Moab and Arches - some of Utah's Finest - Fall 2012

From previous escapades, I was well aware that Southern Utah was one of my favorite places on the West Coast for adventure.  Then came Moab!  What a great spot to be outdoors.

Typical Moab View - soak it in.

Some of the usual suspects gathered Gene, Mark, and I.  I flew into SLC to meet Mark; we drove to Moab from there.  Gene made the long solo drive from LA, managed to blow out a tire and won back some casino money lost on our prior Zion trip at the desert lovely oasis called Mesquite.

We planned for a late Fall trip, in mid-October and that was a really good time to be in Moab.  Sure, the days were shorter than August but the weather was warm enough during the daytime and cooled off at night.  The crowds were minimal too; I hear that in the peak Summer season, Moab is a zoo.  I was grateful for the affordable lodging, meaning we didn't have to camp.

Evening 1: We played some disc golf at Old City Park just South of Moab.  I'd rate it a 4 out of 5.  I nearly threw my first hole in one on my first throw on hole 1 - so close!  It was Gene's first disc golf outing and he made considerable improvement throughout.  It was a fun course, challenging but still plenty of birdie opportunities.

Day 1: The first day was all about exploring on two wheels.  I rented a bike from Poison Spider Cycles (sweet name, good service!); Gene and Mark already had their mountain bikes in tow.  We headed out to the Moab Slickrock area.  I highly recommend this for some mildly technical to extremely technical mountain biking.  The risks are high as the trails are solid rock and there are ups, downs, curves, and bumps.

Gene, Mark, and I did the practice loop to get acclimated then headed out to the main loop.  A mile or two into the main loop, we came across an older gentleman who took a hard spill down a steep, technical descent.  Mark, who is a doctor, helped out but really there wasn't much that could be done except make sure to stabilize his back and neck neck, check for broken bones, and distribute pain meds (Mark's specialty).  With that fresh reminder of the perils of mountain biking, we continued along; another mile or so into the trail, after some leg crushing climbs, we came to some stunning views overlooking the Colorado River and the town of Moab.  Some nice descents followed by more minor ascents kept us moving along.  I was sucking wind trying to keep up with Gene while Mark was sucking wind trying to keep up with me - peer pressure in tact!

We pumped out the ride, taking in the ridiculously expansive views.  Back to the car, we loaded up the bikes as we were planning another ride up a nearby fire road.  We made it to the fire road where we saw a bunch of mountain bikers, sponsors, organizers, and spectators setting up for some kind of race.  We were in for a treat, the race was starting soon but we still had time to ride up part of the trail that the mountain bikers would be later going down.  Off we went.  Everyone was gassed from our Slickrock adventures already but we made it up a few miles.  Some race spotters along the way let us know that the race was starting soon so we headed down.  The racers caught us midway back as they literally screamed by.  They made us look like we weren't even moving.  I was going as fast as I possibly could (I don't know, 12 MPH) over all the bumps, crags, huge rocks, loose rock, etc; I thought I was moving semi-fast.  Then these pro guys fly by, jumping all the big rocks, full pedal, probably 25 mph.  Mind you we are on the side of a mountain and heading off the edge would lead certainly to a broken collar bone, neck, or back.  Apparently it takes some huge cahones to be a pro mountain biker.  We saw one guy take a huge jump, clear about 15 ft. of boulders and come off his bike in mid-air but somehow he gracefully recovered without falling and popped back on the bike without missing a beat.  Ridiculous; I would have certainly left my blood and skin on the trail.

After a long day of riding and adventure, we ate some good food at Eddie McStiff's in Moab drank our fair share of beer.

Aren't these rock formations amazing?  They are hundreds of feet tall.

View from the top of our Arches canyoneering adventure

Day 2:  The plan for day two was to go to Pleiades and do some technical canyoneering there.  We had out wetsuits and headed out early.  As we drove to the site, we found that it was much higher in elevation that we'd bargained for and actually there was some light snow on the ground and it was frigid.  Pleiades is a canyoneering adventure best done in the dead of Summer it seems.  We made the call that we probably didn't want to be wet in that weather so we aborted that plan and made an alternate plan to go to Arches National Park.  We had a short day so we were unable to explore Arches thoroughly but we did make time to partake in some really awesome canyoneering.  I don't know the name of the canyon (Teardrop perhaps), but it was very near the entrance to the park, less than a mile or two away from the Moab-side visitor center.  There was a short hike from Park Avenue trailhead back towards the visitor center and then a hefty scramble up to the top of some formations.  From there were great views, and a couple huge bowls to explore.  We found our way to the canyoneering drop-in point and found that the rappelling gradually increased in length and difficulty.  First was a 12 ft. rappel, then a 18 footer, then a 30 footer, then a semi-concerning blind-landing 50 footer.  The rappels were followed by a short hike out and we were on our way again.

Brent spread-eagled on the last (longest) rappel.

Arches is certainly a place I'd like to spend a couple of days at and Moab is an area I think I could spend an entire week or Summer exploring.  I will be back!

I still have Bryce Canyon to explore so hopefully I will be back in Southern Utah in the next couple years ...  and will have time to do Zion again as well as Moab and Arches. So much to do, so little time!