Green River State Park, UT to Capitol Reef National Park, UT — 94.3 mi, 4398 ft
Just finally starting to feel cool in the stuffy 2-person tent I share with Carmen, duty unfortunately called at 5 am for us to break camp and hit the road. I, of course, would be hitting it on 4 wheels in the car with Carmen for my “driver” (passenger princess) day, but the rest of the group would be on 2 wheels and be facing some pretty high temps, necessitating the earlier wake up time. It was a quick deconstruction of our campsite and a few snacks for breakfast, and they left at 6:30 am.
Carmen and I had some tasks to do, namely getting ice, a phone case for Tatiana, and toothpaste for Drew — specifically charcoal toothpaste. The only market in the area was a gas station, so I wasn’t too hopeful about our chances. No charcoal toothpaste to be found, no phone case, but plenty of ice! We got the goods and sped to our very important second stop: Tamarisk. This was the restaurant where we had our AMAZING dinner the night before, which also quite conveniently had a coffee shop attached. And a hotel? Not quite sure how the businesses work together, but they seem to be all doing great. We timed our arrival nearly perfectly: the coffee shop and restaurant opened at 7 am, and we were there at 6:50 am. We loitered in the parking lot for a bit, camping out the store as if some big deal was happening. Employees slowly rolled in as well, and we gave them a courtesy wait of 5 extra minutes after 7 am to finally jump inside. We were eager to get some food because this was basically all of the fun we could have today — the rest of the route was through relatively desolate land with few towns (if any), so we figured we were justified in spending some of our day here, given of course that we wouldn’t be late to the first rest stop.
I got a dirty chai latte + a normal chai latte for Tatiana, as we have similar tastes and she asked to get whatever I got! It was actually the BEST chai latte I’ve had all trip. Carmen got her classic latte and a hugeee cinnamon roll that proceeded to last her the whole day. I also got a hugeee burrito that also managed to last me the whole day. A couple bites were taken here and there between stops.
We got Nunu and Aarushi’s orders of peach and raspberry iced tea and rushed to the first rest stop. We took I-70 on the way there, which is also what the bikers had to take for around 13 miles. Although it had a pretty decent shoulder and there were few cars at such an early hour, the “Speed Limit: 80 mph” caused Carmen to stress about how she “put them there” as one of the route planners. It was all good though, and we soon exited the freeway at the same time as Tatiana was, and enjoyed the slightly comical sight of a cyclist taking a freeway exit. I saw Tatiana waving at us as we drove by so I waved back, but I later learned she was trying to signal that she wanted a draft from the car and instead watched us speed away, waving back almost cruelly. Sorry Tatiana!
Our first rest stop was a luxurious gravel pullout. We angled the car to provide shade and set up our trusty picnic blanket right as Drew, Nunu, and Nate arrived. It was a pretty standard stop: we handed out our haul of drinks, people sat in the shade, and we had a mini debate about carbs.
Once everyone left the first stop, Carmen and I hopped in the car for the 2nd leg, which felt quite long… even from the car. The reason for this longer leg (20 miles) was that I had helped Carmen decide the night before with the route that we should make the first 2 legs slightly longer because A. More time to get ice and goodies in the 1st leg and B. Take advantage of going more miles in the cooler morning weather. Thus, we had plenty of time once we arrived at the 2nd rest stop, which was another luxurious gravel pullout. We decided to explore some mini sand dunes close by, running barefoot through the soft sand and enjoying the warmth between our toes. It was the perfect consistency you look for in sand: soft, not too chunky, and cool when you buried your feet slightly below the surface. As we roamed around, we found out how cool the sand was in the small shade of brush as well as animal tracks presumably left by a small bird.
Our last mark was to write MIT SPOKES in the sand and to draw a bike, which Carmen did a spectacular job of despite writing upside down and without an actual bike to reference. We also found a hubcap that we considered keeping as a souvenir for our dorm next year, but ended up leaving it.
We waited for people to roll in, doing the basic driver duties of getting ice and snacks out for people. Something of note is that every rest stop ended up being staggered today, aka people ended up coming and going at different times. Normally this is not the case, but the imminent threat of the heat led to naturally larger gaps between groups and also rest stops with minimal dilly-dallying to minimize biking time later in the day. As a result, Carmen and I had a lottt of waiting ahead of us. Compounded with no service (aka no scrolling 💔) and literally nothing to do around us, the day felt very long, but we were much better off than the bikers, whose day would unfortunately only get worse.
