CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
It goes by way of Torrey, back through Boulder, back through Escalante and back through Bryce Canyon City. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 44 km this is Utah Scenic Byway 12, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Boulder, Utah, was the last town in the United States to have its mail delivered by mule, and the arrangement lasted until 1940, since no road reached it. The village sits at about 2,000 metres on the edge of the Aquarius Plateau in south-central Utah, a tiny community of ranches, a few houses and a lodge, with red sandstone cliffs on one side and pine and aspen forest on the other. The nearest big towns are far away, and the village still has a feeling of being at the end of something, which for generations it was.
Read the complete Boulder write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boulder is where the day begins. Next is Torrey.
Torrey comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Boulder.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boulder write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Boulder. Next is back through Escalante.
Escalante is a small town on the edge of nowhere, and it is proud of it. Mormon pioneers settled here in 1875, in a valley at about 1,770 metres, and named it for Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, the Franciscan friar who passed through the region with Spanish explorers in 1776 on a failed attempt to find a route to California. Today it has a few hundred inhabitants, a handful of motels and cafes, and the air of a place that exists mainly to serve those exploring the vast and strange landscape around it.
Read the complete Escalante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Escalante, about halfway. Next is back through Bryce Canyon City.
Bryce Canyon City is a small cluster of motels, restaurants and shops at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park, in the high desert of southern Utah, at an altitude well over two thousand metres. Panguitch, the nearest real town, lies about thirty kilometres to the west. Nothing here is old, as the village grew with the tourists, but the setting is the reason for everything.
Read the complete Bryce Canyon City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bryce Canyon City sits at 164 km, late in the day. Next is Panguitch.
Panguitch is a small, tidy Utah town of about fifteen hundred people on the high plateau, and it is the doorway to one of the great motorcycle roads in the American West. Scenic Byway 12 starts nearby, climbs through Red Canyon with its orange spires and tunnels, and then runs on through Bryce Canyon country, Grand Staircase-Escalante and over Boulder Mountain to Capitol Reef. The name Panguitch comes from a Paiute word usually translated as big fish, and the nearby lake does indeed have good trout.
Read the complete Panguitch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 288 km.
Boulder → Torrey is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Torrey → back through Boulder is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Boulder → back through Escalante is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Escalante → back through Bryce Canyon City is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bryce Canyon City → Panguitch is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.