Days 9 + 10: Sunglow Campground to Koosharem to Snowville to Bend, Oregon

When the days are relatively short, you learn to just wake with the first light. Second coffee seemed to be a habit when we had towns nearby, so there was no reason not to take advantage again. Except that this time, the lovely employees at the Sunglow Cafe gave us our coffees on the house! Aaaaaaahh, seriously, bike touring sometimes, just a simple gesture can make a whole day feel that much better.

We love you Sunglow Cafe!

On the way out of town, we saw the Curry Pizza, which was featured on The Food Network... we were bummed that we didn't know about it, but vowed to look it up later (which clearly, I did). Today's riding was probably the worst of the whole tour... decent shoulder but a fair amount of high speed traffic and lots of climbing. We ground out the climb into a brisk headwind and made it back to the car in good time. 

So excited to have fought our way to the summit for the day.

Brand new pavement... zooming downhill back to Koosharem.

One last climb back to the car.

We pulled up to where we had parked the car and there were a few guys hanging out in their RV next to it. They made some friendly comments about watching after my car... they had seen us leave over a week ago and were shocked we hadn't come back yet. We packed up, hit up a grocery store for provisions for the long drive home, and found ourselves at the Earp and James campground in Snowville on the border with Idaho. For $5 a person, we had a grassy spot to pitch a tent, a heated bathroom with shower, and some adorable camp cats. It was great because the RV spots had electricity so we weren't bothered by generators or the like. 

Adorable kittens... who like to climb tents.

Dinner!

The bathhouse.

It was a perfect stopover and we found ourselves back in Bend in no time at all wishing that we had just a few more days... which is exactly how a bike tour should end. Having had a grand adventure, but wanting to bike just a little more. Ani and I both agreed that this bike tour just made us want to come back and explore more corners of Utah. Daaaaaang Utah.

Day 8: Cedar Mesa Campground to Sunglow Campground via Capitol Reef

Dave's doggo Charlie came over to greet us on the morning and tromp over all our breakfast things. Despite the intrusion, I successfully made us blueberry pancakes with maple syrup to fuel our day. The first five miles were brutal, sandy, and rutted.

Sand, sand, and more sand. But at least not for too long.

The sand gave way to pavement and the landscape mellowed out to sandy desert views. As we approached the main part of Capitol Reef National park, vibrant red cliffs towered over us. We worked our way quickly to the "highway" and did a short side hike down a wash into a slot canyon.

One more park!

Not our favorite pavement, but pretty!

Canyon hiking!

As it the day wore on, the sun was hot and overbearing despite the relatively cool temperatures of mid-October. But the climbing and relatively large number of cars felt worth it for the amazing scenery. We had a hard fought bike into the adorable town of Torrey, where we picked up some water from a spigot next to the mercantile and a few limes to garnish our Jim Beam. On our way out of town, a mountain bike outfitter and their guide cheered us on.

Red layers on layers.

Views looking back on Capitol Reef, one of the most underrated national parks.

Then we had one last push into a headwind and the sun with fast moving traffic before we decided to check out aptly named Sunglow campground... which was set against brilliantly orangey lit up rocks as the sun set. Our research had told us this campground was closed to reservations, so we figured we would either find some dispersed camping nearby or just poach the campground. It turned out that there was still one site left which we nabbed 20 seconds before someone else tried to roll in.

Glowy sun as we set up camp.

First dinner with the hot air balloon.

The lovely family from Utah who gave us first dinner.

Sunglow is a gem of a campsite and apparently a favorite of Utah locals. At least, so said the lovely family who invited us for dinner. It turns out that the family is friends with a hot air ballooner and they were all just biding their time until the weather was right for hot air ballooning. This campground also had a great little hiking trail that wound along a mossy stream into a red canyon. We accepted the invitation for dinner and thought of it more as a first dinner, and then prepared our planned meal for our second dinner. Heh.

Day 7: Boulder to Cedar Mesa Campground

Cowboy camping is a thing of beauty when bike touring or bikepacking... there is something primal that connects your soul to the universe sleeping under the stars. I woke up halfway through the night and couldn't get back to sleep so I just watched the shooting stars. 

The Burr Trail is like riding through 200 postcards, each unique and beautiful in its own way. You do not want to rush it. Build in time to stand in awe of the scenery. Take all the pictures. This is the Utah people dream of. Words cannot describe the different rock layers and formations. 

Morning light and empty roads.

Looking down into another postcard.

Ever changing landscapes.

From pavement to dirt.

Just another view.

The infamous switchbacks...12% grade downhill.

That tiny speck is Ani!

We wanted to do a side hike, but it was hot and the trailhead was 3 miles down a sandy doubletrack. It was a good thing we bailed on the hike because after the infamous switchbacks, the good dirt turned into sand and ruts straight into headwinds. What was supposed to be an easy 11-mile roll into camp took us twice as long as expected. The Cedar Mesa Campground was a primitive campsite with just 5 site managed by the Capital Reef National Park, and we did not have the energy to go any further. Even though all 5 sites were taken, as people on bikes, we can sometime squeeze into someone else's site. We got lucky, and got a small area next to the nicest guy named Dave his his dog Charlie (ages 71 and 12 respectively).

