Riding Day 3 - Thursday Afternoon - Fish Lake, Capitol Reef, Hanksville
The wind continued as we turned around on 72 and rode south to the junction of FR036 that runs northwest around the top of Fish Lake, where it becomes FR640 and finally UT25.
Junction of UT 72 and FR036, looking north toward UT 72.
FR036, looking northwest toward Fish Lake.
Looking northeast from UT 25 toward the south end of Fish Lake.
Looking south on UT 25 from the south end of Fish Lake.
Our GS buddy texted us and said he'd had enough of fighting the wind out on I-70, trying to link up with us around Fremont. He said he'd see us at the motel in Hanksville. We were getting pretty tired of the wind ourselves, and although it was a little early in the afternoon we decided to just blast straight east to Hanksville ourselves. We fueled up again and took some refreshment at the same Phillips 66 station in Torrey, then we got back on UT 24 heading east for Hanksville.
A nice bonus was that we would pass through Capital Reef National Park. Although we didn't go in, we did stop for a few photos of the imposing formations. It seems so amazing that you can be in low mountains with grass, shrubs, and trees one minute...and the next in an arid landscape that is completely different.
We then rode through a literal moonscape of flat terrain with piles of gray soil, almost completely lacking in any vegetation. To be honest it looked like an industrial waste site, full of mining tailings or something like that. Pretty bleak. Finally we arrived in Hankville and the OYO Hotel. Although it had been cleaned up, painted, and some new furnishings installed...at was still a worn-out 40+ year-old motel.
It was hot, and it was still windy, so it was dusty. The motel clientele were an eclectic bunch. There were some working guys in pickups, a pair of couples from Kansas traveling on touring Harleys, and a well-dressed older couple in a Toyota Tacoma who looked and seemed out of place. Turns out the truck was a rental, and it was equipped with one of those platform tents mounted high over the truck bed. They had been in it the night before and got no sleep as the wind whipped at the fabric and rocked the truck on its springs all night. So they threw in the towel and got a room at the dingy little place where we were staying. The looked like recent retirees, eager to get out and enjoy the outdoor life, but the outdoor life pushed back a little harder than expected.
The GS is back!
The abandoned phone booth gives away the age of the motel.
There was also one of those white two-door sloped cabinets emblazoned with the word ICE in red letters nearby, designed to store bagged ice. It was making noise and heat but holding no ice inside it...wasn't even cold inside. I have no idea why it was running, but I jiggled the plug in the wall to make it stop, yet still look like it was plugged in.
After pouring a bourbon and catching up with the Lost Weasel, we walked directly across the road to Duke's Slickrock Grill, which turned out to be the best restaurant and exceeded all our expectations in every dimension. Hard to believe it has existed in this heaven-forsaken place for decades.
Knocking one back with The Duke.
The service was fantastic and the meal was excellent. We could not have been more satisfied as we walked back.
Upon entering the motel parking lot, we were surprised to find that Mr. White and Jesse had moved their operation from New Mexico to Utah and had just gotten back from cooking up a [url=https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Sky]batch of blue out in the desert.
It was nice when the wind died down, the temperatures dropped, and sunset fell over Hanksville.
