Moab and Arches National Park.
We said goodbye to delightful Durango, and headed north-west toward Moab, about 3 hours away, a mere 160 miles.
As we cross the state line into Utah, the state sign brought back memories of when I first arrived at the Utah state line, in 1976 on my motorcycle (a Honda 500). I recall stopping at the sign, sort of in awe that I, from Finchley, London, had actually reached Utah. Had to take a picture of the sign today!
Coming into southern Utah, the scenery along the highway is flat and uninteresting, but as we move further northwest things change, and mountains, mesas and bluffs start to appear, and as we get more central, toward Moab, where we’re heading, the scenery along the highway becomes more and more dynamic.
We arrived in Moab, a small town of about 5,500 people, around 1:30, a town it seems geared almost entirely for the outdoors, as it really is the gateway to the fabulous Arches National Park, as well as Canyonlands National Park, about 30 miles south-west of Moab.
I’ve been to Moab perhaps four times before, and was in Utah with Bev in 2014. We didn’t visit Moab and Arches on that trip, but instead visited Zion, further south and to the west. But this trip, Kaye and I visited Arches as Kaye was here when she moved across country in 2009, and wanted to re-visit. I plan to visit Zion when I get back this way in a few weeks, and release some more of Bev’s ashes then. Just in case, as a “proxy,” I released some of Bev’s ashes today, into a gentle breeze at Arches.
Everything about Arches is fabulous. Its scenery is magnificent and sprawling, ranging from desolate plains, to mountains and giant boulders and cliffs rising from the desert, and, of course, natural arches. The landscape is vast, with different kinds of rock formations, rock structures, and mineral deposits, as well as areas of vast and desolate prairie land. It’s difficult to select just a few photos to add here, as every picture is worth posting. Even the drive in and around the park is great, even if you never get out of the car.
It was hot, very hot, hovering around 100 degrees and at times a little hotter. We took several short-ish hikes, probably adding up to just a couple of miles, but Kaye found the heat very oppressive, and so we were careful to drink water and ultimately didn’t hike as much as we might on a cooler day. Kaye’s porcelain-like skin color doesn’t like the sun even on cooler days, and at some point we stopped hiking and drove around the park instead, spending about 4 hours there in total.
We headed into town and walked around some, before having dinner. Moab is mostly the main street, and not especially big, but has nevertheless grown since I was last here, with more stores and eateries adorning the main street, and more recently constructed and nice looking hotels and apartments.
It was busy on this Friday night, and I guess is that way throughout the busy recreational seasons; you have to have a timed reservation to enter Arches during the summer (which we did), as it is so busy with visitors. But the town is far less busy during the off-season, as our hotel manager told us (who lived for several years in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 90 minutes from Amherst).
To bed now, and Kaye is already fast asleep, I think pretty fatigued, and maybe not feeling so good, from the heat, which she finds oppressive. I kind of like the heat, as it is pretty dry and bearable, but I am also feeling pretty tired from the day.
Tomorrow, we have a long journey to Great Basin National Park in Baker, Nevada, and I hope we’ll stop in Sevier, Utah on the way, where Bev and I visited in May, 2014.
