Utah Motorcycle Road Tripping - Route Pre-Planning

Views from the UT/CO border along the US128 Scenic Byway

This entire blog post is a huge experiment with route planning. Please bear with me as I update/edit this often.

This year is our 7th annual motorcycle road trip, and Sherry and I have decided to explore Utah, specifically The Mighty 5: Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Arches National Park. Since we have to go through Colorado to get to Utah (bummer), our thought is to stay in the southern portion of Colorado make a stop at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, and hit the Million Dollar Highway from North - South (aka the scary way!).

Our only planned reservation is to meet our dear friends who are competing as #36 in the 2023 Cannonball Run in Green River, Utah, on September 19th.

So between September 9 - 19, we are free to roam around the West!

My goal is to pre-route via Google Maps several epic routes in Utah to help us spend more time riding and less time mapping! I am using the Scenic Road Trips of Arizona and Utah printed map from MadMaps as my baseline. I highly recommend MadMaps for any motorcycle road trip, as every route I’ve ever ridden from their recommendations has been just awesome!

Because I’m a digital girl, I’m transferring my paper map into Google Maps via my desktop, and then emailing these routes to myself, and saving routes to my home screen on my phone for easy access while riding. At least, that’s my hope, and it works as slick as I think it will in my brain at the moment.

Here are some of the wish list routes to ride!

Getting to Colorado

One option is to come into Colorado in Sedgwick Antique Inn, and visit with our friend Lupe, then criss cross down to the Million Dollar Highway, and then west towards St. George, UT to then begin cutting up to Zion.

Estimated 1839 miles.

Another option is to come down Nebraska and Kansas and hit up Skyline Drive and Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way and then over to Zion.

Estimated 1882 miles

Zion National Park Loop

Zion National Park loop Routes 56 - 18 - 212 - 9 - 89 - 14 - 130, including the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel

Estimated 212 miles

Bryce Canyon and Escalante Loop

Bryce Canyon and Escalante Loop via Routes 89 - 12 - 24 - 119 - 120

Estimated 269 miles

Torrey to Fry Canyon to Natural Bridges to Canyonlands

According to MadMaps, this route is intended to go down to Bullfrog Bay on Lake Powell and take the ferry across Bullfrog Bay; however, due to the low water levels the ferry is not running. So, I modified this route slightly as an option. If we would continue up towards Spanish Valley, Arches National Park is right there.

Estimated 264 miles

Mexican Hat into Arizona

Slightly adjusting this route from the MadMaps recommended way to include a bigger dip into AZ.

Estimated 174 miles

An Option to Green River

Arches National Park is not far from our September 19th destination of Green River. Riding around this area, and exploring the national park could make for a light day of riding!

Estimated 128 miles

What would you do?

Comment below and let me know what are some of your favorite, and must-do routes in Utah?