Trans America Trail - August/Sept 2017: February 2018

We knew today was going to be a long day, it will be our 1st high mileage day, 280 MILES!!
We got on the trail at 10:00AM, we rode back out West through Canyon Lands. Once out of the Canyon Country, the landscape changed drastically! It was very barren. As we made our way through the desert, we encountered a stretch of sandy silt, it was at least 8-12 inches deep! Very fine silt, like sugar sand. Very difficult to ride in! If I were on my CR250, I'd have pinned the throttle and went as fast as I could to stay on top of the silt! But, being on Big Bertha, 2nd gear at about 30mph seemed to work best. It was a struggle to keep the fat beast is the tracks left by other vehicles and pointed in the right direction! God forbid we stop, getting going again was difficult. This stretch lasted at least 10 miles, it felt like a hundred! As we progressed, we came upon some sand dunes! Very beautiful red sand, it was very surreal. As we turned back to the North and climbed up out of the valley, we left most of the sand and silt behind. There still were patches of it, but it was nowhere as deep and bad as we previously encountered. After about 90miles, with no shade in sight, we were getting over-heated. We joked about digging in under a scrub bush, but even those offered little to no shade! We got out to a highway and followed it east to the next turnoff to the north. At the turnoff, there was a lone tree. It had a plaque on it that said it was planted in 1956! It also asked for water. Of course, we had to oblige and "watered" the tree. This was the entrance to Goblin Valley & Buckhorn Canyon. The further we got in, the more breathtaking the scenery became! As we were riding, it seemed we were riding into the landscape of "Radiator Springs" from the movie "Cars". Absolutely beautiful rock formations that you would never know where there if you traveled the interstate! Eventually, we entered Buckhorn Canyon. Here we stumbled upon a unique surprise. We rode up to the "Buckhorn Panel". These are 2000-year-old Pictographs and 1000-year-old Petroglyphs!! Words cannot describe, but talk about feeling small and insignificant! Will anyone know we were here in 2000 years? We pushed on to Castle Dale, UT. We had originally planned to stay the night here. There were limited camping opportunities here, IE campgrounds with proper facilities, and we were not too keen on "Roughing it".We had dinner at a great pizza joint and decided to push on to Ephraim, UT. It proved to be a good decision!
Leaving Castle Dale, we climbed into the mountains once again. We rode past a pretty lake and were back in the Pine and Aspen trees! My favorite! It must have rained earlier in the day, the trail was damp which made for great traction and little dust. The cool mountain air was a welcome relief from the 95+ degree heat we had been riding in the last couple of days. We summited the mountain pass at about 9600ft. The trail then dropped down into the valley which eventually lead us to Ephraim. We found a nice hotel, with very reasonable rates, the Willow Creek Inn. This was a highlight of our low priced lodging! Very nice place!
WOW, what a day! We saw and rode just about every kind of terrain imaginable! A hot shower and a comfy bed was a perfect way to end the day! We have many more miles to travel tomorrow!

***NOTE; Clicking on the pictures will open them up in a larger, gallery view.***