UTB: More Temple Mountain Wash Uraling and am joined by Tim L.

Friday, not much to report, spent the whole day working on issues that basically remained unresolved anyways.  The weather was cool and overcast as well so not conducive to going riding anyways.  The sunset for Friday wasn't bad though:

update: pics from Tim L's astrophotography near Goblin Valley State Park:

 photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin

photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin

Saturday was clear, sunny and much warmer than the last couple of days.  Rode out after breakfast to check out the sights along Utah Highway 24 first:

Sunrise was "meh"

 Visitors to the boondocking site

or I guess, the local residents really

 Cool rock formation next to Molly's Castle

 Molly's Castle

Turning back towards Temple Mountain Road, I tried the road that I though would lead further up the mountain itself.  I didn't get very far, the road got quite sloped and not in a good way.  So I turned around and got these two shots instead:

Uraling further along Temple Mountain Road, I stopped here and there whenever I saw interesting rock formations:

At the furthest point of the ride, I found a trail that led to some nice tent campsites around a small butte.  Riding around the front of the butte, I was able to get this shot of Temple Mountain:

I rode back towards the campsite but had to stop when I saw these two small planes who'd landed right next to the road that leads to Goblin Valley State Park!  Apparently, where they're parked is an old air field and the pilots had come to survey it with the idea of having it regraded; for use by the Back Country Pilots Association.  Cool Stuff.

I was joined by Tim L., a fellow Uralista from Longmont, CO.  He's here to try and do some astrophotography early tomorrow morning near Goblin Valley State Park.

We did go and try and catch the golden hour before sunset.  Got some shots but also got mobbed by midges or small gnats, clouds of them!

 Sunset lighting near Temple Mountain

with Tim L.

Tomorrow, we're going to try and ride the entire Cathedral Valley Loop.  It's about 60 miles of dirt road riding with a possibly impassable water crossing right at the start.  Could be interesting.