Two weeks in Moab…
Moab is our kind of town. With a population of 5,000, plenty of conveniences and good restaurants, it’s just the right size. Tourism is the primary industry with most businesses catering to adventure seekers. Mountain bike rentals, 4-wheel drive/ATV rentals, and adventure guides outnumber all other businesses. Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, the La Sal Mountains, and the Colorado and Green Rivers are in Moab’s back yard and are amazing places to play!
- Campground…
Moab has a bunch of decent RV parks. We chose Portal RV Resort and were comfortable with full hook-ups, good wi-fi, and good laundry facilities. The campground filled up on the weekends, as did most places in Moab, but was half full during the week. We liked our location on the north end of town, and a little ways off busy highway 191…it was peaceful.
The view north from the Moab Rim
- Hikes and geocaching…
There are many miles of trails in the Moab area. Most cater to and are very popular with mountain bikers and most are fairly tough with great views of the region’s unique scenery. Our experience with the mountain bikers was always pleasant. Hikers just need to keep their eyes and ears open and limit time in hard-to-see sections. The trails are incredible whether you’re on foot or two wheels!
Hidden Valley and Moab Rim Overlook…
Our first hike took us “behind the rocks” through Hidden Valley and up to the Moab Rim Overlook. The tough trail climbs 600 feet in the first .6 miles…right at our limit. We took our time with a steady pace and made it to the top much quicker than expected. The hanging and hidden valley was very pretty and a very pleasant walk. We even found two geocaches! From there, we dropped onto a large plateau with amazing sandstone fins, formations, and cliffs. On the way back, we decided to climb the 4-wheel drive route to the Moab Rim Overlook. It was further and higher than we expected, but the view over Moab and towards the La Sals was incredible!
Behind the rocks in Hidden Valley View east from the Moab Rim
Slickrock Trail…
Any quasi-serious mountain biker knows about Slickrock trail and has put it near the top of their must-do list. Though hikers are allowed on the trail, they are outnumbered by at least 20-1. Motorcycles blazed the trail in the 1960s and continue to make up a small portion of trail users. We were a bit worried about getting run over, but those fears proved to be unfounded. 90-95% of trail is on the famous slick rock sandstone, and the rest is through soft sand. It constantly goes up, down, and around, forcing folks on two wheels to go pretty slow. And because the trail is across the slickrock, we could usually negotiate a parallel route. There were only a few bottlenecks that forced everyone through the same short sections. Though we constantly kept a look-out for folks on two wheels, we felt safe.
We were glad we hiked Slickrock Trail! The views were incredible. We could clearly see portions of Arches National Park that we had already explored. The snow covered La Sal Mountains dominated the eastern skyline. The immense region of huge petrified sand dunes made it seem like we were on a different planet. We lingered hundreds of feet above the Colorado River and saw three golden eagles and a falcon…very cool!
Follow the dashed lines
Looking south and north over the Colorado River
Two golden eagles Tons of petrified sand dunes and the La Sal Mountains
Bow Tie and Corona Arches…
Corona Arch was impressive! People have been coming from all over the world to swing from it…crazy! I might have considered it when I was an invincible 20 year old, but not as a wise old man in my 40s…ha ha! Unfortunately, a 22 year old guy bounced himself off the rocks and got killed a month ago. Of course, that isn’t enough to deter other thrill seekers. There were 5 or 6 about to launch off the arch the day we were there…we didn’t stick around. Regardless, the hike was nice and the arch was impressive!
Bow Tie Arch on the left, Corona Arch on the right Bow Tie Arch
Corona Arch
Brand Trails…
We chose Brand Trails because there was a variety of 27 miles of trails that would push us closer to our goal to hike 200 miles in April and they looked fairly tame compared to most trails in the area. Like the famous Slickrock Trail, mountain bikers outnumber hikers 20-1. Sections of the trails were on slick rock and sections were through packed dirt. Most bikers tackle the routes counter-clockwise…we chose to go clockwise. Also like Slickrock Trail, most folks went slow and were quite friendly.
