My G5 had passed 1900 miles of mainly city & local freeway riding so I decided to take it out on the Arizona roads.
I live in Phoenix, Az desert at an altitude of about 1200 feet and Flagstaff, Az is in the Northern Arizona cool country with a heavy forest of Pondorosa Pines at 7000 feet. This sounded like a good place to ride to. Besides, my son who lives there had offered to let me stay the night.
There are two ways to get there from Phoenix.
One is to take I-17 straight up the middle of the state but this is a fairly straight Super Slab with lots of traffic, 18 wheelers and 75 MPH speed limits which of course means everyone is driving at 85.
Definitely not a road for a 500cc Royal Enfield.
This route has mountains visible at all times but they are pretty bare except for some cactus in the lower elevations and juniper at the higher ones. In other words, fast, straight and boring.
The other route goes past Fountain Hills, up thru Payson, Pine, Strawberry, Clints Well, Mormon Lake and ends in Flagstaff.
The roads are fairly twisty and the speed limit is something that can be lived with on a RE. The steepness of some of the hills also keeps most of the 18 wheelers off of it unless they have deliveries in Payson.
This is the way to go! Especially if you do it in the middle of the week. Friday thru Sunday the road is usually packed with drivers escaping the heat or going to the snow country.
The only real problem in the summer is the heat between Phoenix and Payson although Payson is usually cool. During the winter the Phoenix - Payson part is usually OK but North of Payson the roads are sometimes covered with snow.
Because I waited until October and left in the morning the weather was clear and cool even in the lower areas. I guess it was about 65 F which was nice.
My first stop was at Fountain Hills, a community located about 12 miles East of Scottsdale.
This place has the second highest fountain in the world which operates on the hour for about 15 minutes. The first picture I attached shows what it was doing just after I got there about 10 in the morning.
For you technical folks, this fountain shoots a stream of water 562 feet high thru a 18 inch diameter nozzle. That takes 7000 gallons per minute and the turbine pumps are powered by (3) 600 horsepower electric motors.
Quite impressive. The homes and golf courses are also nice but rather costly.
At Fountain Hills I reached Highway 87 or, the "Bee Line" as it is called by the older locals and turned North.
Most of the ride from Fountain Hills in the Sonoran Desert with its Saguaro Cactus, Palo Verde trees, "jumping cactus" (etc) up to Payson isn't overly inspiring except for the views of the mountains and the moderately twisty road.
Most of the road is a divided highway with two lanes going each way. The speed limit is usually 65 mph but some of the corners are at 45.
This didn't proove to be a problem for the RE because riding at 50-60 mph (81-100 kpm) didn't seem to stress the Enfield and the cars could pass me at a reasonable rate of speed.
Payson is about 100 miles North of Phoenix and it has grown from a small ranching town in the late 1800's into a small city and at 5000 feet elevation is usually nice and cool.
At this elevation Pondorosa Pines and scrub Oak trees are the main vegetation.
This is the end of the double wide divided highway.
I should mention that from Payson to Flagstaff is about 115 miles so this is a good place to gas up. For reasons unknown to me the price of gasoline here was 20 cents per gallon cheaper than the prices in Phoenix.
From here onward the road is nicely paved and it is a fairly twisty two lane road with a 50 mph (81 kmph) speed limit. Perfect for a Royal Enfield.
Sticking to route 87 going North (the sign says "To Winslow" but I was not going that far) I was now on the kind of road meant for motorcycle riding and the 50 MPH speed limit allowed the bike to cruse without straining itself. Almost as soon as I left Payson I was in the Tonto National Forest which has many small dirt side roads and in most places camping is free although they frown on folks building campfires during the dry seasons. The rest of the trip is thru wild areas with a great deal of wildlife so if you take this ride keep a sharp lookout for Deer and Elk.
Every year in this area a few cars are wiped out by hitting an Elk and of course even a Deer would take out a motorcycle.
About 10 miles up the road is a turn off to the left that takes people to the Tonto Natural Bridge.
This is quite a large bridge that was formed by water washing away all of the material under it and you have to climb down from the parking area to see it.
