This ride report is not intended
to recap all the various features of the Annual KLR650 Rally.
It is a report of the rides and experiences of the author and
a number of friends during the Rally week. Gino, the editor of
the
KLR650 Dual Sport News will publish a complete report on the Rally
in the next issue of the KLR650 Dual Sport News Letter.
Lockhart Basin Trail, Hurrah Pass, Shafer Trail, White Rim, Long Canyon Road and Pucker Pass, Onion Creek, Thompson Canyon and Polar Mesa Trail; these are the trail names we were to become very familiar with during our five days of riding in the Moab area! There are so many trails in the Moab, Utah area one would have to ride for a year to test them all. We were lucky enough to ride some of the best. This report on our ride in Moab will hopefully encourage others who have not ridden this area to try out Moab! You will not be disappointed!
My riding companions from the recent
trip to the Mayan
World were gathered again for Moab! John Neff, Neal Davis,
Dick Antonius and Ken Upchurch converged on Gino's house in Sandia
Park, New Mexico to store our trailers and trucks and ride up
to Santa Fe for the evening. Gino was kind enough to lead us up
and have a great Mexican meal with us as well as suggest an interesting
route heading toward Moab.
We decided our next days ride would take us to Pagosa Springs, Durango, and end at Cortez. The temperature stayed around 35 to 40 degrees during the day's ride and other then some snow flurries and hail in Pagosa Springs we had an interesting and fun day! Most of us are from the South Eastern part of the US so the scenery and geological rock formations were of special interest and made for a great "first day."
Leaving Cortez, our plan was to find as many Dual Sport roads as we could and travel to Hovenweep National Monument and visit the ancient ruins there. We discovered early on that many of the dirt roads listed on the map were now hard surface! Still, the ride was interesting and parts of the route were still dirt! The ruins are a cluster of Anasazi dwellings thought to be about 700 years old.
From Hovenweep Monument we decided
to ride to the "Valley of the Gods" park which showed
a long stretch of dirt road going through the middle of the scenic
area. We were not disappointed! A fantastic scenic road through
a "Mars" type landscape. Stopping for pictures and allowing
time to appreciate the beautiful rock formations was a time to
reflect on how diversified this country is. It had been a few
years since I had been out west and now I remembered why this
place seems to fascinate all who visit it, especially when one
is able to view it from up close and off the hard surface road!
Leaving the "valley of the Gods" we rode up a steep, dirt portion of highway 261 heading north toward Natural Bridges National Monument. The three mile dirt road ascending out of the Valley to the mesa top was a great way to depart the Valley! At Moki Dugway Overlook we could view the entire "Valley of the Gods" valley floor and see the route we had ridden over the last few hours. What a magnificent sight! What a great day! We rode on into Blanding, Utah to spend the night. In the morning, our plan was to find a Dual Sport dirt road out of Blanding and work our way up to Moab. Looking at the snow on the mountains to the West made us wonder if we could get through. Was there a trail that might be clear of snow? Our maps told us there might be a way.
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