As we reluctantly departed CO, it seemed like a good idea to stop in Moab, an outdoor mecca in southern Utah, for a few days of sun. We left lovely Blue River on a monday morning, with a good 6 inches of snow having fallen on our car overnight and temps WAY below freezing. 5 hours later, and one tricky last run up and over Vail pass, we were pulling into Moab for a casual outdoor lunch. That would certainly not have happened in CO during our time there!
True to form, we did not just hang by the pool at our hotel for the 2+ days in Moab. Shocking I know. One of the big draws of moab for me was the diversity of stuff we could get into, way more than we could hope to fit in for our time there. We got lucky with the weather, it was sunny but not too hot.
Climbing
First on deck was climbing at a crag called Wall St. This crag is right off a little state road that heads along the mighty Colorado river. In some spots, it is just the width of the road between this huge river that carved the Grand Canyon and many hundred foot sheer cliffs.
The climbing was good, not amazing, but certainly worthwhile. It is true desert sandstone, which meant a fair bit of the always tenuous slab climbing as opposed to the more physically challenging, and obvious, face climbing that is more my forte. Still, we got on some really nice climbs and got a flavor for the area. The pic below was snapped by some friendly CA climbers that we chatted with, right as i top out on a classic for the area.
As a bonus, the climbing is next to some really cool native american cliff art, some which is believed to be over 3,000 years old. It is amazing to view the art and think to how different the world and humanity were when it was created. I also enjoyed the similarity between this art and some done at an equivalent time in human history in Zimbabwe that we saw several months ago. Here were two groups half a world apart, in totally different biomes, yet both were creating similar art to enrich and explain their existence.
Trail runs
After climbing, we drove a mile up the road to a trailhead elevated off the Colorado river for an evening trail run. The next day we went for another beautiful run in the Arches national park. Both runs had vistas that seemed to go on forever. For both we had these great views of snowcapped mountains, which rise to over 11k and yet also transition quickly on their slopes from snow to sun baked sandstone pillars. Impressive stuff.
Mt Biking
The next morning, I had reserved a mt bike to get after the trails. Moab is probably best known as a world class destination for biking and the plethora of options reinforced this title. I am a very competent mt biker, but far from a world beater and was curious how my skills would hold up on the famous slick-rock. I got a nice 27.5'' frame, my first time riding this tweener size bike and headed out for some trails on the other side of the CO river from where we climbed. It took a mile or two to readjust to biking after skiing, and recalling both physically and mentally how amazing bikes are nowadays in their performance. Once I got readjusted and plugged in, rode for over 4 hours and loved it. All of the trails were spectacular, with my personal highlight one called Captian Ahab --opened only a month ago. This being a double black diamond trail, some of the drops were a bit over my head. Literally.
Hiking
We also got to do a couple shorter hikes around various arches and other natural wonders in Arches. These were super mellow, but the scenery was quite impressive. For example, one of the arches we walked under is over a 100 feet tall and that same distance wide. It as cool to observe the parking lot packed full for sunset one evening, these are our nation's treasures and people should be out enjoying them.
Photography
Finally, I got to restart my photography, mostly in anticipation of heading back on the road. For whatever reason, I never get around to taking my camera out and taking pics when we are stationary. I probably have more pics using my nice digital SLR camera from Malawi than the Bay Area. As our moab jaunt was the re-starting of our travels in my mind, my impulse for snapping some shots was kickstarted. The below shot is part of a series that mu and I have collaborated on, and this is a nice contribution.
You can really see the diversity of options in Moab, I bet we could go for a week and never repeat any activity. We left the next and headed for Vegas, tired in a good way and very glad to have worked in these play days.
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