Fun on Slickrock!

We arrived in Moab on Monday evening and had a delightful dinner at a great Mexican restaurant here in town. Tuesday morning we rented two Jeep Wrangler Rubicons and headed out into the wilderness. We went on a six-hour adventure that had us climbing cliff walls, descending narrow canyons, and clenching tightly. A good time was had by all, but I must admit it was a lot rougher than I thought it would be. Having done trails over slickrock and similar terrain on my bike, I had an idea that the jeep would be quicker and smoother, but the opposite was actually true. Spots that I would/could have gone 15-20 mph on the bike we had to go 5-10.

Last night I went for a great ride at the Slickrock Trail, on their “practice loop”. It’s the same quality of riding, but it’s 2 ½ miles instead of 12. It’s what everybody (who’s smart) rides as the sun is getting lower in the sky. I had the most spectacular crash I’ve had in a while… there was a ledge, only about a foot, onto some sand. There’s lots of sand on the trail, and I thought it would be the same, and as long as I hit it flat I’d be fine. But the sand was a foot deep, so my front tire sank in, I went over the handlebars, and my bike came over the top of me and hit me in the back of the head. Ouch.

This morning we got up and went for a hike in Arches National Park up to Landscape, Partition, and Navajo Arches. It was great fun, and the most exciting part of the trail was climbing a steep slickrock fin that was maybe 200 feet long and only about 12 wide at its widest point. Landscsape Arch is cool because it’s so delicate (even more delicate than the much more famous Delicate Arch) and thin… more than 300 feet long, less than 11 feet thick at its thinnest point. In 1991, people were just hanging out, enjoying the scenery, chillaxin’, when there was a loud popping and cracking overhead… 60 tons of the arch came crashing down as everybody ran for their lives! Now, it’s off-limits and you have to see the arch from afar. Partition Arch is cool because you have an amazing view into the valley below, and Navajo is the awesomest of all… it’s a slot canyon with the arch as its gateway.

Unfortunately, when we got back from the hike I took the ol’ Denali in to see why the brakes were making noise (which started less than 36 hours after we dropped $2,000 to fix the last noise), and we not only are out another $500, we lost the car for the rest of today. So there’s no more driving to an evening hike or bike trail. Instead, we’re enjoying Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was filmed here in Arches. And is just a fantastic movie.

Tomorrow we depart for Grand Lake, Colorado, and a couple days on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park.