Escalante

May 25, 2017

We're having dinner tonight in Escalante Outfitters, a store that mixes outdoor equipment sales and a restaurant. We had a delicious salad and a huge, wonderful thick crust pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and green olives. Also I enjoyed my first full-strength beer since arriving in Utah - a Spiral Jetty IPA by Epic Brewing. We ate in comfort in an outdoor covered area, taking in the refreshing evening views and a view of the cliffs surrounding Escalante.

When the waitress arrived at the end of the meal, I told her that it probably reflected seven hard days on the road, but at the moment I couldn't recall ever having a better pizza.

Over dinner, we also chatted with our neighbors, who had seen us biking on the highway earlier into the day. Hearing of our itinerary, they assured us that the best was yet to come. We'll have seen nothing yet like the passes ahead on the road to Boulder and Torrey. Impossible to believe after what we've experienced in the last few days, but we'll know soon.

There is nothing else I do in life other than bike touring that finds me at the end of an exceptional day feeling that this may have been the best day of my life.

Backing up though, we began the day with breakfast at the store attached to the motel - complementary coffee and toast, and whatever we could find on the shelves to complete a meal. Over breakfast we enjoyed a conversation with a German couple in the country on vacation for a few weeks of hiking.

After checking out, we took a twenty mile out-and-back to nearby Kodachrome State Park. With a name like that, how could we resist the detour? After a pleasant, relax ten mile ride along th Paria River and across a small ridge, we arrived at the park.

Looking north across the Paria valley from the road to Kodachrome Basin.

Kodachrome Basin, a small state park surrounded by the vast Escalante national monument, is a beautiful Basin rimmed by beautiful sedimentary cliffs. It is best known though for its 'pipes', a geological feature I don't remember seeing before. Popes are formed over millions of years when a wet sedimentary layer is buried by newer layers. Moist material is forced up through vertical cracks in the strata, petrified, and becomes exposed when the softer sediments erode away.

I'm not sure what this little guy is - some sort of whiptail, maybe? I'm fond of him though - after watching me try to get a decent shot that included his whole elongated body, he thoughtfully curled up so that he fits perfectly into the frame. A confirmation from William Shaneyfelt's guestbook comment: yes, it is a whiptail - a plateau striped whiptail. Also, he adds this interesting note: this is a parthenogenic species, with no males - the female lays self-fertilized eggs. This chubby little lady looks pretty fertile to me, alright.

Bike Friday and fence lizard, Kodachrome Basin

This is a clip from an information display at the visitors center. The pink cliffs of Bryce Canyon are the Wasatch formation, and down here we're wallowing in the Dakota Sandstones. It looks liked we dropped through about 150 million years on our descent to Tropic yesterday. We were racing backwards through time at about two million miles per minute!

We poked around the park for perhaps an hour and then headed back toward the motel. We could have stayed longer and taken a short hike, but we've still got a long ride ahead of us to fit in. Leaving the park, we were startled to see how dark the sky has become since we arrived, and how strong the wind has become. For the first time can this tour, we start wondering if we're due to get wet.

Back at the motel and still dry a bit later, we sit on chairs outside while we enjoy our lunches and think about the weather.

Leaving Kodachrome Basin, we were surprised and a bit concerned by the state of the sky. Compare this photo of Bryce Canyon from the one above taken just an hour or so earlier.

A fixer-upper beside the Paria River. Great view, but needs TLC.

Our stay in Cannonville. Noticing the 'New hotel/new market' sign out front, I asked inside how long they'd been open. 'Oh, twelve years or so. We should really do something about that sign someday'.

The ride to Escalante is a pup-tent: 17 miles up, 17 miles down. Most of the climb is quite gradual, but ends with a mile-long stinger at the end that must be 12-13 percent. We were helped along by a strong tailwind, as well as a continuous string of jaw-dropping vistas. It's really hard to believe that this tour could keep getting more spectacular, but that's how it feels.

Climbing the dramatic little gap between Cannonville and Henrieville. This is the same spot where the cliffs looked so red at sundown last night.

From the gap, a last look back toward Cannonville

Dropping toward Henrieville, and into another magnificent panorama. Words are starting to escape us when we talk about this ride with each other.

Going up, climbing gradually alongside Henrieville Creek

Somewhere east of Henrieville. After six days of blue sky, we really enjoyed the cloud patterns today. We just hope they're here for the show and don't mean business.

Near the summit, just before the final, painfully steep final ascent.

No name summit number four. We're collecting the whole set, and placing bets on whether we'll get to the state line without finding a named one.

We're both quite happy to see the unnamed summit come in sight, but proud of ourselves for making it without stopping. Once over the top we're on a racetrack ride, on bikes that feel like they've been fitted with rockets. The downhill is a smooth, steady, gradual descent of just about one percent; but we're blasted down it by a 20 mph tailwind that brings us to Escalante in seemingly no time. Soon, we're in Outfitters, sitting down to a feast for kings.

Elevation gain: today, 3,0000; for the tour, 23,300'.

Dropping toward Escalante along dry Upper Valley Creek. The descent is a nearly constant one percent for about fifteen miles -- a slight gradient, but we're flying from the wind. A few miles into the descent, we encounter the first cycle tourists we've seen so far on this tour - a pair of suffering young men fighting uphill into the wind, having no fun today. The lead rider told us our bikes looked funny, so we felt a bit less sympathy for their agony.

The dry Upper Valley Creek is lined with quite dramatic cliffs in spots. Here, they look several hundred feet high, and as smooth as if they'd been sculpted from butter.j

Our home for the night: Cowboy Country Inn

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 342 miles (550 km)

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