fee for cars going through the park ... most drivers decided they needed to pay by credit card, thus slowing down the progress. Fortunately, bikes were ONLY $12 to ride through.
Just after making it into the park, the road slopes uphill, towards a narrow tunnel running through the mountain. It was here that traffic stopped for roughly 15 minutes, waiting on the oncoming traffic to make their way through the tunnel. Some drivers were just driving through ... others taking a very long time to stop and exam every piece of the tunnel while we were stopped waiting for them to proceed. The heat and traffic finally got to me, and I decided to head back towards the west entrance.
Seeing how packed Zion was, and knowing how packed the Grand Canyon gets during peak season, I decided to reroute to miss these two National Parks. I have been through the Grand Canyon in 2004, and had seen almost half of Zion up until the point that I turned around, so didn't feel like I was short changing anything on the trip. That, and it still leaves me things to do the next time I'm riding through the area, or new sights to see when I can get Cass to make the trip out there with me.
Back out of the park, I stopped in Springdale to plan my new route. Still trying to make it back to Dallas by Sunday evening, it looked like I had basically two choices; back to Vegas in order to meet up with I-40, or up to central Utah to pick up I-70. While the I-70 route is on my list of rides to do at some point, it looked like I'd lose too much time heading that far north, and would put my Sunday return in question. I opted instead to back track to Vegas, run down to I-40, and hi-tail it home.
Running back south, I made it back to Vegas around roughly 3:00pm. It was a bit frustrating to be back in Vegas where I started at 3 in the afternoon, when I had started the day so early to make good progress. My original plan had me in Albuquerque by 9:00pm that evening, and there was no way I could make that plan now. Adding to the time frustration, the wind had definitely picked up, along with the heat. As I rode through Vegas, Cass called to check in on my status, and while I was able to talk with her for awhile, the wind eventually turned to a cross-wind making it difficult to hear her on the phone as well as adding noise to her end of the call. I decided just to slab it out with the goal of making the New Mexico border before I stopped for rest.
A quick stop in Flagstaff for a quick chow break, combined with a face shield change and donning the Gerbing gear as the temps were starting to cool down significantly. Actually, from about the time I hit Kingman AZ, the temps had calmed down to comfortable levels, and the wind was now less of an issue. By Flagstaff, I needed something to act as a windbreaker, so putting on the Gerbing without actually powering it up did the trick.
I ended up making it to Gallup NM right around 11pm MDT and decided to call it a night. I managed to secure a room at a Red Roof right off the interstate. Up to the room, I set up the laptop to upload my pictures to smugmug, then turned in for the night.
posted by Charlie at
5:13 PM
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