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!

Adventures in Utah -- Part II -- ZION

Zion blew me away.  If you're anything like me maybe you've never even heard of Zion National Park in southern Utah.  If you haven't, get in a car, take a train, ride your bicycle, do anything to get there!  Zion is the definition of epic; one of the most stunning National Parks I have ever been to.

As you drive towards the National Park, you start to see little teasing glimpses of what Zion is hiding behind it's canyon walls.  Gene and I arrived the evening after our grueling St. George mountain biking adventure.  We refueled with some pizza and frozen yogurt and sought out lodging.  The hotels were expensive and paid camping spots booked.  Luckily there is some Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land a few miles outside of Zion which is undeveloped yet free.  Free is perfect.  We headed there and Mark, "Doc Awesome", met us shortly after dark.  We spent the night under the stars in our sleeping bags; glorious.  We slept with the Milky Way painted across the sky on the doorstep of Zion.

In the morning we rounded up all the necessary gear which included all the traditional rock climbing items (ropes, harnesses, belay devices) as well as wetsuits, hiking shoes, and helmets.  It was a beautiful day at Zion with sun and temperatures expected in the 80's.  We rode the Park bus into the Canyon and started from the Weeping Rock Trailhead towards Echo Canyon.  From the trailhead we blitzed up switchbacks on the East Rim Trail for about 4 miles.


Amigos ready for Canyoneering at the Weeping Rock Trailhead 

  

Views from the East Rim Trail

 We fueled up with a tasty lunch of salami & havarti sandwiches as well as gummy worms at the drop-in point for Echo Canyon while switching from our hiking gear to the canyoneering gear, including the wet suits & harnesses over the wet suits.  Ridiculous but necessary for our upcoming adventure. 

Look at Mark's Smile -- "Canyoneering Rocks!"

We dropped into the narrow canyon, utilizing our climbing gear and splashing through icy cold puddles at the bottom of the canyon. As we proceeded the canyon walls stretched higher and higher above us and at spots the canyon was about 8 ft. wide and over a hundred feet tall. Sunlight never hit the bottom of the dark canyon, keeping the water and air temperature very cold; hence the wet suits. We rappelled down 6-7 drop offs where when there is water flowing in the canyon would have been waterfall to pool drops. In the dry summer conditions these drops were from ledge to icy, murky, pools of water. With the water so murky we couldn't predict the depth of the water so I was often the crash test dummy. We came to this decision as we needed Mark at the top to take care of the climbing ropes and Gene's only swimming stroke is the doggy paddle / sink to the bottom.



Brrrrrrrrrrrr!



Welcome to my office!

The drops ranged from 8 to 25 feet with pools at the bottom ranging from 8 inches to deeper than 6 ft. This was a truly unique adventure, not very strenuous and not super technical but a nice blend of both. At one point in the exploring, Gene found a goat foot, evidence of a flash flood victim. Gene kept the 'lucky' foot and named it Edward. ;)

Eddie

After three hours of canyoneering the canyon walls began to subside and we found ourselves an opportunity to escape back to the East Rim Trail. We swapped gear once again and made our way back down to the road.

Celebrating with a beer and tasty food, Gene and I bid farewell to Mark; he was heading back to Salt Lake City to meet his Dad early the following morning.  Gene and I went back to the friendly confines of the BLM land and spent another night under the stars; we had decided to hike Angel's Landing in the morning.

Angels Landing was breathtaking.  The first 2 miles up were grueling switchbacks; heaps of elevation were put under our boots.  Gene and I reached a ridge which stretched for another 3/4 mile to an outcropping called 'Angels Landing'.  Some rock scrambling ensured with drops of 1000 ft on one side and 1300 ft on the other.  Two weeks after our hike the forest service was closing the upper portion of this hike to make it safer.  I highly recommend this hike, especially for those who are not afraid of heights.  At the end of the hike you make it to a nice place to have a small lunch and get amazing views up and down Zion.  If I were an Angel, this is indeed where I would choose to land in Zion.

An afternoon in the Cesar's Sports Book in Las Vegas split up our drive back home.  Another good adventure in the books.



View from Angels Landing



Wow

 

Ridiculous Views