Riding home from Zion

We left La Verkin, Utah about 8:30am local time, heading home after a weekend that included a ride through Zion National Park and a 13.5 mile trail race yesterday.

Riding through the vast southwestern part of the country, where the road stretches before us to the horizon and we can look out over a valley to the mountain ranges 100 miles distant, makes us appreciate the small details. A few cattle grazing in the dry scrub brush, birds lazily swooping on the updrafts, a couple of trees next to an abandoned homestead, the feel of the wind  as we zoom down the almost empty 2-lane paved road.

We rode east on Utah 59, which becomes Arizona 389 and entered the Arizona Strip, the remote, arid, northernmost part of Arizona that lies north of the Grand Canyon. Indigenous people lived in this area for at least 8,000 years and Spanish explorers first saw the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the 1500's. The first Europeans didn't arrive to this more remote section of present-day Arizona until the late 1700's.

We picked up US 89A in Fredonia and gradually started to climb into the pine forests of the Kaibab Plateau.

We enjoyed the cooler temperatures at this higher elevation as the road curved and climbed to almost 8,000' elevation before we started to wind down into the valley along the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, known for sherbet-colored swirls of slickrock and towering cliffs.

We crossed over the Colorado River and continued south on US 89 through the Navajo Reservation until we started to see the San Francisco Peaks, a mountain range just outside Flagstaff that contains Humphrey's Peak, the highest mountain in Arizona at 12,633'. After a quick stop in Flagstaff for lunch, we continued toward home riding on I-40 west until we turned off on the much less traveled AZ 89.

We love long motorcycle trips where we spend a few weeks on the road exploring new areas, and also relish a weekend trip and the opportunity to revisit familiar roads. With cooler weather coming, we'll change up our travels and head south instead of north, hopefully within the next couple of months.

A twisting mountain ride for lunch

Mid-June to mid-September is the rainy season, known as monsoon season, in Arizona. Almost every day big, dark storm clouds roll in, followed by lightning, thunder, and often torrential rain. Definitely NOT prime motorcycle weather.

Today the sun was shining and the only clouds in the Arizona-blue sky were some small, white, harmless looking puffy ones so we decided to ride northeast to Cottonwood for lunch.

heading out of Prescott

 Bocce is a fantastic restaurant/bar in downtown Old Cottonwood that features true thin-crust, Italian-style pizza and garden-fresh salads with seating outside so we can watch people strolling down the sidewalk. The route to Bocce is even better than the pizza - winding, twisting hairpin turns on route 89A that take us up and over Mingus Mountain, into the old copper mining town of Jerome, and down the other side of the mountain to Cottonwood in the Verde Valley.

89A is one of our favorite motorcycle roads. Mike loves the challenge of the hairpin turns as we glide around the tight corners, and I enjoy the rocky mountain views, cool pine tree forests, and far-off views of the Mogollon Rim.

looking down on 89A

Mogollon Rim in the distance

The Mogollon Rim is an escarpment that forms the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau and runs east-west across Arizona. The sandstone and limestone cliffs sometimes rise 2,000' above the valley floor, and the sheer size along with the vivid colors of the stone make the Rim an amazing view that can be seen from miles away.

Jerome likes to call itself a ghost town, but it's home to about 450 people and a weekend draw for tourists and motorcyclists. 15,000 people lived here in the 1920's when it was a booming copper mining town perched on the edge of the mountains.

Jerome

One of the reasons we love living in Prescott are the fantastic motorcycle roads that allow us to enjoy a mid-day lunch ride. Soon the monsoons will end and the weather will turn cooler, giving us more opportunities to explore Arizona's roads.

Too long off the bike

It's been far too long since we've been out on the bike. Blame it on work, weather, other types of travel, more work. This month we've gone out for two short rides, and now we're planning a longer trip this summer.

Two weeks ago we rode to Cottonwood for lunch, choosing to ride twisty, climbing 89A through Jerome and then twisting our way down into Cottonwood. Cottonwood is about 2000' lower elevation than Prescott, so it's warmer here. The Old Town main street is lined with wineries, restaurants, bars, art galleries and funky local shops, making it fun to walk along the street and peek in the store windows. We sat outside at Bocce which has fantastic pizza, sandwiches and salads and watched the people walk by as we ate our lunch.

Today we headed south on Iron Springs Road and Yavapai County 10 through Skull Valley.

We can tell Spring is coming from the bright green new leaves on the cottonwood trees. Today we didn't stop for lunch, instead continuing on 89 north toward Prescott, enjoying another twisty, climbing ride. The slower cars in front of us politely pulled to the side so we could pass, and we returned the favor for a group of 6 Harleys with Washington state plates following us. We came up behind them once we hit the stoplights in downtown Prescott, and waved as they continued north on 89.

We ended the ride with an ice cream cone, talking about a longer trip this summer to Colorado on our way to Oregon and a weekend trip in early April to Lake Havasu. We're going to make up for lost time!

A BMW motorcycle is the best way to experience the mountain twisties on the way to Jerome

There are many old mining towns tucked into the mountains throughout Arizona. Once a town of 15,000 people who worked in the largest copper mine in Arizona, Jerome dwindled to less than 100 people in the 1960's, declared itself a ghost town, and eventually reinvented itself into a quirky artist's community that caters to hundreds of tourists who wander up and down the narrow, steep streets.

We've ridden the 35 miles from Prescott to Jerome via Arizona 89A several times in the past 10 months that we've lived in Arizona, and never tire of zooming up and down the twisting, curving road over tall pine covered Mingus Mountain.

Today I decided to take video of the trip to give you the opportunity to experience the hairpin turns and long vistas north to the Mogollon Rim from the back of the BMW.

Enjoy!

curving roads and long views

entering Jerome

leaving Jerome toward Cottonwood