It was very cold over night, first with rain, then with temperatures dipping below freezing. We awoke in the morning to wet tents and ice on our bikes and gear, but at least the rain had stopped. We suited up in our warm clothes and waited for our gear to dry and for the temperatures to rise before hitting the road.
On our way out of the park it began snowing – a mix of snow and hail called graupel that we also encountered a few times in Canada six years ago. The precipitation came and went and we were satisfied to have seen snowfall this trip.
The road heading west out of Bryce starts with a steep descent to the town of Tropic and goes through two more small towns before entering Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument where the distance between towns increases. We watched storms roll by all around us as the road twisted and turned and left us uncertain if we were going to get hit by rain or not.
A long climb soon began and the snow returned, this time in the form of flakes instead of soft hail. As we wound our way up the steep road, a false summit gave us hope that our descent had arrived only for more uphill to come into view.
The snow increased in intensity and the speed limit dropped from 60 to 50, 40, 30, then finally 25 as the road steepened and steepened, winding its way towards a mountain pass. I was now in my lowest gear, inching up the steep slope at under 5 mph as huge flakes of snow billowed all around. When the road would cut through a hillside the currents of wind would cause cyclones of snowflakes and when the road ascended along a ridgeline with drops on either side, the snow would sweep across the road leaving my face stinging.
Snow piled up on my jacket as I reached the pass at 7600 feet. Donald was only 30 seconds ahead of me but I couldn’t see him at all. I bellowed at him and he was pulled over a mere couple hundred feet up the road – he had missed the scenic turnout on the left because of poor visibility.
We took shelter from the storm in a forest service bathroom at the pass, opening up the door occasionally only to have gusts of wind blow snow into the room. After waiting 15 minutes and not seeing any improvement we donned more clothing and headed into the storm and down from the pass. For the first few minutes I could barely see ahead as snow pelted my squinting eyes but eventually we got lower and the intensity of snowfall began to weaken.
Soaked from melting snow, our gloves were no longer effective at keeping our hands warm and with the wind from descending at 25 mph our hands soon began to freeze. I kept my hands behind my handlebar bag to shield them from the wind while Donald alternated keeping one hand in the pockets of his rain jacket while controlling the bike with the other.
We stopped a couple times to warm our frozen digits and eventually the storm subsided and the sun came out. Another hour of downhill landed us in the town of Escalante where we found lodging for the night.
Notes from Donald: “When I got up this morning I was not expecting that we were going to bike through a blizzard.”
Today’s mileage: 51 miles
Total: 897 miles
As rare as snow appears in May, when it does, it’s a test of one’s grit. Ride on!