Moab
The road trip to Moab, UT was a last minute diversion from our originally planned trip through South Dakota and Minnesota with places like Spearfish, Custer, Badlands and Cuyuna on the itinerary. Just as our departure date was coming close the weather forecast changed for the area to be cold and soggy which didn't sound so great for our riding plans. Our alternative option was a trip into Utah, starting with a few bike rides in Moab and then make up an itinerary on the fly for the rest of the time we would be on the road. The northern route will have to wait for Spring unless we get a nice warm stretch of weather later in the Fall.
Moab is world famous for its quality and variety of mountain biking trails. This was evident by the number of folks we met on-trail that had travelled from so many countries around the globe just to ride in Moab. We've been to Moab several times before, but never for an extended period of time. This trip will allowed us to dig deeper into the selection of trails. Of course, we checked out some more of the great road cycling options as well in the Moab area.
Sand Flats Recreation Area
Our first choice of place to camp was the Sand Flats Recreation Area just above the town of Moab. One of the key attributes for us was to have 4G data access and according to this Campendium review, it does and it did. While so many folks claim they want to be disconnected while away from home, that is not the case for us. We found some available campsites in the D loop that were big enough and level enough to park comfortably. Some of these sites are well off the Sand Flats road which helped to reduce the noise from the various off-road vehicles that were traveling in and out of the area. The 4G was strong, we were set. This trip is the first use of our newly completed Side Slide Mini Kitchen, so we were hoping that both camp setup and cooking in general will be much easier.
Slickrock
The first ride...SLICKROCK! It is just a stone's throw from our campsite and it is ahhmazing. Yes, we said we want to dig deeper into the trails that are in the area and we've ridden Slickrock last time we were here. I love this trail for its unique, smooth and tacky surface with very steep climbs & descents that are made ridable only because of this surface. The new trails will have to wait a day or so.
Canyonlands National Park
The next day we woke to a steady rain. This was a good excuse for a low-key morning while waiting for the weather to pass. Once the weather cleared a bit, we took a drive through the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands National Park. The drive is great with many places to stop at overlooks and trailheads for hikes. We stopped for a short hike around the Upheaval Dome which is an interesting geological formation of uncertain origin. One of the nice things about Canyonlands is that it is still old-school in that there are few railings, steps and boardwalks like many of the more popular national parks making it feel more raw, remote and unsettled.
Arches National Park
We have driven through Arches and done some hikes in there on a previous visit to Moab. We've always wanted to do a road ride through the park as a way to see it at a different pace. We started the ride from the Lions Park Transit Hub. From there, you follow the paved bike path to the entrances of Arches. After entering the park, there is a nice climb with a few switchbacks to start you off but then the rest of the ride is mostly gentle inclines and descents. At the time we were there, some night time road construction was underway, leaving us with some gravel sections, but nothing too bad. We spoke with a surveyor and he said there will be no bike lanes and the traffic lanes will be 12 feet which he felt was still too narrow for the many first-time RV drivers. Fortunately, for us, all the drivers were very courteous and gave us ample room and waited for safe places in the road to pass when necessary. The scenery on this ride was amazing.
Navajo Rocks
Navajo Rocks is new trail system for us in Moab. We started at the trailhead for Ramblin' on 313, crossed the road to the RockyTops trail. We were feeling pretty good so we took the advice of an Evergreen family we met at the trailhead and took the longer route up to the Horsethief trails before looping back around to the Navajo Rocks trails. The total route included the following trails; RockyTop to 7-up to Whirlwind West to Mustang West to Chisolm to Big Lonely to Big Mesa to Ramblin'. This route provided plenty of variety of terrain, keeping it interesting all the way. Big Mesa was the highlight of the overall route, getting you into the scenery that you've been looking at from a distance all day.
Fisher Towers Trail
Fisher Towers are a series of sandstone towers which are a popular climbing location and subject for landscape photography. The towers and surrounding area were featured in the opening scenes of the 3rd Austin Powers movie.
This hike turned out to be much more exciting than expected, maybe not as exciting as the opening action of the Austin Powers movie, but much more than planned. The weather was forecasted to be clear with a very small, less than 10% chance of rain. When we began the hike, we could see a rain storm off in the distance and we kept an eye on it to track its direction of travel. The trail leads through some low-lying washes that showed obvious signs of previous water flow. We knew it wouldn't be safe to get caught here if the rain comes.
The views of the towers are magnificent. The trail leads right up against the towers where it becomes difficult to get a perspective other than to understand that they are really big.
