Rockies Caravan - Part 4 - Moab - STR-2021-30

Thursday, 26 August

Today's itinerary was repositioning to Moab, UT, with a dinner and boat cruise in the evening. As with other travel days, we used it as an opportunity to play golf. We picked Hideout Golf Course, a municipal golf course in Monticello, UT. It was along the route to Moab, and the first tee time of the day, 8am, was available. While we had to hit the road before sunrise, we expected to finish before noon, allowing time for other enroute adventuring.

We rolled out about 6am, and enjoyed distant thunderstorm lightning shows as we made our way to Monticello. We started early, and both started with near perfect tee shots, which we were not able to convert to pars. We played well, staying close until Darrell made back-to-back birdies to take the lead.

Darrell's back nine was erratic, while Kris played consistently. She took the lead by the 12th hole, and just kept racking up strokes to take the day.

As we were finishing, some thunderstorm cells passed nearby - we got some light rain, but we hustled to finish before we got drenched.

The course was a challenging layout, but still fun despite some greens that were in poor shape. We would play it again.

Finishing by 11am allowed plenty of time to visit the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands National Park is made up of three districts - the Island in the Sky district near Moab is probably the best known. The Needles District gets its name from the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that jut up from the ground. This is a more remote area of the park and is much less visited than Island in the Sky. We knew ahead of time that most of the hiking trails in the Needles District were 8+ miles in length and rated strenuous, which did not interest us.

One of the more interesting aspects of the drive to the Needles District was driving in the canyons on UT 211. At Islands in the Sky, you drive on the mesa top, and look down in the canyon. On IT 211, you drive in the canyon and look up at the mesa tops.

After getting the park brochure and map, we headed for Big Spruce Canyon Overlook.

We hiked part of the Slickrock Trail as we did not want to do the entire 2.5 mile loop. We enjoyed crystal clear skies, so we could see the Islands in the Sky District, Dead Horse Point State Park, and La Sal mountains. We could even see where we turned around on the UTV trip last month.

The visit to the Needles District was interesting - not as awe inspiring as others, but we were glad to add that experience.

As we continued north toward, we stopped at Jail Rock. The legend is a cowboy lowered his wife into the hole in the rock so he could go out partying. And forgot to come back. A fascinating rock feature.

We were glad we missed the last turn for the short spur to the south side of the rock - it required a high clearance vehicle - Sprinty likely would have high centered.

To climb up to the hole required walking up the less steep (still pretty steep) southwest slope.

About half way to the top is a large hole. With the shape of the walls in the hole, it would be likely be impossible to climb out without rope of ladder.

A most interesting stop. We learned about it from some YouTubers, but actually visiting it, walking up the slope, and peering into the hole just makes the memory.

We continued north to Moab, UT, to our campground for the night. The caravan is staying at Portal RV Resort, the same RV park Sprinty stayed at last month. A very nice RV park.

Today's travel day also included an evening event. A Dutch Oven Dinner and the Canyonlands by Night Boat Cruise and Light Show. While at dinner, several thunderstorms rolled through and provided quite a light show. Photos were taken by some of the caravan folks.

Unfortunately, nature's light show caused the boat cruise to be cancelled. The right call. Also unfortunately, the boat cruise was fully booked for the remaining nights in Moab, so it could not be rescheduled. Just another reason to visit Moab again one day.

The cancellation may have been an unexpected blessing as we planned a super early start tomorrow.

Friday, 27 August

Today's start was the earliest of the trip. Darrell (VH) had this crazy idea to drive the the far end of Arches National Park to watch the sunrise from Devil's Garden Campground. He remembered the amazing stay in the campground back on 28 February 2017, less than a week after Sprinty's adoption became final in Boise, ID.

Brenda and Darrell (H) thought it was interesting, so we collaborated on a plan for the four of us to drive Sprinty into the park at 5:30am, watch the sunrise at 6:43am, then make breakfast in Sprinty. Darrell (VH) volunteered to make lattes, Brenda volunteered to cook eggs and sausage, and Kris made toast.

Sprinty left the comfort of the RV park in the dark. As he made his way to the far end of the park (18 miles from the park entrance), he was accompanied by dozens of other folks on their way to watch the sunrise.

After getting Sprinty settled by the campground road, we quietly made our way into the campground in search of a good view point. With clear skies, sunrise looked to be magnificent.

While on the ridge watching the sunrise, we also enjoyed watching the sunlight start to paint the rocks behind us. From the ridge, we could see a Skyline Arch behind the campground. It warranted a closer look.

We repositioned Sprinty to a nearby picnic area. The four of us enjoyed lattes as we continued to watch the early morning sun paint the rocks.

After breakfast, we made our way to the Delicate Arch trailhead. As expected, people were leaving from having hiked up to Delicate Arch to watch the sunrise. While we briefly considered watching sunrise from there, no one wanted to hike the 1.6 miles in the dark.

People come from all over the world to visit Arches National Park, and visiting Delicate Arch is on the top of many visitors' to-do lists. In a park with over 2,000 stone arches, this particular free-standing arch has become a widely recognized symbol of the state of Utah and one of the most famous geologic features in the world.

