Moab Part 4

Note:  Moab is in several parts, be sure not to miss the other parts.

Saturday, August 1 – We found our second most favorite arch today.  Wayne had read several places that the hike to Bowtie and Corona Arches was one that should not be missed.  They were right.  They are on Bureau of Land Management Property.  The hike out is just over a mile over slick rock and up a ladder and some slopes, but well worth it.  Bowtie Arch was nice and had great color, but Corona Arch was really pretty from both sides.  On the hike Wayne noticed that I was slipping on the rocks when he was not.  We both had on hiking boots.  We compared the bottom of the boots.  His had more “grips” on the bottom.  Mine are great for dirt or mud or snow but not good on slick rock.  Thankfully we were in Moab where there is a LOT of slick rock hiking.  So the afternoon was spent shopping, I found a pair of hiking shoes that fit at the local Gearhead store.  It really does make a difference!!! 

Jill climbing up the ladder

Bowtie Arch

Front of Corona Arch

Corona Arch from the back

Sunday, August 2 we decided to go biking.  There is a wonderful paved biking path that runs along Hwy 191 which is the main street in Moab.  It is north of town and goes for about 7 miles passing the entrance to Arches National Park.  At the Colorado River the trail branches and goes east along Hwy 128 for 2 ½ miles.  They are also adding more trail to the west.  We parked where the trail branches at a nice paved parking lot. We rode the 2 ½ miles along the river which is a beautiful ride!  We then crossed the bridge over the Colorado and rode up to Arches and turned around and rode towards town to the end of the trail.  Our total ride was 12.1 miles.  It is a wonderful trail that has little elevation change.  Next time we are in Moab we look forward to riding the new section.

Along the Colorado...note the nice trail I am standing on!

See the next blog post for our Sunday afternoon adventure.

Moab, UT Part 3

Note:  because of slow internet I am breaking up Moab into lots of parts...this is Part 3.  Some parts are being loaded on the same day so be sure not to miss any of them.

Thursday, July 30^th we took an all day river rafting trip.  I was scared to take the camera or my phone because I did not want to get them wet, so the only pictures I have are of the company sign and our guide.  The trip was 14 miles down the Colorado River with a stop for lunch about half way.  The river is lower this time of year so it was a fairly calm ride.  We went over at least four class one rapids.  They allowed us to get in the river in two different places to swim.  It was great to cool off.  Wayne calculated we were swimming/floating in the current faster than our former boat, Born to Cruise could travel at full hull speed!  The scenery along the way was pretty and included Fisher Towers which was the backdrop for many old western movies.  Our guide was informative and told us some local facts, history, wives tales and pointed out landmarks.  It was a fun day.  We will go rafting again sometime but on our next trip we will take a trip with bigger rapids.

Friday, July 31.  Our favorite place in Arches National Park last year was Delicate Arch.  We decided we needed to see it again and take more pictures!  We went early to avoid the heat and the crowds.  It was again well worth the mile and a half moderately difficult hike to get there.  We both got our pictures under the arch.  We also took a side trail to photograph the arch from another angle and ended up with an almost 5 mile hike.  Those who only go to the overlook miss so much.  Our afternoon was spent walking around town and buying some t-shirts.  We will have the nicest t-shirts of anyone at the gym!

Wayne was standing here to get the picture below

Jill under Delicate Arch

Wayne under Delicate Arch

Delicte Arch from the path on the other side

Moab, UT Part 2

Please note multiple blogs posts were done on the same day, be sure you don't miss one !

Shafer Road is ranked as an easy four wheel drive dirt road that goes from Moab to Canyonlands National Park.  This was our first big four wheeling adventure.  The Jeep served us well and Wayne did a great job driving it.  Shafer Road is 18.2 miles and winds behind the Potash Plant and down the canyon, with views of the Colorado River and the beautiful mesas and canyon walls along the way.  We had a picnic lunch at Fossil Point which is where they filmed the scene for the movie Thelma and Louise where they go off the cliff into the Colorado River.  Shafer road ends with a climb that goes up a 1400 foot cliff with no guard rail and LOTS of switch backs and best of all some amazing views!    As long as we were in Canyonlands, we stopped at the visitor center and went to a few of the overlooks.  One overlook had a really great view of Shafer Road.  We also walked to Mesa Arch.  It was a fun day…I think Wayne has been bitten by the four wheel drive bug…at least for the easy trails. Wayne had to pay attention to his driving so I took LOTS of pictures so he could relive the trip later.  If you would like to see details of the drive, let me know when I see you and I will share it with you.   For this blog post I will just give you a few.  Funny story, last year when Wayne saw Shafer Road looking down from Canyonlands he said it was the scariest road he had ever seen, and this year we drove it!  (I had a terrible time with the internet...these are not in order but they will give you an idea of the road)

This is where Thelma and Louise jumped off the mountain

The Road looking down from the top

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands

Moab, UT Part 1

Note:  We have poor internet at the RV Parks for loading pictures, so we are at the visitor center.  I will be loading three blog posts today.

Sunday, July 26^th we were supposed to move to Monticello, UT.  After staying in the tiny town of Bluff we were not real excited about Monticello.  Wayne did some searching and found that we could get a discounted rate at Spanish Trail in Moab where we had stayed last year.  Half price, which is always good.  We canceled Monticello and headed for Moab.  We had enjoyed our time in Moab last year but knew there were many things we had missed.  So now we would have 10 days to hike, bike and explore.

