WITH APOLOGIES TO PAUL HARVEY – MOAB: PAGE 2!

June, 2019

You’d think that having hiked a good 30 miles or so during the last week while we were visiting Canyonlands’ Island in the Sky and Needles and Arches National Parks that we’d want to rest our weary bones a bit.  Nah…too much to see and do.

Next on the Barbara and Brian hit parade belonged to Moab Adventure Center…yup-a 14 mile, all-day whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River, lunch included.  We were picked up at our campground, driven to the company’s depot, checked-in and fitted with our life vests; herded onto an old school bus, driven about 25 miles out of town to Hittlebottom Launch, assigned to our raft and our lives given over to our, maybe 24-year-old-winter-snowboarder guide, Josh.  We boarded and pushed off onto the river.  Wouldn’t you know that these 2 Jews ended up on a raft with another member of the tribe, his Jew-by-choice-raised Mormon wife and their 2 children, a young woman from the Netherlands, and a mother and daughter celebrating their 70th and 30th birthdays on a trip of a lifetime.

Every whitewater rafting trip starts out with a safety lecture, introductions to your raft mates, a quick lesson and practice paddling as a team, and a smooth river.  There are a couple of rapids to run that are generously rated perhaps class 1.  Josh was fantastic as a guide, quickly engaged everyone – kids included – told us tales of the river and the people that live along its shore, past and present.  He had us all telling stories and swapping lies within a short period of time!  Along our river journey we were invited to slide over the side of the raft and, within an arm’s length, drift along with the Colorado’s currents.  One of our raftmates lost his cell phone to the god of the river…his sacrifice afforded  protection for the rest of us!

We ran a couple of class 2 rapids, which, as it turned out, gave us just enough practice for the class 3 rapids we worked through just before lunch, and for the monster class 3+ (maybe 4?) rapids waiting for us just after the great meal we were served.  For the rest of the trip, the Colorado was flowing smoothly.

Fantastic time…if you’re in the neighborhood we highly recommend taking the journey.

The Jeep needed some easy (read: inexpensive) dealer-type maintenance work, and the closest dealership to Moab is in Grand Junction, Colorado.  We made an early a.m. appointment and decided to make the most of our time there.  Once the car was finished, we picked up a few things at Walmart, and headed out for a late breakfast at a local joint. Our waitress overheard our conversation of hitting up the local Good Will and recommended we visit their downtown to shop at a hospice 2nd-hand store instead (Brian scored 3 pairs of shorts, Barbara 3 tops and a pair of pants).  The downtown is quaint and busy – lots of shoppers and families in the streets, traffic well controlled, outdoor seating for many of the restaurants, a few bars and night clubs; there were venues for live theater and music, and wonderful sculptures lining the streets.  What a great find!

Taking Highway 191 about 10 miles south of our campground, we suddenly came upon Wilson Arch.  The Arch was named after the 1st superintendent of Arches NP.  We had to stop and hike up to the arch in order to take a look through and see what was on the other side.  Well, it’s just a few hundred feet drop off!

So why were we heading south from our campground on Highway 191?  We had heard that Monument Valley Tribal Park, Mexican Hat, and Valley of the Gods State Park were not to be missed.

Monument Valley Tribal Park is a land of sandstone buttes, plateaus, mesas and spires that tower to heights of 400 to 1,000 feet above the desert floor and below the ever-glorious expanse of the bluest skies in Southeast Utah.  The Park is entirely within the lands of the Navajo Nation, and only through their generosity could we tour and appreciate its natural beauty.  Monument Valley has been and is still a popular site for filming western movies; the director and producer John Ford so loved Monument Valley that many of his best-loved western movies were filmed on-site.

The name “Mexican Hat” comes from a curiously sombrero-shaped rock outcropping on the northeast edge of a census designated place with a population of 31.  The rock measures 60-feet wide by 12-feet tall, and it has two rock climbing routes ascending it.

The hillsides on the road between Monument Valley Tribal Park and Valley of the Gods State Park are magnificent.

Valley of the Gods State Park is a scenic sandstone valley near Mexican Hat in San Juan County, southeastern Utah, and has rock formations similar to those in Monument Valley with tall, reddish brown mesas, buttes, towers and mushroom rock – remnants of an ancient landscape.

The La Sal or Salt Mountains stand ever at sentry watching over Moab from its eastern horizon.  Driving here and there we kept seeing signs for the La Sal Mountain Loop, and we wondered just what we’d experience if we took the drive.  Well, the Loop provided a pretty spectacular vista, some curious insect activity, and a free range cow as the local representative to bid us farewell to all Moab has to offer!

Our time in and around Moab ended with a smile for what we have seen and excitement for what we’ll see and do in North Salt Lake and Idaho Falls on our way to our second trip to Yellowstone National Park.  If we haven’t conveyed it clearly enough in earlier blog posts, Arches National Park is frankly unbelievable and has earned its place in our top 5 stops along this journey started so long ago.

Barbara and Brian