Day Thirteen: Moab, Utah to Bryce, Utah

Another incredibly beautiful day!  I set off this morning heading north on Highway 191, and almost immediately the governmental shutdown made itself known: Arches National Park (which I'd planned on visiting) was barricaded at the entrance.  So, I continued north to the Interstate 70 junction, then headed west for about half an hour before turning southwest on Highway 24.

Open desert and mesas along Utah Highway 24.

This lead through some spectacular desert and mesa scenery.  After brunch in Hanksville, I continued on this route through Capitol Reef National Park.  (Although the services are all closed in this park, the road through it remained open.)

One of the many ridiculous views in Capitol Reef National Park.

Soon after Capitol Reef I turned south on Route 12, which took me up over an unnamed pass (at 9,200').  The entire route was a riot of fall colors, though only a couple of safe places to stop presented themselves.  Here they are:

Spectacular fall colors lined the roads over the unnamed pass on Route 12.

The road over the pass was also spectacular.

A while after the descent, the road wound its way through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which began with the road traveling along the knife-edge of a mesa; the road dropped off precipitously on either side.  The road soon descended to the bottom of a narrow gorge (visible behind me in the photo below) and continued on towards Bryce Canyon.

At the rim of Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument.

Bryce Canyon National Park was another victim of the governmental shutdown, so I'm camping just outside the park boundary in Bryce.  After renting a teepee(!), I took the motorcycle down a private gravel road to the canyon rim.  (A nice view, but not post-worthy.)  I then repeated the trip on foot -- my first run in weeks.  It wasn't a fast run, but it felt better than I had feared it would after sitting on the bike for so many days straight.  I'll likely pay for it tomorrow.

Camping for the night in a teepee.  Because why the hell not.

Every single mile of today's roads was spectacular, and tomorrow the scenery will continue as I pass through Zion National Park and into Nevada.