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Published: April 23rd 2011
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Route 72
Fish Lake (I think) Grand Circle Torrey to Moab and Arches NP We left Torrey with heavy stomachs – all that pie! We went west slightly and then north before heading east to Moab. Which ever way we went we were guaranteed stunning scenery, but that way was meant to be the most scenic.
We drove up Route 72 through Fish Lake Forest – it was so-so. At any other time, in any other place it would have been stunning. But this was Utah, and our standards for scenery were now high. Ironically our standards for our diets had hit new lows, but we were on holiday, it’s rude not to over-indulge.
I drove to the Interstate so Ursula could get to see the scenery, and we swapped over before the entrance to the Interstate so she could get used to driving onto them. Looking back we never had any problems joining interstates, but leaving them is still tricky – I blame it on the poor road signs – it can’t be me can it?
Interstate 70 has to be one of the most picturesque motorways. It even has conveniently positioned vistas to stop and admire, probably cuts down on accidents
too. We stopped and admired frequently, it was getting quite nippy and we were about 9,000 feet above sea-level, so it was very much jump out of the car, snap and go. We decided to take a small detour to Green River as it was in my guide book. My guide book author must have been on drugs the day he added that town – it was rundown, closed down and shabby. We left and rejoined the fabulously scenic interstate.
Our planned stopover was Moab, for us to visit Arches, Canyonlands and Dead Horsepoint. The weather was turning cold, so we were hoping it wouldn’t ruin the scenery. We had selected a motel, so we could check in anytime, therefore we visited Arches National Park first.
Arches winds up from the main road, towering high above the Colorado River. The basin that forms the entire canyon region was once inland seas. Thousands of feet of salt beds initially lay underneath layers of other rock. However over time the salt rose through the red rock, forming the arches and domes of this area. The arches were once huge rocks, these eroded and fell, leaving thinner slabs, the underneath of which
is gradually whittled away. The erosion continues, particularly landscape arch which lost a huge chunk a few years ago – so go and see it all whilst it is still there.
We started off on Park Avenue – although there was no shopping to be done, there were some spectacular red rocks, no arches yet though. This has a 1 mile one way trail – one way, it was cold, that would make it two miles. Needless to say, we didn’t do it. We drove on taking in stunning views of the La Sal mountains and Balanced Rock – a hoodoo which has eroded in such a way the top seems to balance on the tower of rock beneath it.
For views of Delicate Arch, one of the most famous arches in the park we could either take a short trail and view from a distance or walk right up to it (I think it doesn’t look that delicate, and it actually looks like a pair of cowboy’s trousers to me). The walk wasn’t that strenuous, so in the normal way even we would have attempted it, however it was mostly along slick rock – and it was
starting to rain. With visions of us falling over every 10 steps, we plumped for distant views, still stunning. A young child put us to shame by repeatedly running up and down the hill we were panting up. We were both quietly pleased when the little bugger fell over and started yelling. Yes, that’s us, mean old women.
The clouds looked thunderous, so we decided to find our motel and check out Moab. Moab reminded me of a European winter sports town, which is probably because it is an American winter sports town. It was all cafes, gift shops and ski hire and sporty, outdoorsy activities. We were like fish out of very warm water. As Ursula said, you just knew everyone who stayed there drank Pepsi Max. We drank wine. We checked in to our motel, which had brown stripey bedding on the beds – I wasn’t overkeen on that. I like white so I can check it is clean, after the first 2 days I forgot to check instantly for bed bugs, but every now and again I would have a quick check.
We thought that rain would ruin another trip to Arches that day, so
we decided to go to a vineyard. It was gone five, and there was only one advertised as open. Off we drove to find it. We found it. We found it closed. We called them, in case they were inside cowering beneath the sofa. If they were, they also weren’t answering the phone. Clearly their wine was not for us, so we turned our attention to something equally exciting, laundry. Actually the laundry was quite entertaining, we took photos of each other doing the laundry, used the trolleys, and best of all – visited the supermarket across the road. Later on we went to the State Liquor store – which was really entertaining. We bought three bottles of wine and a bottle of gin.
Once our clothes were clean and we had purchased lemon and tonic to complement the gin we thought about dinner. We walked into Moab and went to Pizza, Pasta and Patio being the nearest restaurant to our motel. We ordered pasta. We could have done better ourselves with a microwave and a jar of supermarket pasta sauce, in fact I suspect that is what we actually got. It was vile and overpriced. I ate quite
89 San Rafael Reef
Just another stunning view from Interstate 70. a bit of mine all the same. Afterwards we both wished we had ordered the patio … it couldn’t have tasted worse.
We toddled back to our room and consoled ourselves with wine, hoping the weather would improve, or we were going to miss out on Canyonlands.
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