The Brand Trails were fairly easy to hike and were pleasant. Arches National Park is just east, and Window Arch always caught our eye. The snow-covered La Sal Mountains were prominent to the southeast. What we liked the most was the profusion of spring flowers. The brilliant scarlet of the claret cup cactus was a striking contrast to the desert. We have added the claret cup to our growing list of favorites!
Claret Cup Cactus
Claret cup cactus (middle pic)
Window Arch in the distance
Amasa Back…
This was in our hiking book, but didn’t sound too interesting. We noticed the trail when we kayaked the Colorado River so Arleen did more research and discovered there were great views and we could turn the hike into a loop…excellent!
All of the Amasa Back trail system is open to mountain bikers and hikers, and some sections are open to noisy 4-wheel drives. The catch is that parts of the trail are extremely challenging. It’s rated “4+” on a 1-5 scale for 4-wheel drives and “expert” with “extreme technical” sections for mountain bikers. We took Jacksons Trail up which gains 1,000 feet in a mile and has some exposed drop-offs with only the Colorado River to stop a fall! Mountain bikers are told to ride only down the trail and to walk their bike in places or they risk death. For two strong hikers, the walk up is very enjoyable! We were glad there was nobody descending the trail. Though they would have been going slow, there were few places to get out of their way! Near the top, we left Jacksons Trail behind and continued to ascend to a view point…it was incredible. We took a good long break and posed for a bunch of pictures. Mountain bikers finally began catching up to us, but there was plenty of space and everyone was friendly. On the way back, we took our time descending a different, but popular and tricky route. During the 9.3 mile hike, we saw two rock crawlers (looked fun), three Jeeps (looked crazy), and at least 50 mountain bikers (looked fun and crazy). Arleen’s research paid off…we really enjoyed this great loop hike!
1,000 feet above the Colorado River valley
La Sal Mountains on the left, Colorado River on the right
View east “Behind the Rocks” and the La Sal Mountains
Negro Bill…
This popular hike leads to Morning Glory Natural Bridge. With a span of 243 feet, it’s the 6th longest natural bridge in the United States. The trail is only open to hikers…yay! We liked that after being significantly outnumbered by mountain bikers on most trails in the area. The parking lot was half full when we arrived shortly after 9:00am, but was overflowing with folks waiting when we got back around 11:30. It’s a fun trail for kids with multiple creek crossings and plenty of sand to play in. There were quite a few friendly dogs out too. The bridge is very difficult to see until you are practically under it, but it’s impressive.
Morning Glory Natural Bridge…span 243 feet…6th longest
The sandstone fins rise nearly 1,000 feet straight up…we felt so miniscule as we weaved around the base of the incredible formations. It’s hard to believe people climb those things…crazy! The trail was a lot of fun to walk with lots of ups, downs, twists, sheer cliffs sometimes straight above, sometimes far below, and often both. We walked out to the point, and the “Trail End” sign told us the obvious. We had fun posing with the sign (see the picture below). The sun went down as we neared the trail head, but there was enough light to find a couple of nearby geocaches. This was a great evening evening hike!
- Arches National Park…
An “arch” must have a 3 foot opening. There are over 2,000 arches in Arches National Park! The arch catalog at the visitor center was very interesting. We chuckled at the large amount of small, unnamed arches and decided to give them names. So if you see small arches and wonder what to call them, odds are that we named them “Shawn” or “Arleen” arch! Don’t worry…there are a few hundred that we didn’t name…have at it!
We read that Arches is a busy place and experienced full parking lots and steady traffic by mid-morning every day. Things didn’t slow much through the day as hordes of wanna-be professional photographers positioned themselves to capture shots of the arches glowing in sweet sunsets. We started most of our visits early and beat the crowds.
We got to see sections of the park with a dusting of fresh snow…a real treat! We also hiked most of the trails and thoroughly explored the more famous arches.
