Canadian mport: Moab, Arches and Canyonlands

After our early morning start in Monument Valley, we drove to Moab and had a much needed relaxing afternoon. We were staying at a Koa campground, so we made the most of the swimming pool. After a swim, a very lazy sleep/read next to the pool, and then a nap in the van, we headed to Arches National Park.

We drove round all the scenic drives, did a short hike to Double Arch, and ummed and ahhed about whether we could be bothered doing the reasonably long hike to Delicate Arch for sunset, which is one that I had seen dozens of photos of. By the time we finally made up our minds, we headed off a bit too late and nearly missed the sunset anyway!

It was quite a cloudy evening, and the sun came out for a few minutes while we were on our way and set the whole area glowing red (but of course we had no view of Delicate Arch at that point!). By the time we actually arrived there the sun had had enough for the day and wasn`t interested in any more glimpses between the clouds! It was still worth it though, it`s a great spot.

On Friday morning Justin had been toying with the idea of catching an early morning shuttle to the top of the Porcupine Rim Trail, which is a pretty famous and very hardcore 24km slickrock bike ride. When he woke up in the morning to find it bucketing down with rain it sounded like a pretty good excuse for a sleep in! So we had a lazy morning, and then Justin headed off to ride the also famous Slickrock Trail, which is a bit shorter but also pretty intense. On a 35 degree or so day, he had a pretty sweltering but fun ride!

Meanwhile I drove around Canyonlands National Park, which I was a bit underwhelmed by. A few weeks earlier I probably would have found it really spectacular, but we were pretty seasoned national parkers by this point and it took a lot to impress us! We only saw the Island in the Sky section, which is pretty much just that, a big mesa with very sheer sides that drops away into a huge canyon. It really is quite impressive, but if you are going to go there do it before the Grand Canyon!

We drove back to our campsite at Moab for a shower (the national park campsites rarely have showers, and after Justin biking for several hours he wasn’t too keen to go a few more days without one!), and saw the most incredible wind and dust storm there! There were a bunch of boy scouts camping there, and within a few minutes only one of their tents was left standing! We were quite glad we had a van and not a tent!!

We stayed the night in Canyonlands National Park, and did an early morning walk to see the sunrise at Mesa Arch, which was another spot I had seen dozens of photos of. It is a pretty famous sunrise spot, so in spite of it being a hike to get there (although a pretty short one) there were quite a few other people. Generally most places that require walking at that time of the morning are fairly deserted! It was definitely worth the effort though, there is a reason it is pretty famous for sunrise photos!