5 star day! A very brisk morning walk along the canyon rim to watch the sunrise. Packed up and headed for Escalante. There is a piece of highway that connects Escalante with Boulder, Utah called the “Million Dollar Highway”. It’s somewhat famous amongst motorcyclist and I was eager to ride it. Nothing puts a butterfly in my belly, clenches my butt cheeks and puts a smile on my face as much as a spirited canyon ride and this one really delivered. Fast, tight corners with dizzying drops. On a loaded adventure motorcycle equipped with off-road tires there is a fine line between momentum and traction. You have to concentrate and many prompts run though my head. Hard out of the corner, upshift, second, third, brake hard, down shift, point your knee into the apex, lean in, release the rear brake, feather off the front brake while rolling on the throttle, look though to the exit, apex, full power, upshift… again and again and again. One sign said 17% grade (down hill). That’s crazy steep and it drops straight into a an exposed hairpin (who would build a road like that?!). The scenery changes with every turn. Red rocks, bright yellow aspens, light green sage, explosive wide vistas and towering spires. To top it all off was a section of hogbacks. A hogback is a section of road that is built between two hill or runs along the top of a narrow ridge. Basically a narrow, winding road in-which both sides drop off. In this case at least 1000 feet on each side. What a roller coaster! I chatted with a man in Escalante who told me to take the Burr Trail Road which he described as a “magic carpet ride”. After finishing the Million Dollar Highway I turned off onto Burr Road. Anytime you turn onto a road that doesn’t have painted lines or has signs that say “payment ends”, you know you are in for a treat. Burr Trail Road is on the edge of the Capital Reef National Park and it was one of the coolest roads I have ever encountered. Of it’s 90 miles, about 60 miles is paved. It winds though canyon after canyon. When you come around a bend sometimes its a jaw dropping vista or a narrow slot of a road carving between towering cliffs. Sometimes it is a scary edge or steep grade. The off road section featured a 20+ hairpin descent dropping 2000 feet in about 2 miles. There were also a few sections of sand (not my favorite). I arrived in Bull Frog where there was once a ferry to cross Lake Powell. Now the water level of Lake Powell does not allow for its operation. As the sun starts to get low in the sky I start to think about a place to camp but I’m very low on water. That’s a problem. I rode almost 100 miles before I found… anything remotely resembling civilization. As the sun was setting I pulled into Natural Bridges Nation Monument. The visitor’s center had water for me to fill my water bag but their campground was full. I backtracked about 5 miles and turned off onto an unpaved forest service road. About 3 miles in I found a place to pull off and camp for the night. Yep… quite a day.