Canyonlands 10/22/2012

There is not a lot to write about, but so much to see and experience. Even more spectacular to see it all from the saddle of a bike. I will let the photos do most of the "talking".

Around each bend there appeared another piece of beauty. I was beginning to think I might not get to our planned lunch at the visitor's center before dark if I kept stopping to take photos. The ones I am including here are just a few of the many I took. Hard to choose.




 

 

 

A few of the folks in the group...

Our leaders - Gary, Dan, Kirk

Tim who is back on his beloved bike and still recovering from an accident he had five years ago.

Daisy who has built her own house in New Mexico and does ceramic art

Everyone at the end of today's route

Back to more scenery...

 

Wooden Shoe Arch

 

Newspaper Rock

 

 

Me at the end of our day

Once I had my picture taken here, many others wanted one too, and since we are all riding similar bikes, they kept mine there for their prop so not to have to wheel out their own.

Sheila and Judyth exchanging places with my bike

And the crow watches our antics

 

Now I am nicely tired and ready for bed -- need to rest up for another full and fun day tomorrow.

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Moab walking and biking 10/21/2012

Our group would not meet until the afternoon, so I filled the late morning with a walk around town. Moab is not a cute or quaint or pretty town. It is basically a town on a highway (Rte. 191) known as Main Street, lined with shops, motels and restaurants. It is not situated where there is a view of anything, which is surprising when you have entered the outskirts taken aback by all the beauty of the red cliffs as sculptured monuments.

There isn't even a small, cozy coffee/tea place where I would have spent time over the past couple of days. So I wandered the side streets through some neighborhoods which had nothing redeeming either. I came upon a trail that wound around under a bridge over Main Street so took that for a while. The trail was alongside a creek.

Trail winds under Main Street

 

A bridge and small waterfall on the trail

I liked the name of this campground

Campground was for tents and you had to park at the entrance and haul your gear

Soon after my return, people started to arrive at the motel and we were given our first daily sheet of instructions. We gathered up our provided bikes from the trailer, had them fitted to us (I had my own pedals and saddle put on) and were given directions to follow the ten mile out and back chalk-marked route to try out our bike fit. We all did the route and I wanted to do it again. We had just enough time before our orientation meeting for me to get that extra ride in, and Linda agreed to go at least part way with me.

Dan (broken foot) put finishing touches on my bike

 

Brent made sure that Gary did the job just right

 

Passed by this Adobe Abode on the route

A very narrow structure built into the side of the mountain

 

Some petroglyphs

 

The only fall color here is golden yellow

Moab Brewery was our dinner spot for this evening. Good and plenty food. There are ten of us for this tour. You already know three of us, I will introduce others as I get to know them.

 

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Red

Red everywhere 10/20/2012

Linda, Brent and I took a driving tour (thanks Brent for driving us) to ogle some of the beauty that surrounds us.

Linda and Brent

Whenever I plan to go on a trip I shall be sure to tell my friend Lynne where I am going. She is well traveled, and keeps well informed about travel and sights to see. Thanks to Lynne, I was able to share with Linda and Brent the Dead Horse Point State Park. As Lynne so aptly put it -- it is the most spectacular place I had never heard of. As with the Grand Canyon, photos cannot show the true depth of beauty of the canyon. Among other things, this canyon is of Thelma and Louise fame. Makes me want to rent that movie. Older movies like "Stagecoach" and "Covered Wagon" were filmed here as well.

Dead Horse

Legend has it that cowboys, back in the day, corralled wild mustangs onto the neck of the land on this point. It made for a natural corral surrounded by cliffs which would allow no escape. The cowboys would chose the horses they wanted and let the others go free. One time (the legend says) the horses were left on this (waterless) point and died of thirst.

At Dead Horse Point

This note posted in the restroom tells us that this park has no water:

 

From Dead Horse Point we drove on to Arches National Park. There are over 2000 stone arches in the 119 square mile park. We were on a mission for a mile and a half walk for a glorious view of the Landscape Arch at road's end -- the longest arch in the country and second longest in the world, or something like that. We arrived at the trailhead to find that we were not the only ones with this idea, and there was not a parking spot to be found anywhere in the lot or alongside of the road. So we aborted that plan believing that our tour guide will bring us here as one of the attractions -- and if not, we will return on our own.

Around every turn there is something spectacular to see, admire, wonder at, and to take a photo of. We did get to see one arch -- Skyline Arch.

Skyline Arch

Not seeing more arches did not detract from all that we did see. The work of water (once the inland sea), ice and wind have created sculptured monuments throughout the park.

 

 

Sheep Rock

 

Balance Rock

 

Brent doing his artistic bit to get Linda balancing the Balance Rock on her fingertip.

We left the park and Brent drove us for more views along the Colorado River before returning to our motel. We went on our separate ways for the afternoon and I finished my "shopping", took a walk to City Market to check out where we could purchase lunch makings for the week. All this brought me home by quite late afternoon and I was pretty much done for the day.

We meet with our tour group tomorrow afternoon for orientation and bike fitting.

 

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Moab Utah October 1012

10/18-10/19

Driving -- two days worth.

I have not driven such a distance on my own before this trip. I wondered how it would be. It was fine actually. It was not a hard drive, the weather was beautiful, and I started my drive early enough to miss traffic and to get to a motel early enough to not be exhausted.

My recurring understanding is how vast and how diverse our country is. It may not have all the castles and cathedrals that Europe has, but the countryside offers every possible landscape and natural wonder that one could conjure up.

As I drove into the windy parts of eastern Washington and into more windy parts of Oregon and Idaho, I am reminded that wind turbines have become one of the new crops. I have yet to get a good photo of any, but I held my camera by the open window while driving (rather fast) and got this one as a sample.

Wind turbines on windy land spaces

I was not able to get a photo of a magpie. I find these birds beautiful and am always glad for a visit when I get to the eastern side. I have not been able to look them up, but am assuming they are "prairie" birds since I see them in some of the other drier, prairie-type areas.

I passed a field filled with sheep -- more sheep than I have seen in one field since being in Scotland (many) years ago. Of course I could not get a photo of them either. As I was about ten miles from Pendleton (you know, as in Pendleton Woolen Factory) I thought there MUST be a relationship here!

I made a view point stop for a couple of shots of Oregon land.

Land, lots of land

Don't fence me in

The following morning I got out early again and was one of the few drivers on the road.

Morning is breaking

 

Sun is rising

It is a little scary how driving at 75 mph becomes so comfortable! At first I thought that was way faster than I wanted to go and decided that 70 would do (no cars behind me to hold up), and quite soon 72 seemed about right until I eventually set the cruise control at 77! Slowing down for the 65 areas seemed an imposition! Salt Lake City and Provo presented my least comfortable driving. It wasn't so bad that there was traffic, construction and narrow lanes, but I think the posted speed limit must be a "suggested" speed. At 2-3 miles over the limit (my usual) cars were either zooming by me at 75 (I know this because I got caught in it once) or climbing up my rear to run me over. Driving in the very slow lane was marginal and I "got by" at a normal speed, however with drivers passing me with a somewhat mean look.

I checked into my motel room in Moab in early afternoon and took a little walk around town to visit to the information center, see what shops were out there (gotta find something to bring home for Susan) and stretch my legs. Couldn't resist a photo of this coffee cup in front of (what else?) the Ekectica (their spelling) cafe. It was closed or I would have stopped in for an organic tea.

Ekectica coffee cup

 

I returned to the motel and found Linda and Brent, my friends from Edmonds, checking in. We chatted some and made a plan for some touring around together the next day. Will post about that tomorrow after our adventures in the red rocks.

 

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