Utah: Moab Weekend

10 days of roadtripping through the 5 National Parks of Utah. We’d been trying to meet up with Ashley & Steven in Moab sometime this spring, and also brainstorming where to spend the 3-day Memorial Day Weekend. A little sidetracked daydreaming on my part and one day I emailed Matt a Google Maps and said ‘I have a crazy idea, call me when you have a minute’. We turned Moab with A&S and Zion for Memorial day into 10 days, with some sweet motels along the way. Long story short we stayed in Moab the first weekend, and during the week stayed at motels and worked during the day while visiting Capitol Reef National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park in our free hours. We capped off the trip with four days in Zion National Park, and a side trip to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. We got in tons of hiking, just enough work, and some lovely time with A&S and friends. And we are very, very, thankful for our flexible jobs that let us enjoy such adventures.

Moab was beautiful. We met up with Ash & Steven, and friends Ed, Mike, Eva & Trent (from our adventure earlier this year ice climbing in Ouray, CO) and made some new friends as well. With a group of 12, we split up some. Matt & I went to Arches National Park and did the Delicate Arch hike, and the Landscape Arch hike. Both pretty chill, but not something to miss. Classic Utah. Saturday evening Matt & I went for a ‘practice ride’ on the ‘practice loop’ of the Slickrock Trail for mountain biking. I’m a terrible mountain biker and was trying to get geared up for the next day, but it turns out the Slickrock trail is one of the harder mountain biking trails out there, and the practice loop isn't easier, just shorter. I actually really enjoyed the first 2/3rds. And it was a gorgeous trail, especially around sunset. Riding on the slickrock (instead of dirt) was pretty neat, and I was gaining a lot of confidence. Until I gained too much. I took a nice little spill on the unforgiving rock, and ended up walking the rest of the way back and maintaining a bit of a limp the rest of the trip. Oh well.

Sunday after another leisurely morning at camp, Steven, Matt & Trent went mountain biking at Klondike Bluff. It looked awesome. And hard. You’ll have to ask Matt for details. I was down for the (mountain biking) count, so some of the ladies went out to Canyonlands National Park.  We did a nice easy loop  and called it a day. After a last meal and some goodbyes, we headed southwest, while everyone else made their way back east to CO. Hopefully we’ll all meet up again soon!

Campground

Climbing

Needles @ Canyonlands NP

Slickrock Trail

Random shot. Hanging around camp. 

Matt caught me in motion on the iPhone