Moab, UT

Once again an amazing drive! This time 183 miles headed west from Montrose, Colorado to Moab, Utah. We passed from the mountains of Colorado into the mountains of Utah. The speed limit was 80 mph in some areas! As we got closer to Moab, there was a vertical red wall of rock staring us in the face. So cool! We all arrived safely at Portal RV Resort in Moab before afternoon storms rolled in. Beautiful mountain views by the campground. So looking forward to exploring Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse Point State Park while here. 

In between visiting the National Parks and state park over the course of 7 days, we managed to find time to use the hot tub at the campground to soak tired limbs from hiking and spend some afternoons by the pool when we weren’t sightseeing. 

On Monday, October 3rd, the pod spent 8 hours exploring Arches National Park in Moab. Not enough “wows” in our arsenal to describe this amazing park! It has the world’s largest collection of sandstone arches… over 2,000 arches range in size from a 3 ft. opening, the minimum considered an arch, to the longest measuring 306 ft. We didn’t personally see 2,000 arches but we drove 18 miles on the scenic drive and walked 6 miles visiting viewpoints and hiking to see the various arches. Such an extraordinarily unique park with so many awe-inspiring landscapes within it’s 76,000+ acres! 

Amusing story… Gary, as usual, was way ahead but I was sort of stuck at Turret Arch trying to figure out how to get up and over this behemoth rock. Cheryl & Joe were nearby trying to figure out the same thing. When I hear a guy say “give me your hand, I’ll pull you up.” I said “That’s ok, my husband is up ahead. He can help me.” The guy said in a deadpan non-joking tone “I wasn’t talking to you.” WOW!  Everybody in the area, including me, laughed. He had been talking to his wife who was standing next to me. She and I had been chatting. I thought she was alone. He helped his wife up and kept right on going… a bit of a poop!  

One of our favorites spots was Sand Dune Arch. Utterly charming! You entered via a narrow opening between vertical slabs of sandstone called “Sandstone fins.”  The result was complete solitude in this area. Very church-like… humbling. 

Another favorite was iconic Delicate Arch. We hiked an uphill 1/2 mile to the viewpoint. To hike to the actual arch would have been a “difficult” 3.5 mile hike. We’ve learned to only do “easy” hikes when you’re at an elevation of above 5,000 ft!

There were so many amazing arches. For example, Skyline Arch… in 1940 a large boulder suddenly fell out of the original Skyline Arch roughly doubling the size of the opening. Another awesome sight was North & South Windows… dual arches. Here we were able to walk the Primitive Trail around the back of these two arches and had the trail to ourselves. 

This park is truly a breathtaking natural wonder! 

Wednesday, Oct. 5th, the pod visited Canyonlands National Park and more specifically the “Island in the Sky” district. So named because it sits atop a large mesa 1,000 feet above the canyon floor. Basically you are on the rim of a canyon looking down. This park is over 300,000 acres and divided into 4 districts. It’s enormous.

On the drive over to Canyonlands, we came across a twin rock formation called Monitor and Merrimac Buttes. They stand 600 ft above the sandstone base. Named after the Civil War ironclad ships of the same name. I never heard of the ships. Joe, our walking encyclopedia, got the connection right away!

Once in Canyonlands, we did a 34 mile round-trip scenic drive and intermixed 5 miles of hiking at various overlooks and view points. Gorgeous and so different than Arches. As Joe put it “at Arches we were looking up, and here we’re looking down into the canyon.” Fabulous varying landscape at each of the stops. Spectacular. There was a fair number of dead branches and trees. Apparently rainfall is less than 10” per year.

A favorite vantage point and hike was the almost 2-mile Grand View Hike which showcased panoramic views as it followed the canyon edge. Just Wow. Another pretty spot was Mesa Arch. It’s a natural stone arch that frames views of the La Sal Mountains, and particularly pretty at sunrise of which we have no hope of seeing. We don’t have an early riser in the bunch! We had to be careful hiking down to Mesa Arch as the path was half covered in sand and slick in places. Another spectacular spot was Shafer Overlook. A dramatic short hike to a remarkable overlook. I kept eyes straight ahead. It was a looooong way down to the bottom of the canyon. 

While there are 3 other districts to Canyonlands, they were many hours of driving away. So we were more than content having seen “Island in the Sky!”

On Friday, Oct. 7th, the pod visited Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab. Similar to Canyonlands, this park also only gets 10 inches of rain a year. It’s a desert landscape with views of gorgeous canyons, the La Sal Mountains, and the Colorado River 2,000 ft below on the canyon floor. Unfortunately there’s a very sad legend of how the state park got its name. Too upsetting to share… suffice to say it didn’t end well for the horses, thus the name.

We arrived in the afternoon and explored the various overlooks. One unusual scene on the canyon floor was 2 bright blue areas which we learned were “solar evaporation ponds.” Water is pumped down to dissolve the salt deposited from ancient seas. The salt water is then pumped into the vinyl lined ponds. Once dry, the salt is harvested and transformed into plant fertilizer. A bit of an eye sore on the canyon floor but oh well. 

After exploring in the afternoon we snagged a picnic table and enjoyed a bbq grilled dinner and sunset. A delightful time! 

Saturday was a chore day followed by pool and hot tub time with the Hannafords before we packed up to leave on Sunday. New destination is Torrey, UT to visit Capitol Reef National Park, one of the lesser known of the Utah national parks.