Sunset Crater to the Grand Canyon South Rim Loop

Sunset Crater Visitor Center

Wupatki Ruins

Desert View Visitor Center, Grand Canyon south Rim

This is a ride that Tim and I took together....what great fun, first we got all of out gear loaded up for a full day out on the bikes....it was very chilly morning so we bundled up accordingly, or so we thought!
So leaving Sedona , we connected to 17 N, to try and zoom up to the fun roads!  After a brief petrol break, and I needed to put on everything that i brought for gear....It was Freezing!!!  i hoped it was only since it was so early...
Then a brief bit of I-40 East, to 89North....this is a great road....the entire length of it as i hope to ride every mile some day.  Not far off of I-40 is the turn off for the Sunset Crater Loop....this road is fantastic, i highly recommend it to anyone who is riding in the area.  It has a great National Park Service Visitor Center, where you need to stop and pay a fee (or you can purchase the annual NPS pass, go to http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm)
Then as you sweep through the tree lined curves, you see volcanic lava rock jutting up out of the earth like some sort of other planetary road trip.  The loop is approximately 45 miles, after riding through the volcanic rock, it gently turns you through areas where the volcanic sand lines the roadways, few trees with the occasional large rocks piercing the smooth landscape.
A few more miles and it opens up with view of the painted desert, and you can see for miles.  This winds you down to a redder earth and to the Wupatki Ruins site....pull over for a brief walk through these ancient ruins, another very nice visitors center.
After leaving the ruins, the road twists and turns through the red rock, then up to some plains with tall, fuzzy grass....and open with a beautiful view of the San Francisco Peaks.
oh yes , it is still freezing by the way...Brrrrrr...the mountains have snow on them!

A quick connection back to 89A North for a few miles and then left towards the Grand Canyon on 64 West....this takes you across Navajo lands, open plains, rocky mountains, and deep crevices in the earth....
Eventually taking you into the Grand Canyon Park east entrance to the South Rim.
The first stop upon entering, (warning:  if you do not have the annual pass be prepared to pay $12 per motorcycle and $25 per car) is Desert View visitor center, which has sweeping views of the Grand Canyon.
We rode along the south rim continued through the park, stopping to see different views of the Canyon....Probably the funniest conversation of the day was when we were taking the photo above, after the camera snapped we sat there staring into the parking lot at out bikes and talking about chains and shaft drives, CC's and tires etc...then Tim says, Lady we are sitting with one of the Wonders of the World behind us and we are not even looking at it!!  We both laughed so hard the tears froze to our cheeks i think!  What can i say?  I am definitely MAD FOR MOTOS!!! 
It is still very cold and getting very late, so we are hoping to make it back to Sedona before dark.
We leave the park and stop for a hot coffee to warm up....then we head out towards Williams going a little too fast....
I was in the lead and pulling up next to me is the Arizona State Patrol....he pulled us over and told us to get a coffee while he wrote us up our tickets....he was very nice to us but maybe not so nice all the time, so beware...
After that stop, we had a very cold ride home.  But we made it....what a great ride, beautiful scenery, lots of laughs and we survived the cold.....