In the two wheeled life box of chocolates day five was the confection perfection that will make you commit to the big variety pack over and over. Day six is one of the ones that you’re not real sure about. Won’t spit it out in disgust but you’ll work around the others like it until there is nothing else left.
We bedded down with great expectations for day 6 and without having checked a weather forecast. Morning surprise cold rain. We weren’t the only ones caught off gaurd. Pity the folks that chose stargazing through the tent roof sans rain fly.
Mesa Verde has a café that serves a great stack of pancakes for breakfast…….starting the weekend after we leave. For breakfast this visit we enjoy something processed and packaged and coffee from the campground store while we do laundry, along with a couple folks drying sleeping bags. At least it’s warm and dry in the laundromat. We are hoping for a break in the clouds but all we get is increasing wind. We wait as long as we can but finally pack up camp in a 43 degree sideways rain.
This is our second visit to Mesa Verde. The first one we had changed some plans and didn’t have time to visit the cave dwellings about 25 miles deeper into the park. After packing up it’s off toward the dwellings, at least the part of the park feature isn’t closed for renovation. There is some great scenery all the way up to the point that we decide to bail on the park’s main attraction and about face, hoping for better weather at lower elevation.
It sounds like the 1911s are 0 for 2 versus Mesa Verde. I know our kids would score it that way. They don’t think we do “tourist” correctly. Too much time spent traveling and not enough time at destinations. And the destinations need better accommodations and fancier food. Anybody else have trouble making family and friends understand that the ride IS the destination?
And by my scorecard, Mesa Verde hasn’t beaten us. It’s never really been the destination. On the way from home to The Grand Canyon or YFO or southern Utah, or whatever the destination is, if there is an actual destination, MV is a great campsite with great showers, laundry, store and café (in season). It’s cheaper than a motel and no more expensive than a KOA. The national park setting is a plus. We try to plan a lot of these multi-purpose stops on our trips. We’ll be back that way again.
Dropping down to Cortez gets us out of the nasty weather. County Road G takes us past Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. The free range horses hold our attention more though. Mrs1911 tries to get me to let her off so she can swipe a paint mare with little paint foal at side. G is paved, mostly. It’s a little rough and the pace is not fast. Too far in to backtrack and start over the pavement ends. I missed that on Google Earth. It turns out to be a short section of gravel, thankfully. We’ll do some gravel roads but I don’t like them as a surprise.
Not long after we hit pavement again we are in southern Utah, the focus of this trip, despite the title of this thread. There are a few sprinkles in the air and the wind is picking up. We are finally where I’ve been telling everybody we are headed-where the Road Runner cartoons were filmed. This is what we missed on our two other big trips and we are just cruising along and taking in the wonder.
Honey, I think the wind is getting stronger.
When Zumo says it’s time to turn toward Moki Dugway I think about the wind getting funneled through canyons and dirt roads and we roll on past.
Forest Gump Point! He was smart. He turned around.
Kind of silly how much I’ve been looking forward to being here.
A little past Gump Point things are getting a little sporty.
We can watch things progress , to a point, here
Zumo doesn’t show us any alternate lodging options that appear to get us to cover better than our plan A.
I’ve reserved what could be the ultimate Monument Valley tent site, at Goulding’s, a reservation operation in Monument Valley. Where I really want to stay is a primitive CG a little higher, a little darker and a little farther down the road-Sunset View CG. If conditions are just right, I’m willing to “burn” the reservation fee at Goulding’s in hopes of enjoying a more remote experience this night.
When we pull up to the store at Goulding’s I ask Maralee to dismount and brace the bike to keep it from blowing over while I go inside to check in. Gentlemanly thing to do huh? Scoping out our tent site, it’s depressing to admit defeat and give up on the idea of pitching a tent in these conditions. We go back down to the store and inquire about indoor lodging vacancies. The cabin right below our tent site is available. The tent site reservation fee can be applied to the cabin. We convert.
I don’t know what the official definition of “sandstorm” is but I’m going to say that when you feel sand and small rocks hitting your eardrum as you move stuff inside, you’re in a sandstorm. Q-tip depth soundings confirm sandstorm by my definition.
I’m kind of proud of my improvised bike protection.
I wish I had thought about the gas cap and windshield tracks.
We asked some fellows that worked at Gouldings if winds like this were a regular event. They said no, they hadn’t seen wind like this in years.
The view, or lack of, of Monument Valley from our cabin.
Not a housekeeping fail. This was coming in about as fast as we would sweep it up. We worried a little about our cabin coming undone for a moment or two. The wind did die down overnight.
Still, the best I can hope for is to jog your memory if you've been there, encourage you to do it if you haven't.
