Our Trip Out West - June 2015

[carolinarider09]

Britman's request for suggestions on his trip out west got me to thinking about my (well our, wife accompanied me this trip) trip in June of 2015.  I had just gotten my new 2015 Goldwing.   Was really wanting to see how it handled compared to my 2007 ST1300A.   

It was a night and day difference.  But they are different bikes.  Wing is heavier and not as "agile" as the ST.   ST goes further on a tank but holds more in the tank.  More room on the wing.  Seats on the wing better for wife, me not so much. 

Ok, I digress.  It was basically interstate to Flagstaff and then secondary roads up to Boulder City and then I-15 to Mesquite. 

Then, the next day, the fun begins.   I-15 to Utah 9 and then Utah 12 to Torrey for the night
It's all shown below, June 4th, 2015



The videos were all recorded in an under the nose mount on the wing.  Turn the camera on and forget it.  It records until it runs out of space or power. 

First video.   East Thru Zion National Park and Mile Long Tunnel

A little boring at first even with the mountains and ridges in the foreground.   Actually enter Zion National Park at Time 5:30.  The nice views end at about 15:30.   At about 17:00 we get in a line.

We get to enter the Mile Long Tunnel at 20:15 and travel through the tunnel until about 23:30.  Then back out.  The scenery sort of changes at 28:40, different color landscape.

I look at it 7 1/2 years later and I am still amazed/thrilled by the scenery.  There is the distraction of "others" but....

The video is recorded, as are the others, at 1080P and they playback on my computer is at 1080P.

There are six videos, in all, covering the days ride.

https://youtu.be/VK2XtV1u6fo

[..]

 

Zion is my favorite National Park.

[carolinarider09]

 

The next two videos are, to me, not as "inspiring" as the first one. 

The first one starts out with this nice big hill on the left.  After a while things get sort of quiet.
 
UT 9 Thur Zion To Mt Carmel Junction, Utah

https://youtu.be/-Z1QHEHpaU0

Second video is a trip down the road to a "view point".  Don't remember what the viewing was.  But at time "16:18" we get a "hello" wave from a visitor. 

https://youtu.be/_tSD2SpFhFo

But the view was pretty good (Still images below)

[..]

Second video is a trip down the road to a "view point". 

Looks like Bryce Canyon.

[carolinarider09]

One of the issues we have (well I do) we take pictures and videos and in hindsight it's hard to actually determine when and where.  

Luckily the video camera and the still camera have time and date stamps.  Without them.... I would have been hard pressed to identify some places we have been with the video.  

I have the map of the route loaded on the GPS but what I loaded and what the GPS computes are sometimes not the same.  

It's what makes it fun  

[carolinarider09]

This 37 minute video us traveling east on UT 12 towards Escalante, Utah.

It takes a few minutes to hit the road but I just liked the initial view.  A few minutes into the video (and the road is sort of rough) you see the blue sky with those high swirly clouds and it just looks so "different" from where I live.   

The scenery gets closer at the 12:32 mark and the road gets a little more curvy.

AT 15:03 you get back out to the "flat lands".  Road is still sort of rough.

The town at minute 33 should be Escalante. 

Not much after the town.

https://youtu.be/KdepnpJnxhk

Some pictures my wife took as we rode.