Thread Of Positive Awesomeness

That's a definite "no!".

 

Better be watching out for Golum.

 

Arches National Park in southern Utah is on our list of possible destinations for a motorcycle trip this fall...depending on the state of the world four months from now. We'll probably try to go to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, too, if we can take enough days off for a proper trip.







Bryce Canyon vista

 

You certainly have some awesome choices for rides

 

Take it you have been tracking this? (Picture of Neowise from Tucson)

 

No, I don’t know anything about it. What’s the deal? Terrifically beautiful photo!

 

That we do, Wessa! When I first started riding Mr. Sandi told me he thought that we lived in the best place in the United States to be motorcyclists and I think he’s probably correct. Great roads, great scenery, great destinations, great weather. I’m very lucky and blessed.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/co...es-by-the-sun-providing-a-treat-for-observers


It is a comet - just happened to see this article/photograph and wondered whether you guys had clocked it?

 

Both Zion and Bryce are awesome! Try do do both if you can, and certainly (unless you're vertiginous) climb up to the "hidden canyon" in Zion.

 

And whilst you are doing that, familiarize yourself with UK confectionery ready for the GMU, such as Picnic bar, Jamboree Bag, Topic etc. Doubtless more to follow from fellow contributors.

 

Hey @Sandi T.

When I first saw the top half of that beautiful picture that @Vulpes loaded I thought "WOW - I've got a photo JUST like that of Crater Lake, Oregon". However, it's on a 35mm slide somewhere in the depths of my belongings so I won't be able to provide proof positive (get it ?) anytime soon.

But, the short version of a long story is that I visited Crater Lake National Park on an early Spring day - this would have been 1989. The access road had been ploughed (plowed!) - thankfully, as snow was stacked 8 to 10 feet high on the road up there but it was all clear. The RIM Visitor Centre was still pre-season closed but the main access road was open up to that point so it was possible to park the bike and walk to the rim observation point. There were two or three cars in the car park and a lone BMW boxer twin (R80 RT, I think) with a solo lady rider. It was a beautiful spring day - cold but not bone chilling; clear, cloudless, cerulean blue sky and not even the faintest breath of wind. The Lake was just like in that photo - glasslike, flat calm - and it was utterly impossible to see the boundary between the water and the mountainside that forms the shore. The reflection in the float glass smooth, calm water was just indistinguishable from the physical reality of the snow covered, grey granite caldera top and you could have counted the mountainside's trees in the reflection as it was so accurately reproduced on the water. A local man came up and stood next to me and expressed his personal awe and wonder and said "Y'know, I drive this route and stop by here 5 days a week, most weeks of the year and have done for many, many years and I have NEVER seen the Lake look like that ..... it is JUST magical!" A brief conversation followed and he said he lived on one side of the mountain and worked on the other so he drove in most days just to enjoy the view. We both agreed that it was an extremely rare and breathtakingly beautiful opportunity - especially for someone who lived over 4,000 miles away - and one to be a lifetime's visual treasure!

So, if you can't make it to Glacier - try Crater Lake. It's a few hundred miles nearer to Tuscon and, who knows, you MIGHT just get lucky. I did.

p.s. the one downside of Crater Lake is that you don't get to the water's edge and see brightly coloured pebbles forming a picture within a picture. I'd still give it a try, though ..... if you haven't already.

p.p.s. it was a short conversation with the BMW lady rider that got me to The Lost Coast in Northern California - another "well worth a visit" area/location.

 

Hey @Vulpes - I don't know when you last went to Zion but I was there last in 2013 and it was like a zoo! So busy with traffic and people that it felt like it had lost its 'soul'. It IS beautiful - of course - but it's much, much busier than I recall from previous visits. I'd recommend visiting in the quieter months, ofr sure.

 

I have been both summer and winter and it can be a trawl in the summer with traffic so I agree the quieter months would be better
A pic I took early in the year

 

I was there last in 1992 - not so busy then. So probably good advice to go off-season...

 

I'm more upset by the lack of apostrophe.

 

As long as it ain't your bike that gets thrown in Duck!

 

USS Iowa broadside

 

Hey Fred... you smell somethhing????