Blogs from Moab, Utah, United States, North America - page 2

This old state park got its name from an old ranching incident. A rancher fenced off what now is the state park for his horses. All his horses perished from lack of water; while they could look down the steep cliffs to the Colorado River. I crossed the Colorado River on US Hwy 191 and passed the facility built on a very bad superfund site. Arches had a line of cars waiting an hour or two to get in and I been there many times as it is a wonderful place...but not today. At the red rocks formation on the West side included the very unique Moab fault leading directly to the volcanic La Sal Mts. The East side of the fault had dropped down over 1500 feet (much still underground) compared to the West side ... read more

Hmmm? I’m not sure if the Aliens are calling me Fresh? Or Jerky? ??... read more

On our last weekend in Moab and feeling fit we elected to attempt an epic ride; the Jug Handle - Shafer trail loop. This 62km loop ascends 990m from the Colorado river to the Island in the Sky and back down Long Canyon to the river. We started at the boat launch into the Colorado river on Potash road and wound our way past the potash evaporation ponds, that we had spied from the East Rim hike in Dead Horse Point park at the beginning of our vacation, gently climbing the gravel road past Thelma and Louise point to the entrance of Canyonlands National Park. At the beginning of our vacation, we watched in awe from the visitors center as vehicles wound there way up the Shafer trail switchbacks to reach the top of the canyon, ... read more

Whilst waiting for bike parts from the UK, which are scheduled to be delivered today, we have filled the days with some spectacular hikes around Moab. Yesterday we arrived at the parking lot for the Amasa Back trail and were treated to a display of Base Jumping, a very popular sport along the shear cliffs of the Colorado river canyon. We watched in awe as, one after the other, they launched themselves off the cliff for a 30 second flight into the valley. "It takes about one hour to hike to the jumping site" explained a young man packing his chute after his jump. The cliff-hanger hike took us past Jackson Hole (Not), a butte surrounded by an abandoned meander, and I discovered how to take panoramas with my phone. The return trip to the parking ... read more

After 7 months of living in a real home, like normal people, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, we're once again at the start of a new adventure. This time we've swapped out the touring bikes for a truck camper named 'Tortuga' (Spanish for 'tortoise'). We wanted this to be an open-ended trip, which means bringing along our adorable buffoon of a dog, Goldie - I think any cyclist would agree that cycle touring with an 11-year-old, 65-pound mutt wouldn't be a particularly gratifying experience. So although we are still travelling with a total of four wheels, we also have the welcome advantage of a 5.4L V8 engine (Ken insisted I include that geeky spec reference!). Our set-up for this trip is a 2005 Northstar pop-up truck camper (TC650), aka 'Tortuga', mounted on a 2003 Ford F150 pickup ... read more