So I woke up nice and early and got out on the road in Colorado early enough to see the deer running across the valleys between the mountains. I also took it slow enough to not be in danger of hitting one. I started my journey today heading west towards Four Corners Monument. I ended up stopping for gas and yet again got over 50mpg. Something about the mountain terrain and air is real good for Harleys.
This is what the monument looks like today. It seems to have grown, or my memory from when I was younger has faded. Now there are Native American shops surrounding the monument on all four sides. Also unfortunately this was as close as I got into Utah. I will have to make a special visit back one day to visit Troy. If you come to the monument, they open at 0800. If you want cool pictures get here early.
What happened next was not captured in pictures because the adventure had indeed begun. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed my shifter was in a different position than normal. After pulling off on the side of the road and realizing I couldn't get it back into neutral, I realized I was in a pickle. Four Corners is in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't shift my bike out of first gear...with my foot. I studied the linkage and played with it with my hand.
What I did next was the only thing I could. I knew going downhill I could start in 3rd. So I found 3rd and took off. Once I needed to shift, I grabbed the clutch with my left hand, transferred it to my right, and reached down with my left to shift into 4th through 6th. Down shifting didn't require a clutch so it was easier. I then figured out how to rev match and shift up without the clutch. I then drove the next 200 miles using a very short jockey shifter with no clutch except for complete stops.
Grand Canyon Harley in Belmont got me operational within the time it took me to eat lunch. In total I was behind schedule 3 hours but still got a camp site in the park.
The first thing I did was set up camp. I was certain that if I went over to the rim I would be setting up camp in the dark. I even set up my hammock for some evening relaxing before bed.
You see that round brown thing on the ground? Zoom in to the right of my tent by the picnic table.
Maybe that it a better angle. Less than 100 feet from my camp, a full grown female elk. They are all over the park. All kinds of wildlife are everywhere. I think someone's dog might have gotten into a pack of coyotes last night. The sounds were intense...
I will post the whole gallery when I get back, but this is the first view of the canyon I got. It is so big it looked fake. It was too much to take in with human eyes. You attempt to focus on the whole thing and that is impossible. It is impossible because it is 7 miles rim to rim, and there are so many interesting things within that 7 miles. To focus on one point your eyes are distracted immediately from the thing next to it looking just as spectacular.
I was honestly emotional from just looking at it. Even now as I type this and remember the feeling, I get teary eyed. I don't know how we can capture the grandness of the canyon with the technology available to us. I don't know if there are movies or songs written about the Grand Canyon or if attempts were made and scrapped because it just couldn't be captured that way.
I will definitely be making a return trip and giving myself a week to "feel" the canyon. If you can afford to visit it for a day, and you haven't yet, you must do it. I will end the entry with a sunset, and a sunrise. I didn't get the full sunrise because I was packing up camp so I could hit the road for Vegas.
