Day 45 to Beaver, Utah
Wed 24 July 2024
Distance traveled: 534 miles
Riding I-70 was fantastic and kept me entertained all day with big sweeper curves and mountain and desert scenery. Sure, it got a touch hot, but it was a much better day that I thought it would be.
Left all the road construction of Denver and scooted up I-70 into the Rockies, and the locals helpfully got out of my way when their putt-putt cars struggled up the inclines to the Eisenhower Tunnel.
Coffee stop, then more up-and-around the mountains past Aspen, and my favorite section of I-70, the Greenwood Viaduct. As a kid we traveled on it as it was being built and I thought it was amazing to build a freeway along a cliffside. Now, heading westbound, I was on that viaduct and enjoying the 60mph curves at (ahem) 75mph and the river below with rafters. Just super fun riding, just like it had been earlier in the morning getting into the mountains.
Somewhere outside of Parachute, Colorado the trip odometer I set when I left home on June 10 rolled over from 9999 miles to 0.0 miles. Uneventful.
Into Grand Junction and I definitely had to take off my wool long sleeve shirt--it was good for the 55 degrees up at the Eisenhower Tunnel and Vail Pass, not so great for the 85 degrees of the Western Slope and Inwas getting woozy. Took a long lunch break in the AC and headed into Utah, stopping at the Welcome Center past the state line to rewet my scarf and t-shirt and chat with the maintenance guy, who fished out an official "Utah Motorcycle Map" and gave it to me. Temperature had risen to 102F, and I was thinking "ugh, worse than Texas" and it was. Stopped in Green River where it was 105F for an AC break and wondered how much more heat there was to endure.
From Green River west to Salina is 104 miles on I-70, and there are no services at all on this stretch--no towns, no gas stations, nada. I sighed and started out thinking it was going to be over an hour of hot dull mess, and geez it wasn't at all. The interstate quickly left the blank plains behind and went through a massive rock formation called the San Rafael Swell that was very Wil E. Coyote and Road-Runner, then up into some pinyon-juniper woodlands where the temp dropped to 85, then back up and around and it was so much fun to ride. The speed limit is 80, so I kept it a few mph over that just to not have to wrangle my bike around cars and trucks going exactly 80.
Into Richfield and didn't feel tired and checked the weather radar--maybe OK to Cedar City?--so got a coffee and kept on going up and over and down to the I-15 junction. Once on I-15 a a looming big black wall of clouds ahead weren't looking promising, and the last five miles to Beaver I was pelted with big raindrops which were refreshing rather than annoying. Pulled into a service station, gassed up, saw the Motel 6 nearby had rooms, and checked in.
I'll wait for the storms to calm down overnight, and start heading home at first light... Beaver to north Vegas is still 212 miles, and then it's 282 miles to home. Forecast high tomorrow in Vegas is 112 with thunderstorms, so I'm gonna get going EARLY. It's not going to be an easy ride.