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Canyonlands, Arches, and Moab was our last stop. We camped at the Riverside Oasis RV Campground in Moab for 6 nights and used that as our base camp to explore the area. Over a week's stay, we did four hikes and two mountain bike rides. The terrain is unbelievably beautiful, rugged and terribly challenging. For an outdoor enthusiast, this area is Paradise. Moab is a laid-back, unpretentious little town with a plethora of cheap (well, reasonable) eats. It was a great place to end our 4-week trip. |
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Canyonlands We were planning to see both Island in the Sky and the Needles Districts of Canyonlands National Park. But there is so much to see and do that we had time for only the former. Here are a few pics of the Island in the Sky District. |
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| Shafer Canyon Overlook gives grand views of the northeast corner of the canyon | |
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| Looking down on Shafer Canyon and east. We later biked up this road during our stay here. | Looking across an arm of Shafer Canyon. The Shafer Trail jeep road contours along the cliff face. Can you spot the red car on the road below the rim? |
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| View of White Rim from the Grand View Point Overlook looking south | |
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| Close-up view of Totem Pole . . . | . . . and White Rim from Grand View looking south |
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| Looking back toward Grand View Point | No puny cairns here |
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| View of Green River looking northwest from Grand View | |
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| View of Candlestick Tower from Grand View looking northwest | |
Corona Arch / Bowtie Arch Hike We were told of Corona and Bowtie Arches, which lie outside of both Canyonlands and Arches National Parks near the Colorado River. From the trailhead, it is a short 2-mile hike to reach the arches. It turns out that these two arches are as grand and interesting as those found in the national parks. In actuality, arches and natural bridges are found throughout the Colorado Plateau. |
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| Corona Arch | Bowtie Arch |
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| We spotted a rock climber with nerves of steel on top of the arch | Here he comes down free-climbing |
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| Corona Arch eyeballs | |
Klondike Bluff Mountain Bike Ride Moab is the mountain bike capital of the world with trails found throughout the region. One day we did the Klondike Bluff Trail which traverses slickrock for miles and terminates at the north boundary of Arches NP. This was rated a novice/intermediate trail so it was a ride we felt comfortable doing. The scenery was spectacular and riding over slickrock the coolest thing. |
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| Trails are well marked | Climbing miles of slickrock |
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| This trail is known for dinosaur tracks | |
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| Riding over wide swaths of white slickrock | At trail's end, we parked our bikes and hiked over slickrock to the boundary of Arches NP |
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| Hmmm . . . looks like Bigfoot was also here | Spectacular high desert scenery from the top of the rocks |
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| We ate our lunch and gazed at the Marching Men formations in Arches | View of more formations in Arches |
La Sal Mountain Hike The La Sal Mountain Range lies to the southeast of Moab. These mountains, volcanic in origin, were formed about 25 million years ago when the overlying sedimentary rock layers eroded away, leaving the stronger igneous rock of the La Sal Mountains. The cluster of about a dozen peaks ranges in height from 10,000' to the tallest, Mt. Peale, at 12,721'. The dark gray La Sal Mountains covered with conifers and aspens stand in stark contrast to the red rock sedimentary landscapes found at the lower elevations. The juxtaposition of these two extreme land forms certianly makes the Moab experience all the more interesting. Near the end of our stay, we drove up into the La Sals to day hike up to Geyer Pass. The aspens were just beginning to turn color and the temps were about 30 degrees cooler at the higher elevations. We ended up doing a 10-mile hike with about 2,000' of elevation gain. |
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| Driving up to the trailhead at Oowah Lake | Mt. Tukuhnikivatz, elev. 12,482' |
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| Passing Clark Lake | Mt. Mellenthin, elev. 12,645' |
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| Aspen glow | Another view of Mt. Mellenthin with Mt. Peale, elev. 12, 721', in the background |
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| The Haystack, elev. 11,641' | |
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| Marching through the aspens | |
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| Where's Heidi? . . . another view of Mt. Mellenthin | Near Geyer Pass (elev. 10,600'), our turnaround point |
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