Got Moab

Got Moab? – April 1st

We peeled off of I-70 heading west out of Colorado and turned south down Utah’s scenic Byway 128 toward Moab. The road slowly descends into the red rock region of southern Utah and suddenly finds the banks of the Colorado River as they both cut deeper through the desert canyon. It was a terrific 30 mile drive with late afternoon sun all to the sound track of the Latina CD our Kauai friends Sandy and Melissa gave us. Perfect! Of course I had to stop along the way, actually around almost ever corner, whenever the vantage point afforded a glimpse of the nearby snow capped mountains contrasting as a background to the red rock walls. It not only felt good to be back in the desert, it somehow feels right to both Patti and me. Minimalistic but rich – soft but bold.

We arrived in Moab and cruised up and down the main drag to check out the eats before stopping at the Moab Brew Pub for a quick bit. Anyplace where almost every vehicle has either mtn. bikes, kayaks or quads behind them has a pretty cool vibe. I’m talking about the whole town not just at the restaurant.

It was pretty much dark by the time we arrived at the Arch View campground about 8 miles north of Moab and rented the last mini cabin they had. It was small but Patti was happy because it had its own private bathroom & shower. The next morning we noticed that our little cabin was pretty much in between the entrances to the Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. So we decided to tour the Canyonlands first. . It was kind of cold and breezy so we only took a few short hikes and stopped at the scenic view points. You’ll see the pictures of the unbelievable panoramic views of multi layered canyons from atop the high mesa that the park road follows. We definitely want to return to 4-wheel or mtn. bike the entire White Rim Road - a dirt road that follows the white rimmed edge of the lower canyon escarpment for about 100 miles. Very Cool.

We headed back into town to look around a little more and stopped at the local used book store. After reading A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson, an excellent recommendation by my Seattle friends Kim & Eric. I’m on this wilderness and travel reading kick and wanted to look for Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey suggested by our friend Tammy on Kauai. I found the book and the first page of the author’s intro described that the book was about what he discovered on a job as a seasonal park ranger in Moab’s Arches NP that he started on April 1st. It was April 1st and I was in Moab – I bought the book. We then hopped on our bikes and went for a short ride along a new riverside path that took us through town, by the community gardens, next to the park and connected to several neighborhoods. It’s nice to see so many bike paths, lanes and riders in such a small town.

My brother Jaime and his wife Bev were going to be passing through Moab that evening and invited us to stay with them in their RV so we recommended the Arch View CG. Actually he has a 30’ 5th wheel toy hauler that sleeps 8 and has a Polaris Razor side-by-side quad in the back. My toy hauler is a truck with a bike rack. They had to keep rolling towards home the next day so we had breakfast with them. They took off and Patti and I headed to the famed Slick Rock Mtn. bike trail just on the edge of town. Wow what a crazy place. Unlike anything we’ve ever ridden on before. It’s like an endless playground of smooth petrified sand dunes with no dust, no mud and just a single white dashed line to delineate the circuitous looped route. It definitely had some areas too steep for both of us and it was a little too technical in a few spots for Patti but by the time we finished the first loop she couldn’t wait to do it again. We were out there for about 3 hrs. and met a few other couples on the trail that were about the same level as us, shared in taking pictures of each other and had a blast on an awesome warm sunny day.

We decided to go back up to Canyonlands NP to see and photograph Mesa Arch. This arch is the subject of one of photographer Peter Lik’s most famous shots and I wanted to see how close I could get to recreating his photo. The sun was out and about an hour from setting so it would be perfect but I wasn’t sure which way the arch faced. We made the long drive and the 1 mile hike to the arch in plenty of time for the right lighting but the arch faced east and needed to be photographed at sun rise. Oh well , we took some shots anyway and then headed back to town but took a dirt road short cut called Shaffer Road. Wooo – this is a 30 mile switch back, hairpin turn road that basically drops off of a 2000 ft. red rock cliff down to the Colorado River valley. If you take it from the bottom it’s called Potash Road – thanks for the tip Brydog. How they built this road is beyond me but it was one of the highlights of the trip.

We rolled back into town in the dark, dirty, dusty and tired and grabbed a tent site at a CP in town and made a gulosh dinner beside the tent. The next morning we visited with our camp neighbor – a Salmon River Tour Co owner from McCall, Idaho on vacation with his family. He was also a ski patrol at Tamarack outside of McCall but said the ski area was in foreclosure and shut down. I wonder how many more might follow. I said he was trying to sell his River Guide Co. – Hmmmm.

Our last day was spent at Arches National Park on a few short hikes to see the sites and take a few pics of the really unbelievable rock formations. It was a great way to end our stay in Moab – probably our favorite spot so far. I guess you could say that we both have ‘Got Moab’ on the brain.