The last time I was there I found that it was privately owned and they wanted money to climb down to see it so I skipped going there on this trip.
After passing the Tonto Natural Bridge turnoff about another 5 miles of riding brought me to the town of Pine and another two miles brought me to the town of Strawberry.
These two towns were established by the Mormons when they came down out of Utah in the late 1800's looking for good places to raise cattle. They have since become popular places for people to build cabins to get away from the heat of the desert. This whole area is covered with Pondorosa Pine.
Leaving Strawberry, route 87 twists and climbs rather quickly to the top of the Mogollon Rim (pronounced MuggeyOwn). There is a 35 MPH hairpin about 1/2 mile North of Strawberry and I learned years ago that this is one of the few places where slowing to the posted speed limit is a good idea.
The Mogollon Rim is a vertical drop off that extends across the Eastern half of the State from about the middle to New Mexico. Many places along it the almost straight down drop is well over 1000 feet but just North of Strawberry the road only gains about 400-500 feet in elevation.
After reaching the top of "the rim" the rest of the trip to Flagstaff seems fairly flat but it is constantly gaining elevation.
This was proven by my gas milage. Going from Payson to Flagstaff my Royal Enfield got 69.9 mpg and riding from Flagstaff to Payson it got 95.1 mpg. (no that isn't a misprint
)
Nine miles North of Strawberry I reached a turn off to the left that goes over to Camp Verde. I did not take this because it would put me back over on I-17.
Sticking to route 87 another 5 miles brought me to Long Valley, a place with a gas station and a restaurant. Because it is Elk Season here in October there was a big truck set up to butcher harvested Elk but they weren't making any money when I was there.
I did take a picture of the RE sitting in front of the restaurant and it's shown below.
From the restaurant in Long Valley it is only about 1/2 mile East to the turn off to Mormon Lake and this is the one I wanted to take. The intersection is really at a place called Clints Well where there is a small campground and the camping there is free.
29 miles North on the Mormon Lake road brought me to a turnoff to the little town called Mormon Lake. There is a store, small hotel and gas station there. I didn't need gasoline and I was looking forward to getting to Flagstaff so I didn't stop there.
Staying on the main road I passed Mormon Lake, the only natural lake of any size in the State. It had almost no water in it which is not unusual.
A few miles further North on the highway and I came to Lake Mary.
It is divided into the Upper Lake at the South end and the Lower Lake at the north. The upper lake had water in it so it provided several miles of riding with water and forest on the West side and forest on the East.
There are several boat ramps with local restrooms nearby so I stopped at one of them because nature was calling. While there I took another picture of the RE which seemed to be enjoying the cool clear air and the beautiful views. I also told the big black raven that was checking me out that from this day onward his name was John, named for the raven my father had when he was still alive.
I don't think he was overly impressed.
Another 13-15 miles of riding North brought me to Flagstaff.
Although the high temperatures were hitting 99 degrees F in Phoenix it was a cool 65 degrees in Flagstaff. That night the temperature there dropped to 28.
My bike sit out in my sons driveway all night and I wondered if it would start in the morning.
Not to worry.
Although it cranked slowly, with a few coughs and wheezes it started and soon warmed up.
I rode back to Phoenix the next day taking the same route that I had used to go up and my heavy gloves and leather jacket felt good as I traveled back down to Payson.
Dropping down the big grade below Payson the air temperature heated up by over 10 degrees and I was glad I had changed out of my leathers to some lighter weight denim and my hot weather armored riding gloves. The denim isn't much protection in a crash but they might do some good and they certainly made riding thru the 98 degree heat in the desert stretch much easier to live with.
The round trip worked out to be 412 miles and my Royal Enfield averaged 81.55 miles per gallon.
Not counting the stops and short side trips I took I estimate I ran at an average speed of about 57 mph with a few short sections up to 70.
A very enjoyable trip it was and I am thinking about taking it again sometime before the really cold weather moves in.
Jim
"Rubber Side Down and Shiny Side Up" and enjoy the ride.
Topic: Phoenix, Az to Flagstaff, Az on a G5 (Read 2119 times)