ZION, BRYCE & ESCALANTE: BEST motorcycle roadtrip in UTAH and the USA!

There is one thing on earth that can really touch my soul. One thing that makes me believe. It's nature. Join a road trip to the majestic peaks of Zion National Park and its roads less traveled. Ride on Utah's famous scenic Byway 12 and visit the outer-worldly landscapes of Bryce Canyon and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We are going glamping today in Zion National Park. We are on our way. It's actually pretty hot. That's why I took out my cooling vest. From the town Hurricane, we went to Virgin. And instead of following the main road that crosses Zion National Park, we took a left turn on Kolob Terrace Road to approach the park from another less-traveled direction, from the west. And I was about to find out if Zion National Park this time would impress me more than on the first visit during my world trip. Now approaching National Park, you have, of course, to worry about wild animals like this wild cow here. Wow, this view. I have to admit that I already love this part of Zion more than the one I visited last time I was here because there is literally nobody here at the moment besides us. But we will not continue riding into the park, but turn off here to find our accommodation for this night. Guys, look at these tents. This is where we will spend our night. And I think this will be glamping galore. Under canvas is probably one of the best glamping experiences you can get. You are in the middle of the amazing nature, but the tents have super comfortable beds, showers, and toilets. When the sun started to go down, we were ready for dinner, s'mores, and enjoyed the live music from an artist from Los Angeles. Good morning from our nice glamping spot here in Utah. And I'm very excited about all the amazing things that we are about to see. We are starting the day with exploring this less-traveled section of Zion now. It's called Kolob Terrace. And if you want to go as well through the famous part of Zion from here, you have to turn around because then this one here is a one-way road. The Kolob Terrace is a lesser-traveled section of Zion. The ride up to Lava Point offers exceptional views from Golden Valleys to the majestic North and South Guardian Angels. It's said that Zion Canyon is the heart of Zion National Park, and Kolob Terrace is where its soul lies. Now we're back on the main road to Zion, which is highway number nine. And I really love Zion now after the ride we just had. But we will see if this part that we are about to enter now is as busy as I remember. Here we go. That's why I'm not the biggest fan of this part of Zion. It's 7 a.m. and it's already super crowded. So a little life hack for your journey through the U.S. and all its national parks. You can get this, which is like an annual pass for $80. And it covers one person and I think three other people. And so this is much, much cheaper than paying for each national park that you head to. Cruising the six-mile or 10 kilometers Mount Carmel Highway through the park is a nice but mostly crowded experience. The ride provides visitors easy access to viewpoints and hiking trailheads. But one of the reasons I already didn't fall completely in love with this part of the park the last time I visited now became very obvious to me again. So a bummer for us is that you have to take a shuttle bus to see the nicest parts of the park and to do the hikes because vehicles are not allowed there. But here comes the problem when traveling through with a motorcycle. The parking spots are completely overcrowded already and it's just so many people driving through here that I don't want to leave my luggage on the bike unattended for hours and hours. So no shuttle bus and no hike for us, unfortunately. A few miles along the highway up from the visitor center, you will cross through Mount Carmel Tunnel, completed in 1930. When we arrived, they only opened one lane, so everyone crossing the tunnel had to wait in front of it. But with the amazing views on Zion National Park, the wait was not a big issue. So as a resume for Zion, I love the Kolob Terrace Road, but the main part of the park is just very difficult for me because both times I was there, I couldn't stay longer because everything close by was completely booked out and it's just not a place for the spontaneous motorcycle traveler. You really need to plan this a bit in advance or book several days in an accommodation close by. Over breakfast, we decided to continue our ride and instead of hiking Zion, we aimed to visit another national park. We're going to our next stop here in Utah now, which is Rife Canyon. We just entered Dixie National Forest, which is huge and these rocks here and colors look already a little bit like the formations in the next national park that we are going to visit. Here we are, Rife Canyon. Now look and learn, we just show our new annual pass that covers our two motorcycles and up to five people and that's it, no payment and no hustle. I had visited Rife Canyon before on my world trip. My favorite viewpoint is Rainbow Point because you can hike right into the rock formations but when we arrived, it was closed to vehicles due to the big amount of visitors. So we went up to Inspirational Point, the second best viewpoint of the national park. Rife Canyon looks like a forest of rocks. Its most distinctive feature are so-called hoodoos, tower-like natural geologic features. Hoodoos exist on every continent but Bryce has the largest concentration on Earth. The pillars of sandstone are created by the process of uneven weathering and erosion and indeed give an outer-worldly impression. Hello from Rife Canyon. We are traveling on Utah's Scenic Byway number 12 already since a while and what we heard, it's supposed to get more and more pretty the closer we get to the town Boulder. And yes, this is another town with the name Boulder and no, it's not the same one that we visited in Las Vegas. The town Escalante is the gateway to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and a good place to stay but we decided to continue and were rewarded with some amazing views and encounters. So people, there's someone who I just met. These guys were actually following my journey and now we met here in Utah. What are the odds? Nice to meet you. We love your YouTube channel. Keep going. Utah's Scenic Byway 12 is the only main road that enters the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The section between the small towns of Escalante and Boulder was completed in the 1930s and is the most spectacular part of the ride on Utah's Scenic Byway 12. Indeed, it is so spectacular that it has been described as the most beautiful paved road in all of Utah. I am not 100% sure that a video can catch this amazing surroundings but left and right of the road, there just drop down these amazing canyons and views forever. Maybe you can see what I mean and if not, yeah, maybe then you just have to visit yourself. I really can't wait for tomorrow. We will basically just ride somewhere down there. Thanks for joining the ride to two of the most famous national parks of the US. The next episode will take us to the town Boulder in Utah where I will introduce you to some new friends and from where we will start our next adventure and ride the famous Bird Trail all the way to Lake Powell. Tune in next Thursday for one of my favorite days of this trip and don't forget to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment if you're a part of this journey.