Moab, UT

We're camped just outside Moab, in the Goose Island campground on hwy. 128. With the back of our site right at the river's edge, and a towering sandstone cliff on the opposite shore, we've got the perfect place to relax and soak up the atmosphere.

As the crow flies, we're only about 200  miles from the multicolored wedding cake layers of Nine Mile Canyon, but here everything is red sandstone. And I do mean RED - the color is so intense that anything green seems even more so, and the result is some pretty breathtaking scenery.

We've scheduled four days here, filling in until our reservations at the next stop open up, and we are really enjoying the relaxing pace of staying put for a bit. It's a good chance to get caught up on reading, blogging and phone calls as we have really good connections at our site.

On the first full day here we went in to Moab and checked out the visitor's center, picked up a few publications and sort of got oriented to the area. Moab is an interesting town. Picture your standard ski resort, but substitute red sand and cliffs for the snow, and river rafting, jeeping and rock climbing for the skiing.... you pretty well have it. There's a pub or coffee shop on every corner, just about everybody sells souvenir T-shirts, and vehicles for rent? Just name it. If it floats or has tires, you can rent it here.

We spent the next day exploring Arches National Park, just a short hop up the road. The park isn't large compare to some. There's a driving tour up through the middle of the park with multiple short trails for exploring the actual named arches, and a few longer trails for those who want to push deeper into the desert.

Everywhere you look there's a new shape, new colors, and shadows shifting across the eroded surfaces. Such a wide expanse is really hard to capture in still photography.

The predominant material in the landscape here is sandstone. Each type of sandstone has a different way of weathering, so there are horizontal layers, arches, caves, and spires everywhere. The landscape is predominantly red sandstone, with a little pale cream colored sandstone thrown in for contrast. Here and there though, you'll see splashes of color, soft sedimentary layers that were once horizontal, but then became broken as the earth moved, tipped sideways, and then eroded to a colorful powdery splash in an otherwise red field.

Arches is a wonderful place to witness the powerful effects of geologic forces, and to think about the millions of years that have lapsed in the making of this landscape. Patches of "desert varnish", millions of years old, look black in one light, and then reflect the brilliant blue of the sky as the sun and shadows shift.

Though the geology of the area is what it's most famous for there's human history here too. Like this little cabin that was home for many years to a civil war veteran who moved to the area to take up ranching. The Ranch was settled in the late 1800's by John Wesley Wolfe and his son.

John moved west from Ohio looking for a drier climate, hoping it would improve the leg injury he received in the Civil War. John choose a tract of 100 acres of land along Salt Wash for its water and grassland - enough for a few cattle.

Wolfe ranch is certainly a modest abode compared to what we call a ranch nowadays. Just behind the cabin is a little panel of petroglyphs, a link to an even older human history.

Though the scenery in the park is breathtaking, I have to confess we couldn't resist doing a bit of people watching.

On the one hand, I'm really glad people are attending our National Parks. There are people here from all over the world, enjoying a landscape that is really unique.  On the other hand, there are so many of them!!! I felt like we were in Disneyland! There are huge tour buses, large rental RVs, vans and cars everywhere. The parking lots at all the trail heads were usually overflowing. The shot at left shows only part of the parking lot at Pine Tree Arch. Parked cars and tour buses lined the road on the other side too. And I've never seen so many shiny aluminum, collapsible hiking sticks, so many brand new back packs, serious hiking boots, and big floppy hats, all the correct equipment for "hiking" on trails that have been so carefully manicured you could easily take a stroller or wheel chair down 80% of them. I wish I had stock in L.L. Bean!

We did enjoy the day, in spite of the crowds. The landforms here are fantastic, and with the shifting light, they keep changing so there's always something new to see.

The days have been reaching 100 degrees or better, so we finally called it a day and retired under the tree at the back of our campsite with a cold one. It's refreshing to watch the rafts go by, and the boulder across the river from us makes just enough noise in the flow of the water to sound like a small, and very cool, waterfall.

Our next adventure was a drive upriver to check out the other BLM campgrounds. They are all more suited for tents and really small RVs, and none have the degree of shade we have here, thanks to the tall cliff at the back of our site, so we decided we did well to select this site, the first we came across.
We also checked out the one campground in Arches, and it's nice, but small - small spaces, tight curves, and no shade at all. All the spaces are reservable and it usually fills up fast. 

A little further upriver we came upon the restored historic Dewey Bridge. They've restored the top part, but not the roadbed. . . probably afraid it will be too hard to keep people off, or not within the budget.

We had read in one of the travel brochures about a western movie museum at a lodge upriver so targeted that as a stop.

The museum is housed in the Red Cliffs Lodge, which is an absolutely beautiful place to spend a few days. They have several cabins, all situated right on the river with private views, as well as hotel type accommodations. A vineyard and winery is also attached to the lodge property, and they have a huge horseback riding stable. They have a full schedule of activities available for guests, and one of them is the movie museum.

The museum includes displays on many of the films made in the area, westerns as well as others. There are set models, costumes, props, some old ranching items, and a lot of art work pertaining to the films. As fans of the old westerns, we thoroughly enjoyed it. It's worth a trip to the lodge even if you aren't staying there. We were a bit early, but they have a restaurant too, so perhaps a good place for lunch!

We headed out late yesterday to see if we could locate some of the sites listed in a self-guided rock art brochure. The heat cut our trip short, but we did find a few. Here's my favorite. That must have been one enormous bear!

After four days here we've had a real chance to observe the campground and the area. We've met some nice folks, neighboring campers, like the young woman who is a professional photographer (here's her site) and some I'd rather do without.... like those cute little mice that have been running around our site. They are so brave they don't even wait for sundown! Molly finds chasing them quite entertaining, but she's slowed down a bit and I don't think there's much chance of her catching one. Other wildlife here include less objectionable wild turkeys, birds and chipmunks. A cute brown weasel met us the day we pulled in, but we haven't seen him since. 'Guess he's bashful, or doesn't trust Molly!

It's been hot, hot, hot here so rather than cooking in the house we've taken to cooking everything on the Weber Baby-Q. It's been a sort of challenge figuring out the timing and all the other strategies of cooking by a new method, but so far, so good! We've done pot roast, a loaf of bread, baked potatoes and crispy chicken... all with success, and a relatively cool RV!

There are a few more shots of Arches National Park and environs in the album.