First stop, the Visitor Center Delicate Arch
Pretty snow in Arches National Park
The Windows Arches
Arleen under Turret Arch, Window Arch in background Window Arches on a nice evening
Double Arch
- Devil’s Garden
This is the longest trail in the park. We ended up hiking 8.6 miles, about a mile further than what’s published. We started early and had the amazing Landscape Arch nearly to ourselves! From there we continued clockwise to Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, Double O Arch, Dark Angel, Private Arch, Tunnel Arch, and finally Pine Tree Arch. Each arch was unique and captivated us. Mother Nature sure has created some amazing sculptures!
Part of Partition Arch
Landscape Arch
Partition Arch
Double O Arch
Pine Tree Arch
- Short afternoon hikes through Park Avenue, around Broken and Sand Dune Arches, and then to the most famous arch of them all: Delicate Arch
The dramatic sandstone fins surrounding Park Avenue are hundreds of feet high and tower straight up. Our necks got sore from looking up!
The loop hike around Broken and Sand Dune Arches was very pleasant. We really liked Broken Arch. The approach to Sand Dune Arch is through a narrow “joint” filled with ankle deep soft sand. Because the gap between sandstone fins is minimal, the arch doesn’t get much sun and would be a cool place to hang out on a hot summer day. The area is also a big sand box which makes it a great place for kids to play. While we were there, two little boys and a little girl were having a ball playing in the sand under the arch.
We saved the best for last. If you’ve seen a picture of an arch, or noticed the one on Utah’s license plate, you’ve seen Delicate Arch. People come from all over the world to capture images of this amazing sculpture bathed in the glow of sunset, back-dropped by the beautiful La Sal Mountains. It really is one of the most incredible sites! Something that we especially found interesting is that every day thousands of people tackle the tough 3 mile hike, many of them really pushing themselves. There is a ton of huffing and puffing and lots of people think about giving up, but when they round that last turn, they forget how tough it is!
Part of the trail through Park Avenue
Entering Park Avenue Broken Arch
Delicate Arch and the La Sal Mountains People admiring the arch
Kayak Colorado River…
We sought a tame float down the mighty Colorado River and found the 17 mile stretch between Moab and Potash just right. Coyote Shuttle helped with logistics as they met us at the Moab put-in, followed me to the Potash take-out, and then gave me a ride back to the Moab put-in where Arleen and I hopped in the kayaks and began our float. Our trusty truck would be waiting at the take-out when we were done.
This section of the Colorado River meanders lazily through the dramatic sandstone canyon at a whopping 2mph and has no rapids. Any headwind would have brought us to a standstill! Thankfully the wind cooperated and we cruised along at 3-4mph. The towering cliffs made us feel tiny and we enjoyed watching all kinds of birds. The river was low and the water clarity was minimal…we almost got stuck on multiple sand bars. The 17 mile float took us five and a half hours. This was our first kayak trip of the year…it kicked our butts!
*** Final tally on goal to hike 200 miles in April ***
| Average floors per day | Number days > 200 floors | Total floors | Least miles | Most miles | Number days > 14 miles | Average miles per day | Total calories burned | TOTAL MILES | |
| Arleen | 88 | 4 | 2,640 | 2.64 | 16.63 | 6 | 9.84 | 84,360 | 295.2 |
| Shawn | 99 | 5 | 2,970 | 4.53 | 18.20 | 10 | 11.14 | 114,480 | 334.2 |
Notes:
1. Dates are 1 April through 30 April 2013.
2. A “floor” is equal to 10 feet of climbing i.e. 200 floors is equal to 2,000 feet of climbing.
3. The difference between Arleen and I is walks with our four-legged friend.
4. After checking our results the third week of the month, I upped my goal to 300 miles.
5. We suffered some aches and pains, but problems with our feet, like blisters, caused the most problems.
We are now at Dead Horse State Park. Our back yard is Canyonlands National Park with the Colorado and Green Rivers 2,000 feet below! The state park has 15 miles of trails, with most of them along the plateau’s edge and leading to incredible overlooks. Each walk with our 4-legged friend will be amazing! My parents will even visit two days and experience this awesome area their first time. It will be another great adventure!
Parting shots…
Waiting for the “ok” Dinosaur tracks
Petrified dinosaur bone
(26,600)
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