The only part of our snowbird trip this year that was scheduled for several months was to meet up with my daughter, Teresa, her husband, John, and their new baby, Caanann in Moab. Teresa, a grade school teacher, and John are avid mountain bicyclists. They have spent spring break in Moab for several years now. A few months before we started our trip they had asked if Moab was on our agenda during Teresa's spring break. They didn't say that it would be really nice for them to have someone who could watch Caanann while they went mountain biking, but we knew that was a prime motivation in them hoping we could be in the area. And, of course, it didn't take much arm twisting for us to comply. Additionally, it gave us the opportunity to meet up with some of our friends too. Mona has known a couple for many years who live in Moab and own a restaurant there. Another couple, Bob and Vonnie, that Mark met through amateur radio, were planning on going through Moab on their way back home to Coeur d'Alene timed their trip so we could meet up. That's the couple I mentioned in a previous blog that let us keep the trailer in their plowed driveway before we left.
We took a road trip one day with Bob and Vonnie to Canyonlands National Park. Like Bryce Canyon National Park, the main tourist facilities and view points are high up on the plateau in the north end of the park. It is amazing to see just how much the Colorado River has carved into the earth over the millennium.
Just another view of the Canyonlands carved by the Colorado River and it's tributaries.
About a hundred feet behind Bob and Vonnie the terrain drops roughly 1000 feet to the canyon below.
Arches National Park also is right next door to Moab. My favorite must do hike whenever I'm in the area is the Fiery Furnace. It is a maze of canyons and rock formations compacted into a small area. I first hiked the area years ago as part of a ranger led tour. Without the tour I would have never been able to hike the loop. In fact, the last few times I hiked it, I wasn't able to find the connecting canyons and ended up going out the way I came in. Before you can get a permit you have to take watch a video and ranger briefing on the hike. It is a very delicate area and the rangers want to make sure you respect the terrain by knowing what you can and can't do. During the talk our ranger said that the route trail is marked now with small directional arrows. But even so, it is still easy to get lost.
Which way do we go, left or right? We also got lucky in that there were a couple of ranger lead middle school groups hiking though the area the same time we were. One of the rules is that you are not to follow a group your not a part of. We didn't, but is sure was reassuring when we would take a route and find one of the ranger groups coming behind us.
Now which way. We first went what appeared to be obvious direction to the left.
Wrong! We soon found that we couldn't get through that way and that we needed to go through the small slot that we could barely squeeze through on the right.
A lot of folks hiking the Furnace don't go down this side canyon because you need to walk down this narrow ledge.
At the end of the ledge though is this arch. It was discovered by accident just after the park was established by a ranger wandering through the area.
You cannot visit Arches National Park without going to see Delicate Arch. It's on most of Utah's license plates for "crying out loud". We decided not to hike the several miles up to the arch as we both were so beat up from hiking the Fiery Furnace. It took both of us a couple of days to recover.
We spent over a week in Moab. I fell mountain biking the first time we went. I didn't think I was hurt bad. We hiked the Fiery Furnace a few days later and I realized a few later that I was more injured than I had originally thought. It took several weeks for me to recover. And now, I'm limping around again having fallen during my second attempt at mountain biking this year. NUTS!. The old body just isn't up to some of the things I used do in my younger days.
After Moab we came straight home to be near the family during this difficult time.
That is it.... The end of another great trip south for the winter.
We spent over a week in Moab. I fell mountain biking the first time we went. I didn't think I was hurt bad. We hiked the Fiery Furnace a few days later and I realized a few later that I was more injured than I had originally thought. It took several weeks for me to recover. And now, I'm limping around again having fallen during my second attempt at mountain biking this year. NUTS!. The old body just isn't up to some of the things I used do in my younger days.
After Moab we came straight home to be near the family during this difficult time.
That is it.... The end of another great trip south for the winter.
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