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.