It was a chilly morning, but as the sun rose it warmed for us. We had no bike issues, & the sky was pretty clear.
We stopped at Musslemans arch.. Tom is demonstrating how he would ride across it, if they would let him.
The scenery along the white rim trail is fantastic. Next to the grand canyon, this is my favorite view ride. But the white rim ride has everything.. rocky switchbacks, wash crossings, long sandy stretches, etc. It is challenging, scenic, & without a doubt one of the best motorcycle adventure rides out there. You can do it in a day, & there is more to see than you can remember.
The audio got lost in this one.. my contour hd camera is having some technical difficulties.. sometimes the audio does not get switched on.. not a big deal, the audio is pretty useless. All you hear is motor & wind noise. But it does add to the video effect.
You can see by the long shadows that it's still pretty early in the ride. We hadn't gotten to the 'white rim' yet.
If you've got a fast connection, turn up the resolution on the videos. I recorded them in HD, and the detail is better if you can download it. In this clip, we come up on the edge of the rim. The whitish colored rocks along the edge give the trail it's name.
It is mostly rocky in the first part, with a few bits of sandy roads sprinkled in. There are also some switchback sections, where it is loose & sometimes stepped.
Every so often there are some very cool rock formations.. it is amazing how they can form from just wind & water.
We came upon this little section.. it had a rocky section.. a little steep, but nothing too bad.. i just got on the wrong side of the trail & bounced off. I landed on my feet like a cat & let the poor bike crash by itself. I picked it up, rolled down the hill & came up with no problems on the second try. Tom just yawned as he rode up it.
This is the section of trail that goes up to murphy's hogback. It sometimes is very loose & torn up from use, which makes it more difficult on a bike. It wasn't too bad this time.
The views from on top are always magnificent.
After another climb, we start following the green river & get down to the sand. We try to keep our speed up.. the sand is very dry & loose, & a bit of speed helps to get through it. It was very dusty, & whoever was following had to let the dust settle a bit or you couldn't see the road. This is a long clip. It also has a climb through some rocks, follows along the cliff, then goes back down to more sand. It was a little steeper, had more turns, & was looser, and longer than the murphy's hogback climb.
This is the final section winding along the cliffs above the green river, then heading back down into the sandy valley. The sand along here was the worst, & was very loose going down the switchbacks. This is another longer clip, but has great views along the river cliffs, & has some interesting riding terrain, too.
After this, we had few climbs until we get to the big switchbacks at mineral bottom road. But we still had lots of sand.. i rode behind, & the dust was so bad i couldn't get any videos. It was nice along the river, & several times we were just at the water's edge.
This was the final climb on the switch backs that got washed out a couple of years back. They had only been finished for a short time, & of course the riding was smooth & easy.
We got up on top, took a wide graded road to some pavement, then rode the rest of the way back to moab. Dinner, cold beer, & back to the room for a rest. Tomorrow, we head to hanksville!
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