After some time on the trail, we could see the storm was approaching instead of moving parallel as it seemed before. It wasn't too long before we could tell the lightning and thunder was getting closer. The Imagine Dragons song started repeating in my head. Then it happened, the deluge of rain and hail with lightning all around us. We needed cover not only from the storm, but also from the rocks that were coming off the towers. It was quite surprising just how much sandstone material was coming off the towers in this storm, in chunks. We took refuge in a small cave for a few minutes until a flood of water burst through the back of the cave and pushed us out. We sprinted, heads down, to another cave a few hundred yards further down the trail. This one held until the intensity of the storm let up. We stayed put until the water running down the trails mostly subsided. When we got to the lower washes we gave it a little more time to subside before we would be able to cross back.
Once back at the trail head, we could see another storm approaching on the same path as the first. On the drive back to Moab from the trailhead, we drove through the second storm and it was apparent that this second storm was just as intense as the first but much larger and longer lasting. We were happy to have experienced only the warning shot while on the trail.
The drive back to Moab on the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway was much different than the drive on this same road a few hours ago to the trail head as the storm was having quite an impact. The road was flooded in many sections with considerable rockfall and mud. There were hundreds of waterfalls that were not there earlier.
Goblin Valley State Park
We had read a write-up that this state park had recently added a new mountain biking trail system which intrigued us. We will often seek out places that have added new trails to check them out and support the effort.
The park is mostly known for being the home to a high density area of hoodoos, also known as goblins. The park allows visitors to freely wander though the goblins
The mountain bike trails in the park were interesting. They can be described as beginner trails since they are smooth and generally flat with some relatively gentle climbs and descents. Much of the surface was packed, dried mud with some tracks into gulleys over thin shale plates. I'd guess that these trails could get tough if the surface gets wet and soft. The reason these trails should be ridden by anyone that can get here is for the views from the plateau that the trails ring. There are several vista overlooks including a sweeping view of the San Rafael Swell.
Rainy morning in Moab
We woke up to some heavy rain. This was a good excuse to let our legs rest and recover from all the riding of the previous week. We found a great cafe in downtown Moab, Red Rock Bakery & Net Cafe and actually stayed long enough to have breakfast and lunch. Both meals were delicious. The weather cleared just as the early afternoon closing time approached at Red Rock so it was time for some activity. We decided to explore more of the Sand Flats area which we had not done so far since our campsite is near the entrance to the area. The Sand Flats road offered spectacular views of the various sandstone formations and the La Sal mountains. At one pull-off near the Porcupine Rim trailhead, it was time for something a little different and we pulled out the TRX for a little upper body & core workout.
Potash Scenic Byway
With a day off of riding, it was time for a new road ride route and the Postash Scenic Byway seemed like a good choice. We started from the Lion's Park Transit Hub, followed the bike path along 191 to the intersection with 279. Once on 279, the traffic becomes fairly light. The road follows the Colorado River with areas of tall, steep canyon walls. Once section, called Wall Street is popular with climbers and is incredible to see these folks scaling these canyon walls straight up to dizzying heights. There were sections of ancient Native American carvings in the canyon walls with evidence of structures once being there. Along the road there are several trailheads and a natural arch called Jughandle Arch. After about 17 miles, you approach an active potash mine and the road becomes a dirt road. Many riders turn around here but the dirt road seemed smooth enough to continue on. The road takes you below and between Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands National Park. This provides a perspective not seen from the vantage points in these parks. The further we went on the dirt road, the more it deteriorated and we decided that our road bikes were about at their limits and headed back.
Bowtie and Corona Arches
During the Potash bike ride, we saw the trailhead for the Bowtie and Corona arches. We still had some energy left after the ride and added a hike to the days activity. Hiking the massive, wide canyon on the way to the arches is a place where you can really get a feel for the enormity of these geologic formations. The hike itself is relatively short at 3 miles round trip, making the arches a nice payoff for only a little work.
Slickrock
Once again, we headed back to a familiar trail but this time doing the loop in reverse, or counter-clockwise. This direction may actually be easier with the majority of the climbing being done in one extended section in the middle of the ride. That section is ridiculously tough, however. The preferred clockwise direction has the climbing done in smaller chunks throughout the ride.
Epilogue
- Moab has so much to offer and we feel like there is still so much to see and ride. We had planned to move around much more of Utah, but just stayed in Moab and feel like it worked out just fine.
- The Side Slide Mini Kitchen worked out very well. We need to stock it with a few more basic kitchen utensils for better functionality.
- We still need more built in storage, potentially building up from the mini kitchen.
We'll be home for a few weeks, then where to next? Moab again?
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