The Potato Posse

After a quick and hot visit to Hoover Dam, we purchase our National Parks Pass and head up through Lake Mead. Just before Mesquite, my bike overheats again. Stopped by the side of the road, (was actually free wheeling it down to where Mike had managed to pull over and wait for me) by chance George and Sarah pull up. They're on their way to Colorado for a Blues Festival. They offer to put the KLR in the truck for me but I figure by the time we've go it in there, she would have cooled down enough to continue. They follow us to Mesquite, hazard lights flashing, so that trucks don't run up the back of me, and I limp into the service station. George and Sarah say their goodbyes and we stop for an hour to cool off ourselves and let the bikes cool down. We won't be making it to the Grand Canyon tonight.
Riding into Zion National Park as the sun is going down is stunning. Despite the impending dusk, we have to stop for some photos, so a late arrival turns out to be a blessing.

Scenic riding into Zion.

Setting the alarm for what we think is 6am and an early start, we catch the shuttle bus that runs people up and down the canyon, stopping at the trail heads and points of interest. What we didn't realise is that Utah is an hour ahead, so everyone is up before us. We take a couple of hours out to do some short walks and have a look around, before heading onto the cooler north rim of the Grand Canyon.

End of the bus line in Zion

So this is where being organised and having an itinerary comes in handy. We arrive at the campground and what do you know, there are no sites left. Apparently we should have booked over a week ago. We do manage to 'squeeze' (they do like to do things big here, there was room for about another 10 tents on this pitch) onto another couple's site and we save ourselves the $17 - our hosts wouldn't let us pay incase we were to get kicked off.
After dinner it is confirmed that the park rangers don't have a sense of humour. Despite the 'Stop' sign usually meaning more of a 'Give Way' thing, (in this case not a 'As in Rome...') Mike gets pulled over by a power wielding young ranger for running 3 stop signs and going above the 15mph speed limit. He gets away with just a $75 fine for one stop sign incident and a warning for the others. On closer inspection of other drivers, it seems Mike got unlucky. No one actually stops at 'Stop' signs and EVERYONE speeds, except for me of course and that's just cause the bike can't go any faster, not through want of trying.

Smile, we made it before sunset.

So we eventually get to see the sunset over the canyon and what a sight. The next morning is more canyon viewing, see associated photographs under the yet to be altered 'Central Amercian photos' in the menu to the right of this blog, and it is beautiful. We spend hours gazing at the landscape before us.

Taking time out for the view.

Eventually we have to drag our butts back to the bikes, there are more Harleys to wave at. (That would be the Potato Posse by the way. If you repeat potato over and over again, that's what a Harley sounds like and they always seem to be in large groups so you get RSI by the time one group has ridden by.)