We drove to the 3rd rest stop, a cafe in a small town that was the only town on the whole route. Despite our best efforts, we were late for the first group (Drew, Nunu, Nate) 😦 Despite the size of the town, the cafe was quite nice and had wifi that allowed me to do some blog posting! We must’ve looked insane to this singular employee at the cafe as more identically dressed bikers kept rolling into this small town at random intervals, each taking turns to order a drink. The first group then left and the rest of us went to a nearby market. On the way, we saw an interesting roadside attraction.
The views on the way to the 4th rest stop were INSANE. We saw rock formations that truly looked otherworldly, easily passing for Mars or some other far-away planet. Late once again due to the large gaps, the first group were sitting sadly under the only shade for probably miles: an information sign for the recreational area. Apparently the strange black dunes are popular for motorbikes to go up and down on. Nate and Drew tried their own hand at it before we arrived.
It was clear at this point the heat was starting to take a toll. I handed out cold Pepsis that were quickly slurped down, and we all just kind of sat there as if contemplating the decisions that led to this moment. At some point, Nunu and Drew started loudly singing “Never Enough” from the Greatest Showman, which may be the first sign of heatstroke or some other mental break, in my professional opinion.
One good thing about being in the middle of nowhere is that when nature calls, the world is your bathroom. After some people took advantage of this and reapplied sunscreen, they slowly trickled out of the rest stop and into the second-to-last leg. Tatiana, who was listening to Disney music most of this ride, got “Colors of the Wind” stuck in my head, which was very fitting as I watched the colorful rocks flash by the car window. The camera cannot do it justice. Purple, orange, yellow, blue, truly any color could be seen in the unique landscape that surrounded us.
Now, a very important question: where do you think our final rest stop was? If you guessed another gravel pullout, congrats!
More specifically, it was also a gravel road, but we took up most of the entrance because we figured it didn’t get much traffic ever due to how remote it was. Of course once we made that assumption, 3 cars tried to enter during our time there, causing us to wonder where they could possibly be going on this road that seemed to descend into obscurity.
As the first group arrived, the wind became extremely intense, synced with a looming storm that threatened lightning and thunder. It’s very impressive how often a thunderstorm seems to spring out of nowhere and interrupt our biking days with fear/mild concern. This one, however, was thankfully all bark and no bite, and the wind became our main issue. Unfortunately for Tatiana and Aarushi, this timing meant that the wind hit them on the final climb… As a result, morale was pretty low after the grueling combination of climb + heat + wind, leading Tatiana to play “dumb ways to die” in her head as she biked. Aarushi procrastinated the final stretch, reallyyy making sure her gloves were on just right before getting back on the bike (totally valid btw).
The views of Capitol Reef as we drove in were so amazing, even better than I remember from the last time I was here! We passed tons of fruit orchards, remnants of the original settlers of the region who managed to farm and live in an area that often appears barren. Most of the team wanted to nap after such a long ride, but Tatiana, with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, wanted to turn her 95 miles into a century by biking an extra 5 miles. Drew expressed his interest in joining this performative century, and I decided to join as well, having not biked at all today and wanting to enjoy the views of the park. A brief exit of the campground and a couple loops later, they hit the glorious 100 mile mark!
The plan for the rest of the night was to go into the nearby town of Torrey (outside the park) and meet Noah, Tatiana’s boyfriend who was visiting and making his second appearance of this trip! We rendezvoused at Subway, where I chowed down on a tuna sandwich and enjoyed what is likely my 109485th lemonade of the summer. Afterwards, we took full advantage of Tatiana + Noah’s hotel, as the campsite in Capitol Reef had neither showers nor laundry. A shower line commenced, and some people also went into the pool. Truly getting our (Tatiana’s) money worth out of the hotel.
At 11 pm, we finally hopped back in the car to make the drive back to the campsite, requiring a bit of squeezing and interesting techniques to fit, as per usual.
We ended the day back in our tents, asleep and ready for a rest day in our 3rd national park in Utah!
See you soon,
Caroline
MIT Spokes 2026 
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