Moab, Utah: sunbeams rather than snowmen.

6th – 10th June

When we were last in the town of Moab over New Year it was very, very cold, snowy and consequently very quiet. The temperatures did not rise above freezing at all during the day and fell to -16C/3F at the lowest point at night. Despite TC’s heater and insulation, it was too cold for happy camping. Inside moisture management whilst trying to stay warm was time consuming and the first job of each day was to remove the sheets of frozen condensation from the inside of the windows.

These were self inflicted discomforts, I know, as we had deliberately traveled here in the winter, but it was still a bit miserable. Our reason for being here was to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in the low season, but due to the US federal shutdown and then a big dump of snow, they were both closed. We left seek warmer climes, and vowed to return this next trip. So return we did. This was first place on our travels that we had returned to a second time. Now it was summer and much busier but I take dealing with the crowds over having to defrost a septic pipe outflow with a hairdryer any day…. As we rolled into Moab this time it was 30c/86F and gloriously sunny.

We had booked three nights here, and after a trip to the supermarket, we rolled up to our deluxe RV park to check in, looking forward to a cooling dip in its newly renovated pool. This was when it came to our attention that we had been absolute muppets. Our booking didn’t start until tomorrow and they were full to capacity. We had packed up and driven away from our perfectly lovely camp in Torrey this morning after only one night’s stay. We had forgotten that we had booked and paid for two nights. Oops. Now we found ourselves in a busy holiday town in peak season, looking for a last minute vacancy. The words ‘needles’ and ‘haystacks’ sprang to mind. We sat in Big Dave and made some hasty phone calls. By some miracle they had a one night vacancy at the park that we had stayed at over New Year. Crisis averted. It was only 200m up the road so we hot-footed up there, set up camp and were in their slightly utilitarian, but no less welcoming pool before you could say ‘idiots abroad’. The place was heaving, but we were just happy not to be parked up in a lay-by with no mains power to run the AC.

The next morning, all idiocy forgotten, we headed back to our original camp, paid the designated $10 for an early check-in (which was cheeky as it was already quite expensive) and did our first camper ‘offload’ in ages. In fact, looking back, we hadn’t done this since Fort Davis, TX at the end of November last year. It went smoothly and no cross words were spoken. Alway a bonus. I maintain that off-loading and re-loading Tin Can is the biggest test to our marriage in current times. Far more than living in a tiny space together and spending 24/7 in each other’s company. Those couples with moderately sized trailer-boats will have a small insight into this. After the long drive, the excitement of the off-load, and the with the heat climbing steadily again, the only thing to do was go to the pool. It was a lot fancier here and a very welcome escape from the heat and dust. Later, as it got a bit cooler, we jumped on the bikes and headed the 1.5 miles into town for a mooch about. Moab is a shrine to the outdoor activity crowd, be it rafting, biking, off-roading or hiking, and every other business caters to them. The other half of the businesses seemed to be selling t-shirts and the usual touristy tat. We walked the small main street, Nick got some new handlebar grips for his bike and we looked for a place to get a refreshing, late afternoon beer. This was easier said than done. This is Utah. The strict licensing laws in this state mean that most establishments that sell alcohol only have restaurant licences, so you can’t drink without ordering a meal too. Eventually we found a bit of a ‘spit and sawdust’ type place that had a bar licence, enjoyed a pint of the local brew, and suitably refreshed, peddled home.

We were on the road early in the morning to get ahead of the crowds and the heat and visit Canyonlands National Park, a 45 minute drive from Moab. As we steadily climbed up the entry road we seemed to be the only ones going in our direction with most of the traffic going the other way. It left us wondering what they knew that we didn’t. (The answer? Nothing. I think they were the folk that had come up purely to watch sunrise through the photogenic Mesa Arch. It must have been standing room only up there) Canyonlands is a bit of a Cinderella National Park. It is less trafficked than the better known Arches National Park, only having half the number of visitors annually. I had no expectations of what to expect at Canyonlands. Although the clue should be in the name, it sounds more like a theme park than what is is, which is a wilderness of sedimentary rock with hundreds of canyons and formations cut from the Colorado Plateau.

It is vast and the brain struggles to make sense of what the eyes can see. We filled our day with several shorter hikes rather than one long one. The first was to see the afore mentioned ‘Mesa Arch’, (which is very photogenic),

the second was up to an overlook, (a good walk with a surprisingly mediocre view) and the third was a flat-ish walk to the edge of the plateau to look down on one of the most amazingly expansive views that I have ever seen.

It was also our picnic location. Ne’er has a sandwich had such a stage. I am proposing that Canyonlands National Park be renamed Great Land of Canyons National Park. I think that this gives it more of the gravitas that it deserves. After tearing ourselves away from the vista we headed home via town for provisions, discovered the Moab Brewery, another place for a sneaky beer without having to eat, and then escaped to the campsite pool again. Life is tough.

The following morning we were up and out even earlier in order to visit the better known Arches National Park, the entrance of which is only about 4 miles from Moab’s northern limit. It has over 2000 natural sandstone arches within its boundaries, boasting the highest density of natural arches in the world, many of which are very accessible. These are the things that bring more than 1.5 million visitors to Arches each year and can make it unbearably busy in peak times. We hit the gates at 7.15am, joining an already significant stream of traffic going up the hill. The pay station booth was closed until 8am, making entry free. This might have been the other motivation for many people’s early start. We drove the entire length of the scenic drive to its end point, Devils Garden. Here there was a rapidly filling car park, it being the trailhead for a walk to see one of the most impressive arches, Landscape Arch.

This is the longest span of any natural arch in the world, at 290.1ft. It is very delicate, even more so since it has periodically shed a few sizeable lumps of rock over the past few decades. In the past one could walk right underneath it, but the Park Service has become a bit twitchy about the prospect of it falling down completely and have now fenced it off to prevent the squishing of unsuspecting arch tourists. Sensible.

The trail to Landscape Arch was well formed and well travelled, but once past it the trail instantly became a bit more sporting, involving a shimmy up a steep slick-rock path. This put off most of the bus-tour groups and less fit and able and so it was much quieter. We completed a really interesting 7 mile loop on a primitive trail, taking in a few more remote arches and rock formations.

A short part of the trail was along the top of a narrow ‘fin’ formation with no obvious way down until you were practically at the end. There were no safety rails and it was incredibly windy up there. My knees were knocking, but Nick bounded along it like a mountain goat. He’s the one with the worse vertigo. Go figure.

Fearful episodes aside it was beautiful and mostly spent in peaceful solitude. That was until we encountered a large group of ladies of a certain age on a tour. We could hear them long before we saw them. They were stood in a shrieking huddle atop a slick-rock saddle, plumb in the middle of the moderately dicey thoroughfare, taking an endless combination of selfies and group photos. Funny and annoying in equal measures. After our walk we found a rare quiet car park and had the first ‘Big Dave picnic, sat in the bed, admiring the view.

Due to our stupidness of accidentally arriving in Moab a day ahead of ourselves, we realised that we were now going to overlap for one night at this camp with our new Bryce Canyon friends, Janet and Bill. They rolled in mid-afternoon and after we had re-loaded Tin Can back atop Big D (again, happily, without harsh words or incidents), and done a plethora of little jobs, including changing a flat tyre on my bike, we surprised them with a knock on their door and arranged to share a few more drinks that evening. It was obvious that we had some differing opinions on politics, religion and general affairs of the heart, but we generally avoided these topics and consequently continued to get on very well!

The morning saw us move on again, this time to our first new state of this trip, Colorado.