Motorcycle Road Trip
East Canyon, Utah

We moved back to Utah after 10 years away, so we were very anxious to explore some motorcycle road trip possibilities.

We decided to drive up East Canyon beginning at the bottom of Emigration Canyon (in the car) to check it out. Ok, Emigration Canyon is definitely out for a pleasant motorcycle ride - too many residences on the narrow 2-lane highway; road is very bumpy or rippled in many spots, all the way to the top; and, too much construction. When we arrived at the beginning of East Canyon, the ride got better.

So the next weekend, we rode East Canyon on our Yamaha FJR sport-touring bike, beginning in Parley's Canyon (I-80) instead of Emigration. (All three canyons connect at the beginning of East Canyon.)

What a difference a motorcycle makes!

Leaving Parleys Canyon (I-80) and turning north on Highway 65 (which is East Canyon), the ride wasn’t as good on a bike as it was in a car. Much of the road was rougher than we remembered when we drove it. There are some washboard bumps in some of the curves and several road hazards like rocks, dirt, and chuck-holes.

The scenery is pretty good so I can’t say it’s a bad motorcycle road trip. It’s not a good sport bike road but it is fine for cruisers or touring bikes. We prefer long, sweeping turns on a sport bike and this ride has tighter turns requiring a lower gear and slower speeds.

Tight turns, blind curves require alertness.

The first part of the road going north, before getting to the East Canyon Reservoir, has a lot of very tight turns (think first, maybe second gear) that are fairly slow riding. And some of them are almost blind, so you have to be alert. Once an oncoming pickup truck drifted over the center stripe into our lane in a turn. Quick evasive action avoided a head-on collision.

Plan ahead for fill-ups.

After we reached the three-point intersection with Highway 66 at the northern-most end of East Canyon reservoir, the road straightened out all the way to the town of Henefer. If you have a small gas tank, plan ahead - there is no gasoline in Henefer, UT. Well, there are two pumps at a small, non-brand name, convenience store, with one of them marked “Out of Service”. So, there is possibly one gas pump, pumping mystery gasoline, in Henefer.

We left Henefer, going West on I-84. That stretch of I-84 is beautiful with many red rock formations and cliffs. We exited a few miles later on Highway 66 in Morgan, UT going south. There is name-brand gasoline in Morgan.

Taking highway 66 south, we ended up back at the three-way intersection at the north end of the East Canyon reservoir. We enjoyed the ride on highway 66. The road was in good shape. The scenery was pretty, and the traffic wasn’t too bad riding around the northern end of the reservoir.

We also enjoyed the ride back to Parleys Canyon on Highway 65 better than the ride up Highway 65. Some motorcycle road trips are like that . . .