SEP 11-18, 2020 – Moab, UT
This is a long delayed posting, finalized in early 2021, of our tour of Utah and the Big Five National Parks there. Since leaving Utah and then Arizona and New Mexico we returned to the the east cost. These posts are likely the last travel posts for a while as we decide to stay put and wait for the pandemic to end… Travel and planning has become a challenge!!! So back to Utah in September:
We turned off of I70 and headed south to Moab. As we got closer, it was like arriving on Mars! The terrain was rocky as we descended into a valley or canyon, surrounded by the red sandstone so prevalent, we learned, in southern Utah.
We spent about a week in the Moab area in order to see Needles (1 night) in the southern part of Canyonlands NP, spent one day driving around Arches NP, spent another day driving around the northern part of Canyonlands NP and two nights in Dead Horse Point State Park.
We enjoyed a walk around the town though didn’t spend much time in shops. There were lots of outfitter-type shops and 4 wheel vehicle rental shops. What we saw on the street or being towed around are street legal ATVs which have more safety gear than off road ATVs. If a ATV is not street legal it has to be towed to trail heads and not all trails are available for off road riding.
SEP 13, 2020 – Canyonlands National Park (Needles District)
Our first night out under the stars was at Needles and it was spectacular. We clearly saw Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Milky Way was a bright swath across the dark sky. I sometimes wonder if getting a telescope for night sky viewing might be a good investment. Turns out that on following nights, as well as days, we started to encounter tremendous amounts of haze. One NPS staff member suggested it was smoke from the CA fires, and possibly the Creek fire. It’s with us for the remainder of our visits in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Subsequent conversations with several NPS staff confirmed the source of the ever-present haze were the California forest fires.
SEP 15, 2020 – Arches National Park
We had a rental car to navigate around Arches which proved to be a good idea. Driving and parking the RV at the many stops we made would have really slowed us down. At nearly every stop we had to occasionally wait for a space to open up and we were glad it was just a car that we had to park.
Having the car also enabled me to take the loop drive from Moab up to the La Sal Mountains. I followed the route that started south of Moab and ended coming down along the Colorado River and into town from the north. There were cows wandering in and near the road, some turkeys and several mule deer. It wasn’t crowded at all! Again there was a lot of haze so it was hard to actually see the town. There were several motorcycles making the run as well. A very good motorcycle road!!! Though the late afternoon sun would be in your eyes if you drove the north to south route.
