The Notom Burr Trail - February 2005
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© Bob Palin 2005
The Road to Notom
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Sunday February 20th. The first sign of spring had appeared in Torrey on Saturday,
Brink's Hamburgers opened for their 15th year having been closed since October.
On Saturday I had put a new Dunlop D606 tyre on the KLR and was ready to try it out.
At noon things didn't look all that promising, it was still only 40F with a good breeze blowing but somehow by 1pm it was
46F and I had to get out of the house.
I decided to head down through Capitol Reef Park as that was lower and probably warmer and sheltered from the wind a little.
A few days before I had ridden the BMW down the Notom Road until it turned to dirt so I chose to follow the road again
intending to go to the place where the Burr Trail turned off and then return the same way.
Most of the snow had melted in the park and the Fremont River was running well,
I was surprised to see that the parking lot at the visitor centre was at least half full, a lot of tourists for February.
The Notom Road turns off Utah 24 just where it exits Capitol Reef National Park at the east side, not surprisingly it goes to Notom, though you would have a hard time spotting that location these days. Beyond Notom the road is dirt and goes all the way to the Bullfrog Marina on Glen Canyon reservoir about 70 miles away. The road was quite wet in some places and torn up a little, not a problem where it was sandy but in places it crosses outcrops of the grey Bentonite Hills, that mud is very thick and sticky. In the spring they will grade the road and it is an easy drive unless it is raining which is rare, there are great wildflowers down this road in the spring. |