31st July 2007
Stretching The BMW's Legs
Last day of July - where has the time gone? I decided the BMW hadn't had enough exercise this month. Since I needed a couple of service items
for the BMW and the CRF I decided to ride over to the dealer in Grand Junction to get them followed by a southerly route home to cover UT128, a very scenic
road that I had somehow never been on before. My route took me to Loa then up over Sweeper Madness to I70 and east to Grand Junction (about 220 miles), I rode around a while looking for a Chinese
restaurant, something that is noticeably lacking in Wayne County and ended up at a rather yuppy Mongolian bbq, it wasn't bad though. Grand Junction was hot, about 95F so
it wasn't much fun riding around town visiting places to get a new battery for the CBR1000 and then to the BMW/Honda dealer for a few more items. The BMW
dealer in GJ has been re-vamped since I was there last and I spent a while looking at Honda VTXs and talking to a very friendly and non-pushy salesman.
I'm thinking a metric cruiser might be my next bike (when I'm employed again!), but I still can't get used to the idea of an 1800cc motorcycle, there is a 1300cc
- just 1300cc! - version but it isn't as nice as the big one, it is some $7000 cheaper for some reason though, crazy.
Having dealt with the shopping I headed west again and took UT128 towards Moab, by now it was close to 100F and I was feeling the heat, I spotted an
interesting bridge and pulled over for a drink.
The Dewey Bridge
The bridge is on the register of historic places and had a short history plaque:
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Moab was a very isolated place during the 19th century and the early settlers realized the need for a connection to the outside world.
The Colorado River provided a natural corridor from Moab to the east, but much work was required to make the connection between Moab and Grand Junction.
In 1888, the Taylor family built a cattle trail along the river corridor. In 1902 Samuel King built a toll road under county authorization, connecting with his ferry service across the Colorado (or Grand River as it was known then). The ferry was located just upstream from where the Dewey Bridge is now. Planning for the Dewey Bridge was begun in 1913. The bridge was buily in 1916 by the Midland Bridge Co. of Kansas City, Missouri. It was built to withstand a load of 21,600 pounds (six horses with three wagons and 9000lbs of freight). The cost was $25,000 and the money was allocated by the Utah State Legislature.
The bridge served as the only crossing until 1986. The old bridge was renovated in the 1990s by the Grand County Historic Preservation Commission.
It now serves as a foot and bicycle bridge on the Kokopelli Trail.
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There is also a history of the area:
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The first settler along the Colorado River upstream from Moab was Doby Brown, who entered Castle Valley in 1882.
Brown built the Heavenly Stairway (a very steep trail) to get to Moab, making this trail the first transportation route in the area.
Sylvester Richardson (The Professor) entered the Moab area in 1885. He established a store at the confluence of Professor Creek and the Colorado River in 1886. Richardson established a mail route east to Cisco in 1888, thus avoiding the Heavenly Stairway route west to Moab. Richardson named the townsite after himself. Sylvester Richardson has also left his name in Richardson Amphitheater as well as in Professor Creek. While Richardson was running his post office at Professor Creek, the Taylor family built a trail along the rver in 1888, also avoiding the Heavenly Stairway. In 1901 Samuel King built a toll road along the river under county authorization. The road linked up with King's ferry at what is now Dewey (the town was called Kingsferry for a time). Richard Westwood operated the Dewey ferry from 1902 to 1916. A school was operated at Dewey from 1902 to 1914. Whether the town was named for Dewey Smith, a local miner, or Admiral Dewey, the hero of the Spanish American war, is unknown.
Highway 128 was made a state highway in 1921 and rerouted to above the high water mark shortly thereafter.
It was paved sometime in the late 1920s or mid 1930s, it remains one of the most beautiful drives in the western United States.
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Dewey Bridge - Utah's longest suspension bridge.
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The new bridge isn't nearly as interesting
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UT128 follows the Colorado River to Moab
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I was to meet those clouds later on...
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I'm not a big fan of Moab, 20 years ago it was a nice little place mostly occupied by motorcyclists and some bicyclists but now it is overrun with mini strip malls and modern motels, I often refer to it as Little LA which is a bit of an exaggeration but that's how I feel.
Just south of Moab I ran into the thunderstorm, I stopped to put my rain gear on and that worked its usual magic, though the road was soaked, hardly any rain fell on me.
From there I kept going south to Blanding and then picked up 195 north through the canyons to the Colorado River at Hite. I managed to avoid a couple of thunderstorms and was treated to some great views as the sun went down
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As I approached Capitol Reef it became obvious that storms were all over the area, the road was being illuminated by lightning every few seconds. In the park I was soaked by a heavy rain shower, it looked lighter ahead so I didn't stop which meant of course that it rained for much longer than I expected. The storms continued in Torrey for much of the night with deep grumbly rumbling, sort of the Barry White of thunder. It's been a very wet July.