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Utah's been blessed with more than its share of National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, and just plain beautiful scenery - which makes it a great place for cycle touring. Our bike ride in Southwest Utah passed through Zion, Bryce, and Capitol Reef National Parks and the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument, all spectacularly beautiful. And the places inbetween were pretty nice too.

Bryce Canyon National Park
None of the towns along this 400 mile loop were very big. Populations were probably less than a few hundred in each. The towns just outside the National Parks had more motels and other tourist amenities. But the towns inbetween these parks were very small and often had only a single tiny motel, a cafe, and maybe a little market that doubled as the post office. A few houses lined the main streets and ranch land and alfalfa fields stretched to the surrounding mountains or horizons.

The LDS church was usually the most identifiable landmark. With the exception of one Subway sandwich shop in Torrey, we didn't see a single fastfood franchise restaurant anywhere along the way. Not a MacDonalds, not a Starbucks. That pretty much sums up the small-town, rural atmosphere which we found to be very refreshing. When the wind stopped there'd be dead silence, only broken by the occasional car passing through.

Mercantile Store, Koosharem

Main Street - Anytown, UT
Early May is a good time for a bike trip here, both for the weather and the paucity of tourist traffic. But with so few accommodations and such great distances between them it took a lot of advance research to find places and make reservations. We were rewarded with very nice and quiet roads and clean, inexpensive places to spend each night. Next