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While at Hovenweep, we came to the conclusion that there is a tough balance when traveling, particularly in the Southwest. There is so much to see and the distances are so great that, if you are not careful, you’ll wear yourself out just driving! It became apparent that our original goal, Lake Powell, is a bit too far for the time we have left. Plus, it’s cold! Did I mention that?
So we decided to focus on an area of Canyonlands. And I say “an area” because Canyonlands is vast, almost 340,000 acres, not even counting the surrounding public lands. And if you really want to explore it all, you’ll need some pretty serious off-road equipment. There are four “districts,” The Maze, The Needles, Island in the Sky, and the combined riverways of the Green and Colorado rivers. We chose Island in the Sky because it had the most access (many of the roads are currently impassable in the other areas due to snow melt), and the town of Moab was nearby.
We meandered through the BLM’s Canyons of the Ancients and the cowboy town of Pleasantview before arriving in Moab for dinner. Moab is an “outdoor recreation Mecca.” A place at the confluence of a wide-range of possible activities. Places like this that come to mind are the “NOC” back east (the Nantahala Outdoor Center), Ohiopyle, PA on the Youghiogheny River (the “Yo”), or maybe Gatlinburg near the Smokies, or Estes Park in the Rockies. Not many permanent locals but a whole lot of people coming through and a whole lot going on. Moab is close to Canyonlands, right next door to Arches National Park and has mountain biking, hiking, UTV off-road, horse ranches, flat-water paddling, expedition paddling, canyon tours… you name it! In talking with a local restaurant owner, I think it is struggling a bit with managing all this, the city is stopping new development for now and is considering banning UTV on-road use in town. I think this is wise, it’s too easy to let big developers and the chains overload the infrastructure and lose the feel of it.
Anyway, after an enjoyable dinner at The Public House, we drove the forty-five minutes to Island in the Sky. Patricia’s Park Pass got us in for free, and the visitor center thought the one campground would have space available.
So we arrived at the camp area around 4:30pm only to find it full! Yikes! We backtracked to Horsethief campground on the BLM land just before the park entrance. Plenty of spots and bathrooms. Since we knew we could stay there we decided to check out a smaller, but more scenic camp spot called Cowboy Camp. Absolutely beautiful views and they certainly had a scenic facility:
So we had options! Wait, did I mention it was cold? And that the wind was howling? And it was getting dark? At 5:30pm the temperature was already below 30 degrees, with the wind it had to be well down in the teens. The problem is that while we could weather the cold, it’s just not enjoyable to set up a tent, camp in the wind and then try and jump up in the morning to get out and hike or whatever. You end up eating up a lot of time and precious daylight just getting ready. So we decided to go back to Moab and stay a few days at the Springhill Suites on the edge of town.
This turned out to be a good move, it was on the Canyonland side of town, and it provided a great way to ‘basecamp’ for daily adventures especially since the nighttime temps and wind never improved.
| Road Trip Note: So far the best new feature on the truck has been the dual climate control! Where have you been all my life?! Patricia can crank the temperature down, I can crank it up, and never the twain shall meet! |
The Neck
The visitor center had great handouts that listed a bunch of trails and ranked them by difficulty and distance. Patricia picked out a nice 6-mile trail called “The Neck” and we had a beautiful morning hike. It was a bit chilly until we dropped off the rim and got out of the wind, but after that things warmed up nicely.
And the Evidence Just Keeps Rolling In….
