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. 

Day 3: Otter Creek Lake to Bryce Canyon

Despite some wind overnight, we passed the night relatively peacefully and watched the sun rise over the lake while eating a leisurely breakfast. We congratulated ourselves for a campsite well chosen as we passed by the state campground (Utah, we are not impressed with your state campgrounds!), but we did help ourselves to a water fill at a spigot in a private campground across the way. 

Sunrise!

We briefly chatted with a local in Antimony who warned us of cars going too fast on the curves. Ani asked asked him if it was pretty, and he responded "not sure if it's pretty, it hasn't rained since March." If you are passing through Antimony, just know the little store/cafe there is closed on Sundays. We climbed through golden fall leafed trees and the Black Rock Canyon, where we scared a bunch of cows nearly to death. 

The landscape hints of what is to come.

Most of the day was long, straight, and typical desert riding. It felt pretty desolate with none of the vibrant orange and golden rock formations we dreamed that was scattered across Utah. We saw promises of those views as the day wore on. And we kept expecting some gnarly headwind, but thankfully it mostly hit us at an angle and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. As we neared Bryce Canyon town, traffic got worse and as we were lamenting the prospect of a climb into Bryce with cars, a bike path magically appeared. We stopped off at the General Store to grab some beer [note: Utah is NOT taking COVID seriously, so while most patrons were wearing masks, none of the employees were] and we had a lovely ride into the park on a beautiful paved bike path. 

Bryce Canyon town resupply.

The most magical of bike paths.

We were also stoked to realize that people who bike into the park bypass the ranger station and so we did not have to pay the park fee. While the website says it it is $35 per car and $20 for people who bike and walk, there specifically were signs that routed us around the fee station and right to the area to get visitors information. We booked it to the first-come first-served campsite and had our choice of about 4 or 5 sites... which was incredibly lucky since we realized that yes, we had arrived on a Sunday, but it was a holiday weekend (Indigenous Peoples' Day)... whoops! No harm no foul.

Bikes for life.

We set up camp, enjoyed a quick beer, and then set out for a short exploration with the few hours of light we had left. We went to the oh so popular Sunrise Point, threw our masks on, and did a quick 3 mile loop before retiring for dinner.

So popular but so pretty!

The headstand returns.

Fun with shadows.

The temperatures dropped drastically as the sun set, so we had an early dinner of chicken soba noodles with shiitake mushrooms, and sesame topped off with hot chocolate and coconut macaroons. Since this night was supposed to be our coldest night, dropping to the 20s, we jumped into the tent early and poured over the maps to plan the next day.

Day 2: Willard Bay to Otter Creek Lake

We had an uneventful night with tons of highway noise, so we woke up early and got out as fast as possible. We only had about 4 more hours of driving to get to our starting point and we were anxious to ditch the car and get on our bikes. While I was waxing on about life, the universe, and everything, I forgot to look at the gas gauge for a while and kinda zoned out. And the gas light came on. Or rather, I realized the gas light was on, and I had no idea how long it had been on. 

Luckily we had phone service and Ani located the closest gas station... which was 14 miles away in an area with seemingly nothing to the plain eye. We didn't have a choice. So we went for it. "What is the most efficient speed to drive?" I asked Ani. Even though the speed limit was 75 mph, I went at 60 mph to conserve gas. We were on pins and needles as we coasted into the quaint town of Laven (fondly known by locals as "navel" backwards and named as such because it is has dubbed itself the center of Utah). And there it was, the promised Conoco. 

Never happier to see a gas station!

The rest of the drive was uneventful and soon we found ourselves parked just outside Koosharem at a free ATV trailhead and camping area in the nearby Fishlake National Forest. We had a light lunch and then we were off! Bikes! 

Glamour shot while we were still bright eyed and bushy tailed.

The day was pretty easy... no significant climbs, some inconsistent headwind, but nothing we couldn't handle after our Steens Mountain tour (for the sordid details, check out our 70+ mile day of nothing but headwind!). Then, we had a hard choice to make. We had planned on checking out the camping at Otter Creek State Park, but it was still early. There wasn't too much of an advantage for going further as our goal was to get to Bryce Canyon the next day which was a Sunday, and try to arrive right at the time the first-come first-served campsites turn over.

As we neared the state park, we saw that there was a ton of really nice dispersed camping on BLM land right before the park, which looked like a bunch of RV parking spaces. So we decided to check out our options.

This part of Utah looks a lot like eastern Oregon... small section of dirt road as we searched for camping.

Home for the night.

I am a firm believer that when a great dispersed site shows up, even if it's a little early, I never regret having a relaxed afternoon. We were able to walk around the lake a bit, check out the pelicans and other birds on the water, play cards, and otherwise just enjoy ourselves. Then Ani whipped up a gourmet Asian noodle dish with fresh veggies, shrimp, and a soy marinated egg (a la Momofuku) which pack really well on a bike. 

Can't really complain about the views.

Ani and I eat better on bike tours camping than a lot folks do at home... the soy marinated egg was to die for!

Day 1: Bend, Oregon to Willard Bay State Park, Utah

I had a major case of the "yay bike tour!" jitters... which feels a lot like kids must feel the night before Christmas. So I woke up at 4:30 am. Oops. That was fine, our only goal was to drive as far as we could while it was light out, so we could have more time to bike the next day. It was a boring smoky drive, but the time went by quickly with good company and good conversation. 

As the day wore on, I casually joked if Anthony Bourdain had done an episode of No Reservations for Utah. [BACKSTORY: When Ani and I went to Ecuador for a 3 week bike tour, we did not realize that Anthony Bourdain had done an episode of No Reservations for Ecuador... and so randomly we watched that episode while in a random hotel in the Andes waiting for the bus to take us back to Quito to fly home. Biggest facepalm ever. We had actually stayed in one of the towns he featured and missed out on a great opportunity to check out one of the fabled places he raved about.]

And then Ani mentioned that she had heard about a famous farm-to-table restaurant called Hells Backbone Grill in one of the towns we would be going through. I was like "WHAT!?" And just like that, I pulled out the map, did some research on my phone, found a sweet back road route that would help us stretch one segment out so we could arrive at the restaurant for dinner. It would also allow us to spend a little more time on the Burr Trail, which was a feature of this trip that had sucked us into this part of Utah. Done and done.

As the sun began to set, we had our eye on a few campgrounds, but Willard Bay State Park was right next to the highway so we decided to check it out because we were a little concerned about rolling into a more remote campground on a Friday night after dark and not finding a spot and did not want to get a motel. We were pretty tired... but we balked when the attendant told us it would be $50 since all that were left were double sites, but gave in so we could just be done with it.

Our mansion of a campsite with two picnic tables. We tucked into the trees and tried to ignore the screaming children.

While I would never recommend this to anyone for camping (unless you love RVs), the one consolation prize was that the park was situated right on the water, so we tromped down to the water and watched the sun set before settling in for the night.

Our $50 sunset.