Moab II

We have a lot of favorite places in Utah. However, when we realized that we had limited time in Utah left it wasn't too hard to choose Moab as one of our last Utah destinations before heading out to Memphis. We made a camping reservation at our go to place, the OK RV resort and made plans for a three day trip right after graduation. It turns out that we went during a perfect time; there had just been a strong rainstorm a couple days leading up and the weather was perfect in the 70's while there. 

The first day was spent in Arches where we hiked the Devils Garden. We were much better prepared with plenty of sun screen this time and it was great weather. We hiked out to Double-O arch and back and played around for a bit before heading back to camp. 

 Landscape Arch

 Devils Garden

 Back side of Double-O

Hot showers + grill + brats + Doritos = glamping

It was just as fun as the first time but in all honesty it was hard not to get excited about the next days activity. 

Andrea has been wanting to go mountain biking with me for a long time and we were finally able to go together on the second day. I had recently sold my mountain bike but we rented some from Chile Pepper Bikes on our second day. We arrived at 8 am and were fitted to their cheapest "standard" bike which was probably worth more than my car or my life for that matter. There were features on the bike I didn't even know existed but it made for one of the best rides I've been on.

With only 8 hours of rental time we took off to slickrock with intentions of doing the practice loop once or twice to get Andrea accustomed to things. It can be a bit intimidating riding on pure rock (it's not the most comfortable crash pad) but Andrea picked it up quickly during the second loop. I was a bit rusty myself but it became clear very quickly that the we could trust our bikes to handle even the trickiest of descents. Andrea was hooked and we finished our third loop in about 15 to 20 minutes. 

We loaded up the bikes again and started out toward the Bar M trail system north of Moab. This is my favorite area to bike because whether you are a beginner or advanced mountain biker there are trails galore to ride on. We picked out a nice 10 mile loop that went over all sorts of terrain and it made for a great day of biking. A few good memories include: suicidal lizards, a bee flying into Andrea's shirt, and flying over my handlebars into a bush. It was perfect weather and beautiful southern Utah scenery all day. We were exhausted by the time 4 oclock rolled around but it was a blast.

Trailhead at BarM

The third day we went back into Arches and spent the day in the Fiery Furnace which is a permit only portion of the park. There are no trails, tall cliff walls, narrow canyons and few visitors which makes it difficult to navigate but a must visit. We worked our way to the top of one of the tallest spines to look over the whole furnace. It was difficult getting up and terrifying looking over the cliff edge but it was a great view. Getting back down and out to the car was a whole adventure in itself but after scaling down a few walls, scrambling over boulders, and squeezing through tunnels and canyons we made it back.

We both agree that Moab was a good choice as one of our last activities in Utah and we know we will be back in years to come.