Utah Tour '95

Introduction

Patrick and I, in a fit of enthusiasm, decided to take a trip to Colorado. Well, I had the fit of enthusiasm. Patrick just stood by, waiting for me to drop back to reality.

In my head, I planned this huge grand tour of the South Western States, visiting Death Valley (mmm, in August, what a brilliant idea), The Grand Canyon, Sedona (AZ), the Meteor Crater, New Mexico (no particular destination, just "New Mexico" - the fact that New Mexico is 162,000 square miles is neither here nor there...), the Rockies, possibly nip up to Yellowstone Park, then back down, across Utah and Nevada and home again.

As the days went by, the route was shortened to: Death Valley (still hadn't clicked how hot 120°F really is), small bit of Nevada, Utah (as quickly as possible)(nothing there to interest anyone), over the Rockies, around the Rockies, through the Rockies and then back across, as quick as we can...

Until Patrick mentioned Monument Valley. And I found a guide book on Utah.

Park Avenue in Arches National Park

"Blinkin', I thought, what a lot of things to look at" and took on the same expression as my cat wears when you have a paper ball in your hand. Wild darting eyes, nervous twitching, etc..

So Utah it was. No mucking about.

Note: I tried to make it short, but it sort of "got away" from me. Then I tried to avoid putting in too many photos, and failed dismally. So the only thing I could do was put the photos in places where you could read text while waiting for them to download. Sometimes... (You might want to turn "images" off, but then again, the pics are good...).

Here's what we actually ended up doing:

Specification
Day 1 - Sacramento (CA) to Winnemucca (NV) - 310 miles
Day 2 - Winnemucca to Wells (NV) - 183 miles
Day 3 - Wells to Ely (NV) - 211 miles
Day 4 - Ely to Cedar City (UT) - 222 miles
Day 5 - Cedar City to Red Canyon - 80 miles
Day 6 - Red Canyon to Torrey - 140 miles
Day 7 - Torrey to Natural Bridges - 159 miles
Day 8 - Natural Bridges to Moab - 146 miles (direct), 213 miles (via Moki Dugway)
Day 9 - Moab - Day of Rest - 23 miles
Day 10 - Moab to Arches and back to Moab - 44 miles
Day 11 - Moab to Salina - 260 miles
Day 12 - Salina to Tonopah (NV) - 422 miles
Day 13 - Tonopah to Yosemite Creek - 191 miles
Day 14 - Yosemite Creek to Sacramento - 191 miles
Special thanks to...