After riding back out of Echo Park (there's only one way in and out) I turned east on the Bench Road.  The road immediately turned to soft sandy soil which was covering old ruts that had been made in the mud and had dried to hardpack.  This was some treacherous riding indeed!  You could not see the ruts under the freshly graded and very soft top layer.  After about 20 or so miles of this the grading thankfully came to an end.

As I continued east, I noticed some interesting overlooks.  I stopped to check them out and was pleasantly surprised.  The first of which is Castle Park and the next is Harding Hole seen below.

Harding Hole Below:

As is my usual style, I made several wrong turns.  On one of which, I ended up at a ranch near the bend in the river picture above.  Beautiful down there.

After another 20 or so miles of really tough road, I came to a burn area that had just begun to sprout life again.  There were a few cows there but it was otherwise unoccupied.  Eerily beautiful though.

Once through the burn area, I crested a rise and the landscape became expansive again.  I realized at this point that I'd left my tool roll at camp and that I'd failed to tell anyone where I was going.  Since I was waaaaay out there at this point, I slowed down and became more conservative in my riding.  This part of Moffat County is really beautiful but also really vacant.

I turned off CR 14 onto CR 16A and passed an old homestead that seemed to be in the absolute middle of nowhere!

I crossed the valley past the old homestead and climbed along the ridge to pass into the next valley.  As I neared the top, there was a great view of the homestead and the valley.  Pictured below.  The homestead is in the center of the picture.  This gives some sense of the vastness and remoteness of the area. 

I continued to follow the county roads all the way back to Blue Mountain.  I then had to hit Hwy 40 for a short distance to get back to the Park entrance.

Nearly 174 miles total for the loop.  About 140 of them on dirt and about 40 of that on really bad dirt roads.  A great day ride with some awesome scenery.  I highly recommend it to everyone.


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