After checking into Spanish Trail RV Park we headed to the visitors center and then walked around town. 

Monday, July 27^th.  Happy 5^th Birthday to Will and Charlotte and Happy 60^th Birthday to Jill !  Wayne bought me a turquoise bracelet that I really liked in Santa Fe as my early Birthday present and we signed up to do rafting trip.  To try to beat the heat, we decided to do our hiking or biking in the morning and do other things in the afternoons.  Our hike today was in Arches National Park to see Double Arch, Windows Arch and Turret Arch which are all based from the same parking lot.  Double Arch is very popular since many people have seen it in the Indian Jones movie, so it was crowded.  We took the long hike around Windows Arch.  During the time of day that we were there, the pictures were better from the back.

Double Arch

The back side of Windows Arch

We had a birthday lunch at Eklecticafe which is a fun little café that offers vegan options.  At the Visitor Center, Wayne had picked up a brochure on petroglyphs in the area.  We thought it would be fun to see them all. We went to the site on Kane Creek Road.  We stopped at the grocery store and picked up Vegan ice cream for a Birthday treat.  It was a nice birthday!!!

Some of the petroglyphs

Tuesday, July 28^th we once again went to Arches National Park.  We hiked to Landscape Arch.  When we were there last year the overlook for Delicate Arch was closed because of flooding on the access road.  We drove in and were very disappointed with what you could see from the viewpoint.  We walked the Park Avenue Trail then went to the RV for lunch.  After lunch we went into town to look at the shops and explore.

Landscape Arch

Park Avenue

Wayne on Park Avenue

Wednesday, July 29^th.On our quest to see all the petroglyphs in the area we stopped at the site on Potash Road on our way to drive Shafer Road.    There were some good ones.  We also stopped to see two fossilized dinosaur tracks.

Good Petroglyphs

River View near Petroglyphs

 Then we drove Shafer Road.  See Moab Part 2 for Shafer Road.

Bluff, Utah Part 2

Friday, July 24^th was another car trip day.  We started with a drive through Valley of the Gods.  It is a 16 mile dirt road that wanders between the rock formations.  They have named some of the formations.  Some were easy to tell how they got their names and others well, it took more imagination.

Sitting Hen

Lady in a Bathtub

We had our picnic lunch at Goosenecks State Park.    The goosenecks are a very winding part of the San Juan River.  It is so bendy that it takes six miles of bends to cover 2 miles on land.  The canyon is 1,200 feet from the top down down to the canyon bottom. They are very impressive but hard to capture on film. See the pictures from Bluff, Utah Part 1 for a view of them from Muley Point.

View of one of the goose necks from the top - it is 1200 feet to the bottom

If you blow up this picture our Jeep is on the hill !!  

We drove by Monument Valley, there is a large entry fee and then you have to take a tour so we decided not to go in.  You can see many of the monuments from the highway.

You should recognize this from Forest Gump...he ran down this road in the movie

We did stop at the Goulding’s Museum and learned about their positive impact on the area.  You can learn more about the Goulding’s here.  On our way back to Bluff we stopped at Sand Island Campground to look at the Petroglyphs there.  We enjoyed this large collection of petroglyphs.

Here is one of our favorites

Saturday, July 25^th we drove over to Hovenweep National Monument.  Hovenweep means deserted valley.  It is a community of Anasazi ruins that surrounds a valley.  They were good architects.  We enjoyed the visitors center and then hiked the trail around the valley.  During our hike we saw our first Collared Lizard.  He just stood there and posed for us.

Above and below samples of the ruins at Hovenweep

Collared Lizzard

Bluff, Utah Part 1

Wednesday, July 22 we left Cortez after a stop at Walmart and drove to Bluff, Utah, population 320.  After setting up at Cadillac Ranch and having lunch we explored Bluff.   Bluff was settled in 1880 by a Mormon mission team.  The 250 settlers established Bluff Fort.  The actual fort burned down.  A replica has been rebuilt and turned into a museum with many artifacts and some of the original wagons are on display.  They have a done a great job creating a video presentation to tell the story.  You can read more about it here.  There are still a few descendants of the original settlers that live in town.  We explored town…it didn’t take long.

One of the original wagons...they sure were small

View behind our campgound

Thursday we drove over to Natural Bridges National Monument.  There are 3 large natural bridges in the park with hikes to each.  We hiked to two of them and saw the 3^rd from the overlook.  We learned that the difference between a natural bridge and an arch.  A natural bridge is formed by rushing water.  An arch is formed by winds and ice. 

First Natural Bridge was a tough hike but worth it

Me climbing up one of the ladders after viewing the bridge from below

Third bridge was an easier hike

In the guide books Wayne had read about the Moki Dugway and decided we needed to drive it.  Not for the faint of heart and an interesting ride. It is a three mile unpaved section of road that drops 1200 feet in elevation.  You can learn more about it here.    The hostess at the at the campground suggested we ride out to Muley Point.  We had never heard of it, but we are sure glad she told us about it. WOW the views from Muley Point were amazing.  You drive 5 miles out on a dirt road to the point on the mesa and overlook the valley below which includes Valley of the Gods and Goosenecks State Park which we went to see up close on Friday.  A couple from Germany was out on Muley Point when we were and the guy just kept saying “breathtaking” and he was right.

Along the Moki  Dugway

Wayne at Muley Point beautiful views in every direction

Those big ditches you see are the Goosenecks