Moab

So why two weeks? It's warm (check the weather tab), there are a tonne of off-road trails, and the camping is amazing. We love it. Did I say that already? we need some time for our hands to become less sore so we can do some more dirt tracks! And did we say, the views are STUNNING? (see photos)  It feels like heavan to us... All serious riders should come here for some fun time....

Sadly, after 12 days it was time for us to leave Moab. We loved it here. Chris’s favourite so far. We managed to loose track of time and day completely, so we don’t have a really accurate diary. Oh well… guess that means we enjoyed it.
Moab is about halfway down Utah. Its famous for its canyons of red rock that change colour with the light, from orange, terracotta, red to pink, and for its warmth (25-30 degrees when we were there). The views are never boring, from the high mesas (fertile areas at the tops), to narrow little gorges that fill with water when storms come over, and of course the Colorado river runs through the middle. Locals call it desert, and while there is some sand and sand dunes, most Australians would be offended by the amount of vegetation that gets called desert. In the background, another 1200m higher and only around 60km drive away are the la sal mountains, covered in forest and still with snow lying.
People in moab are fantastically friendly for the most part (baring one couple who walked through our camp without acknowledging us, and found it odd when we suggested they were rude when they passed back (they simply told us they were locals and a walking track passed through). We must give a big shout to the team at Mad Bros Motor sports who gave us new soft grips for chris’s bike and exchange on goods so we could clean our air filters, and Fred at  arrowhead motorsports for setting chris up with panniers, teaching us how to change a tire and adjust our chains correctly. 

Our campsite was up kane creek, just 9 miles from town; half tarmac and half gravel, which included some narrow road with decent 200-300m drop offs and switch backs; read less people! We had a cave that had it all really. A fresh water spring to fill the portable shower, a large bench in a dry creekbed for taking the shower with a view; the cave to keep the sun off, a great fire pit for toasting marshmellos, and pet animals – squirrels (naughty ones that managed to get into food that we hung in the cave!) scorpions (thankfully just one) a western striped whipsnake, and wetas!
So what did we get up to? The reason we headed to moab in the first place was because of an off-road book we were given. So mostly, we spent our time riding. The idea was that chris gets used to lots of different types of surfaces – dirt, sandy dirt, slick rock, rocks in general and gravel. And she didn’t do too bad – she now enjoys off-road more than tarmac. Sore hands prevented riding every day, but we did manage to enjoy the following

•    Gemini bridges
•    Hurrah pass
•    Long canyon
•    Shafter switch backs
•    Geyser pass
•    Bartlett wash road
•    Bull canyon
•    Sego canyon
•    Rainbow terrace
•    Onion creek
•    Thompson canyon/polar mesa

We LOVE this place for riding. Sadly, chris’s hands didn’t seem to get much better with days off, so we didn’t get to do the overnight white rime trail. But it also has some pretty famous national parks. Arches was pretty, but they let you walk into the arches, and the place is swarming with tourists, so your photos look like they are covered in ants (we liked landscape arch best); and Canyon lands which has the most amazing views and fewer ants, plus the rides down from the mesa offer specatular views, even if they do give horrific vertigo. There’s also a fair amount of rock art around which is really interesting and pretty impressive in general.

So now we have left our little haven and started our way south. We first head to mesa verde, and then make our way towards the northern rim of grand canyon, and on into mexico in ca. 1 month.

Enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed moab.