Sandy road into camp.

Our home for the night.

After a walk up a trail that started at the end of the campground, we joined Dave for some conversation at his campfire... we got deep as we talked about the deep bond between humans and doggos as the stars came out one by one.

Day 6: Escalante to Boulder

We set alarms for o' dark hundred... today promised nearly 6000 feet of climbing on dirt over 45 miles to get to the promise land of farm-to-table food stuffs. Challenge accepted. And we crushed it. I had braced myself for a sufferfest and while it was hard, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The climb was well graded in a pleasant forest which gave way to the showstopper of Hells Backbone Bridge. 

Pictures never do it justice.

But the joy is palpable.

And the golden explosion was more golden than golden.

We left with full bellies, slightly buzzed, and happy for short 2 mile spin downhill to get to dispersed camping on the Burr Trail.

Pondering the two wines we chose.

Pure joy.

Braised beef.

We made it to the legal dispersed camping area!

There are moments in bike touring that are perfect. Those in the know, know. Take a long, hard, beautiful biking day... and then add just enough booze to get fuzzy, and then add the best of humans and good food, and then more bikes. And then add the perfect dispersed campsite. And that's where we found ourselves as we decided to cowboy camp off the Burr Trail, with just enough light to scramble up to a view of the most amazing sunset. 

A short scramble from our camp spot gave us 360 views of the sunset.

Cowboy camping cuz it was so dang warm.

Day 5: Bryce Canyon to Escalante

We woke up before the first light and packed up as much as we could, then bundled up and headed to the canyon rim to watch the sun rise. While the first rays of sun on the rocks is what most folks wait for, but we loved the pre-dawn more. Our only motivation to make the cold ride into town was that we had promised ourselves a second coffee to warm up.

Ani making first coffee at pre-dawn.

First warm rays of sun.

And into town we go...

We had to backtrack a little from whence we came, but soon enough we found ourselves on a glorious gravel road towards Escalante up and over a plateau... with a gorgeous 4000 foot descent on the backside. Anytime we had the option to take the road less traveled, we did. And we were always happier for it, even when the grades got as gnarly as 10.6%! And boy was that descent magical with perfectly smooth dirt and gravel, sparkling golden autumn colors, wind in our hair, and huge grins all around. 

Climbing and more climbing.

Finally, the summit!

Happiest, joyful-est, golden-est descent.

We had to rejoin Highway 20 for a bit, but even that wasn't too bad. We took a short detour to the Escalante Petrified Forest state park... but by that time it was too hot to do anything but check out the lake, the wildlife, and a few informational signs. Also, I would not recommend camping at this park, it was mostly RVs and RV-types of spots.

Oooooh. Lake.

My favorite part of the informational signs.

We rolled into Escalante with plenty of daylight and decided to check out Escalante Outfitters, which was highly recommended by another bike tourist from another blog. After checking out some Yelp reviews which noted that they had a really strict mask policy, which sold us. And lo and behold it was an oasis of beer, wine, liquor, gear, pizza, camping, warm showers, and cabins! Also, other bike fanatics who wanted to wax philosophic about our bikes, gear, and route. Seriously, you will not regret a stop off here. Also... $5 per person camping with hot showers. Did I mention that!?

We were the only campers taking advantage of the lovely raised tent pads.

A humble storefront, but so much awesomeness inside.

Eat the pizza. Yaaaas. Pizza.

Day 4: Bryce Canyon

It's always lovely to have a full day to just enjoy a place without having to break camp, pack up, and get back in the saddle. I was thankful we decided to spend a full day at Bryce Canyon. But of course, we could not abandon our steeds, so we decided to bike from the our campsite out to Rainbow Point and do some easy hiking.

It was so cold we lounged around in the tent as long as possible before getting out... so we set out to the cafe for a coffee. We could barely feel our fingers as we pulled up to the cafe and the warm coffee cups felt so good on our hands! The sun slowly rose as we enjoyed the views at Sunrise Point and then we were off to bike to Rainbow Point. 

Fall colors!

Rainbow point... just a quick walk gets you away from the crowds.

Ooh, an arch.

An exploration into the wooded backcountry... not another soul on the trail.

We had an easy roll back to camp and even had time for a sink bath and some bike maintenance before a relaxing happy hour.

A wee bit o' bike maintenance.

After an early dinner, we decided to go for a walk because it was too early for bed and we bumped into an older retired Asian woman who needed a place to park her car to sleep. We had actually scored a campsite with two picnic tables and well, with bikes, no need for our parking space, so I walked over and offered her a spot at our site. As we finished our walk, we discovered much to our chagrin that there was a short trail right from the campground to the canyon rim. What!? We watched the sun set and found a great spot where we vowed to wake up early and make coffee and breakfast to watch the sun rise.

We fell into a fitful sleep as our neighbors were a bit rowdy... that, and Ani's farts from the alpaca pepperoni and beans and rice.