Moab UT - Wednesday - 211 miles

It was going to be difficult to beat the White Rim Trail, and I don’t know if that was really possible. We had some odds and ends we planned for the day. We started out by going up to the entrance to Canyonlands, but just south of the entrance we turned onto Gemini Bridges Rd. We were going to explore the Gemini Bridges area which is a series of Arches. Getting there proved to be pretty good going through Little Canyon and past the Ojo Arch, and Gooney Bird Rock.Through Short Canyon and we were up on the mesa. Shortly we came upon the Gemini Bridges high above Bull Canyon. We stopped for pictures and soaked in the scenery. We continued West on Gemini Bridges Road and turned on a trail that took us into an area with more arches. We passed Bullwhip Arch, Mosquito Arch, Shadow Arch, and Crips Arch before we were arched out. We turned and back tracked out. Once we were back on top of Short Canyon we took another trial to the South with the intention of going to the base of Bull Canyon and Gemini Bridges.

Looking at the maps later we determined we missed our turn to Bull Canyon at the base of Gemini Bridges, but we ended up riding through Bull Conyon to some dead ends and just explored this area and found some old mine shafts. It was pretty good but we got back to Moab for a late lunch and decided to run down to the East side of US 191 and do some exploring in the Mt. Peale area. Just south of Spanish Valley on US 191 we turned left on CR 124 and then a quick right on Geyser Pass Rd and soon we were in business. As we rode up the mountain toward Mount Tukuhnikivatz we had entered forest area full of pines and White Aspen and said goodbye to the desert. This was similar to our first two of days of riding near Monticello, and was a welcome change. We were riding on La Sal Pass Rd, and before long we were on top at just under 10k feet and looking at Mt Peale. The ride up was not too challenging but the terrain did cause us to stand a good portion of the way up. Back on our bikes we rode down the mountain and dropped quite a bit on elevation in just over 5 miles. The road was very easy and we were soon on the street on UT 46. It was all street on the way back to Moab. We arrived back later than normal and a little tired. We fired up the bar-b-que for a quick bite.