The park trail information describes the trail as a "difficult" 3-mile round trip hike involving open slickrock with no shade. The first half mile is a well defined trail. The trail climbs steadily and levels out toward the top of the rock face. Just before you get to Delicate Arch, the trail traverses a narrow rock ledge for about 200 yards. The description of the ledge was enough for Kris to enjoy reading her book in Sprinty while the three of us did the hike.

The 3.2 mile round trip hike also involved over 600 feet of elevation gain. As the hike is very popular, it was easy to follow the trail. Not only was it well marked, but the number of people on the trail resembled a column of ants going up the slickrock slopes.

The trail did have a couple of ledges to traverse - nothing too intimidating.

Before getting to Delicate Arch, we visited an unnamed arch above the trail.

The final "path" to Delicate Arch required traversing the rim above a large, deep hole in the rock.

The light opening beneath the arch is 46 feet high and 32 feet wide, making it the largest free-standing arch in the park. It has had more than a few names in its history, from the colorful ("Cowboy's Chaps", "Old Maid's Bloomers") to the prosaic ("Salt Wash Arch"). The term "Delicate" first appeared in a January 1934 article about the Arches National Monument Scientific Expedition, which described it as "the most delicately chiseled arch in the entire area."

After an amazing hike, we enjoyed lunch at Panaroma Point Viewing Area.

After our early start and full morning, we headed for town for Darrell (H) to make the final arrangements for the 20+ caravan folks who were going to do the UTV tour like we did last month.

The caravan organizers put in a dinner with entertainment, an added event from the original itinerary.

Saturday, 28 August

Our original plan for this morning was a 7am visit to the Doughbird, the donut shop in Moab where we got the Salted Caramel Cronuts last month. Our tastebuds had been watering for a week. We learned yesterday, the shop was closed for the last two weeks in August. Another thing to look forward to on a future visit to Moab.

While most of our caravan mates were on the UTV tour or touring the National Parks this morning, we set off for doing some other adventuring. On the way into Moab from the south was Wilson Arch. We saw the sign as we drove past, but with the other adventuring we squeezed into Thursday, we did not stop. We learned from our caravan mates who did stop that it was a cool arch.

Wilson Arch is located about 26 miles south of Moab, and is very close to the road.

The climb up is steep slickrock.

Of course, Darrell had to climb all the way up to the Arch.

Kris hiked most of the way up. Carefully.

An awesome arch to see. As we made our way back towards Moab, we stopped in the Hole N' The Rock (https://www.theholeintherock.com/). The roadside attraction had the vibe of a roadside attraction from a bygone era before interstate highways. Albert Christianson blasted out a cave in the sandstone and opened the Hole N' The Rock Diner in 1945.

Albert and his wife Gladys expanded the diner into an amazing 14-room home which they lived in until they died. We decided to buy the ticket** for the tour.

The home includes a fireplace with a 65 foot chimney, 14 rooms arranged around huge pillars and a deep bathtub built into the rock.  The home also has the original furnishings, Albert’s paintings, Gladys’s doll collection and many of the tools used to create this home.

In a 12 year period Albert excavated 50,000 cubic feet of sandstone from the rock. During this time he completed his famous painting Sermon on the Mount and his sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the face of the rock above his home.  

When Albert died in 1957, the home was not complete. Gladys’s in keeping with his wishes & lifelong dreams continued to develop the property, opening a gift shop and giving tours of her home until she passed away in 1974. 

Fascinating to walk through the house that is unchanged since Gladys passed in 1974. It was like a time capsule.

The other items at Hole N' The Rock included various artifacts about the family and the 1950s uranium mining in the area. The welded metal bull was quite interesting.

"A Lot of Bull"

Photos and videos were not allowed in the Christianson home.  Two photos from the web site are:

To experience it, you will just have to visit it yourself.

Our original plan for the morning also included hiking the Mill Creek trail, a 1.8 mile trail rated as moderate located south of Moab. The trail description described the trail following the creek with some waterfalls and pools for swimming. As we neared the final turn to the trailhead, we saw the sign saying RVs and vehicles over 20' were prohibited. Bummer.

Back to town for Sprinty to get a much needed bath and for Kris to pay up for golf on Thursday. By now, the temperatures were in the 90s, so we retreated to the RV park to do laundry and chill in the air conditioning.

For dinner, the four of us (Darrell (VH), Kris, Brenda and the other brother Darrell) went to Red Cliffs Lodge located east of Moab for dinner.

Red Cliffs Lodge also is home of the Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage. The museum has displays of production photographs, movie posters, autographed scripts props from the many pictures filmed in the area, and sip lays about western ranching heritage. Over 120 movies, and hundreds of TV series, special and commercials have been filmed in the Moab- Monument Valley. For example, the iconic scene from Thelma and Louise (1990) where they drive off a cliff was set in Dead Horse State Park. The film that seemed to be credited with putting Moab on the film making map was John Ford's movie "Wagon Master" (1949), followed by his "Rio Grande" (1950).

We enjoyed a patio table and enjoyed the gorgeous red rock scenery overlooking the Colorado River.

If you have an inkling to adventure in Moab like Sprinty, we recommend you check out Adam and Katryn's blog titled "The Best Things to do in Moab". Their adventures in Moab earlier this year were the inspiration for many of our adventures: https://adventuresofaplusk.com/the-best-things-to-do-in-moab

**"Always buy the ticket, always take the chance, always make the memory".