Wild, Wonderful Whites of the West: Moab, UT

Moab, UT - July 24 - 31

Portal RV Resort, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park

WOW! We have done so much in Moab!! Moab is such a great town with so many things to offer with basically two National Parks, extreme sports, great weather, great people, and SO much more! We arrived in Moab on July 24 after leaving Ruby's Inn with a sparkling clean Newell that Dad washed in the RV/Bus washing bay for less than $20 - a great deal. The drive was beautiful across southern Utah but not without a few surprises. When we were leaving Bryce we went through a few small towns that were clearly preparing for parades which we narrowly missed - thankfully. Can't imagine what it would have been like to try to get around a small town parade. It wasn't a weekend, but the mystery was soon solved when we stopped in the Newell at the Wal-Mart to do some shopping. We were wished a Happy Holiday as we checked out with our groceries and then with a little Wikipedia research, learned it was Pioneer Day. Pioneer Day celebrates the day Brighon Young himself appeared in the present day Utah area. Dad and I celebrated by crossing Utah in our very own covered wagon, the Newell! Sometimes, I think it is very important to try to understand what coming into this land would have been like in a real covered wagon - what a totally different time and life. How lucky are we to live in a time where we can travel hundreds of miles a day, with cool air, and no horses?

Steep grades but beautiful views of southern Utah

At the bottom of the grade in between the rocks.

More landscape. Also, NO road services and NO cell service.

We have been really lucky with having no accidents (knock on wood) and no break downs (knock on wood), but on this leg of the trip is where NOT to have any problems. No services of any kind and that includes cell. We did see a single car accident (it flipped over) and there were two police cars there. It was hard to tell how the call got out or how the police were notified, We checked on the GPS and the closest Police Station was 86 miles away as the crow flies, so much farther by driving. Very lucky to have such a safe trip so far!!

We arrived in Moab, UT in the mid afternoon, and I made a huge mistake on navigating and became disoriented while looking at the iPad upside down. That meant we missed our turn into Portal RV Resort. So we had to pull over and look at the iPad (still upside down - I just learned how to lock it...embarassing) and find roads to turn around on. We had to drive through town and luckily had both a light and an extra turn lane along the way to make it safely into Portal. Portal RV is such a great place! We are in the South Side which is the owner side and have access to the beautiful pool, modern bathhouse with fancy sinks, and a great view of the portal itself which is at the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.

Dad quickly found me a great place to work out at the Moab Recreation and Aquatic Center. I have taken a few classes (two at 6am!!!) and worked out with their state of the art equipment. It's so fancy that I could be writing the blog from the treadmill as you read. I'm not, but I could have!! What an amazing facility for me to spend some time at since it's been a while we have stayed somewhere with a fitness facility! I was also able to ride my bike there on the bike trail, but Dad did have to come pick me up...oh well. Better safe than in the local hospital.

Newell and Jeep on lot M22 next to the beautiful casita

Our outside space on the lots with the pergola.

The Portal Pool from our friend Dee's casita at night!!!

View of the Portal

The sun is hitting the rock absolutely perfectly and with the dark clouds in the sky - love it!!!

As I previously mentioned, Arches National Park is just down the road and after my early morning work out class (which, by the way, I was sore for two days!) we headed over to Arches. Arches National Park has a beautiful visitor center with a great informational video about how the arches and canyonlands were formed by water (the Green and Colorado Rivers) which seems to be so scarce out here in the desert. Moab lies on a fault line that is 300 million years old. It is truly amazing to see how nature made this landscape. Who knows what it will look like in another 300 million years??

The maps warned us that parking would be a problem but since we were there so early it wasn't; however there really wasn't that much parking at the different view points. We saw a lot of arches including the Delicate Arch (which is the most famous one) and then took the Jeep on some off roads. Pictures tell all....

Entrance to Arches National Park

An arch - so cool to see these.

The bluffs where we took the Jeep on the sand roads in Arches National Park

Jeep on the back roads in Arches

More vistas from Arches National Park

The Delicate Arch

More arches

Balanced Rock - what a perfect name and description

More Arches National Park

The sign on the road where we took the Jeep - at this point we were very excited!

This is the balanced rock part the sign warned us about and where we turned around. Little did we know where we would be driving later in the week!!

About 30 miles from Moab is the Canyonlands National Park that has only been a park since the early 1960s. Because it isn't as well known as the rest of the parks in the National Park system, it was not as crowded, but it is remarkably beautiful! We went on a surprise mile and a half hike where I got a little sun! Again...more pictures!!

Entrance to Canyonlands

Canyon in Canyonlands - I think this looks like a chicken footprint

More canyons and you can see the see the dirt roads for Jeeping

I found a place to nap

At the top of our hike at Upheaval rock - a very sharp drop off. I did not like that at all!

Upheaval rock. This rock had a green-ish hue and is clearly different than the surroundings area and looks like it pushed through the land! So cool!

We were originally only planning to stay 4 nights in Moba, but have (so far) added 3 more! I've been able to go to more classes at Moab Recreation and ride bikes on the amazing bike path that goes on for miles and miles. Also, how could we miss this sunset??