Day 11: Grand Canyon to Tuba City

Today's 80.5 mile ride started with a great ride out of the park along the South Rim. We stopped several times for photo opportunities, one of which is shown below. You can't see much of the canyon in the picture, but you can see my "core" group - the 5 people on the right of the photo. From right to left is Larry, me, Rob, Kelly, and Bruce. The other 4 were riding with us at the time. This is the first morning that I have put on any cold/cool weather riding gear. Temperatures were in the low 40's when we started out, but shortly after this picture was taken I had shed all of the cold weather gear as the sun rose higher and we dropped lower in elevation.

We continued east out of the park on Highway 64 descending for almost 50 miles until we intersected with Highway 89 where we had lunch. We made a brief stop along the way at the Little Colorado River Gorge scenic overlook. We then headed north on Highway 89 passing the Trading Post at Cameron and continuing to the intersection with Highway 160. We had a strong tailwind wind as we headed north on 89, which became a strong side wind as we turned onto 160 and rode the last 10 miles into Tuba City. Shortly after arriving at our hotel, the wind storm turned into a dust storm with a few drops of mud mixed in.

Our hotel is the Moenkopi Legacy Inn which is located on the Hopi Reservation. Moenkopi means " a place of rejuvenation" - an appropriate place for us cyclists. As I write this I am watching a group of about a dozen Hopi teenagers running intervals up a steep hill in a dust storm - perhaps there is a future Olympian in the group. It's also interesting that the Hopi Reservation is surrounded by the larger Navajo Reservation and they operate on different time zones. We went across the street for a milk shake and gained an hour then came back to the hotel and lost it.

Tomorrow we will be traveling through the Navajo Nation for almost the entire 117 miles to our destination of Mexican Hat UT. Although it will be a long day, it should be a great experience as we pedal by the many spires and towers of Monument Valley.

Steve