"Everyone knows that yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty. I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will." -- Eugene Delacroix
Welcome back to Moab.
I decided to do something different for my spring Moab vacation this year, which was to take 6 days instead of 5. I did this because, on the fifth day, I always wish I had more time. Other than that, it was much the same as previous trips.
I left after work on Wednesday, driving four hours to crash at a free campground on the Colorado/Utah border. Arriving at about 11pm, I found it was full. Why! Why is this campground in the middle of nowhere full on a Wednesday night?
I found a side road with a blue school bus parked on it, and slept in the back of the car, waking at about 5am to drive the rest of the way to Moab.
I have been to Moab many times now and done most of the trails within an hour and a half drive. These days I try to do a combination of old favorites and new trails, always preserving something un-hiked for the future. Here are some shots from some trails in Canyonlands NP that I had not hiked in a while.
I stumbled toward the end of the last hike and ended up with a nasty-looking cut on my knee. It embarrasses more than it hurts--as if I ought to have been paying better attention.
I had found a nice campsite, but in the morning was awakened by a new neighbor. Let us say his name was Jeff. He was blaring music from his car--oddly, it was gentle feel-good hits such as "Kiss Me" from Sixpence None the Richer--and sipping on a Busch Lite. This at about 7am.
Of course I don't have anything against drinking Busch Lite at 7am, though I might choose a different beer. But I come to nature to get away from man-made noise. We talked for a bit. He said he was hoping to find a better campsite, and I said quite honestly that I hoped he managed it.
Then I went to hike Fisher Towers.
These towers are larger than they look in the photos. If you click on the above photo, then right-click (or control-click) to open in a new tab, and zoom, you can find human figures in the lower-right section.
When I returned, my neighbor Jeff had indeed found another site. His place was occupied by a couple of young women, one of whom was at her computer on some kind of conference call. It's amazing what technology will let you do these days.
It can be difficult to find a really good campsite. In the past I have been hampered by a definitive need to hammock on my vacations, and thus the need to find a site that had two trees, perfectly spaced. To prevent being hampered again, before this trip I chose to purchase a portable hammock stand. It was an excellent choice. Here I am hammocking under a nice shade tree, but the hammock is actually suspended from the stand. (And, indeed, I was able to compose this blog entry in part from my hammock, set up in the living room.)
One of the new-to-me hikes was Jeep Arch. I chose to do this at noon on a 90-degree day, for no good reason. The bare rock radiated about a billion degrees of heat back at my sunburnt skin.
Above is a picture of ichnofossils. These are fossilized tracks and traces--in this case, traces of burrows. Below are other fossilized traces, maybe of plant roots, or perhaps ancient mud cracks.
Jeep arch does in fact look like a jeep.
Above, a shot from within the culvert that forms part of the Jeep Arch trail. This was the only cool place in the entirety of Moab that day.
Below, sunset from the campground.
In Hunter Canyon I found some nice globemallow flowers to photograph. I wish all my pictures turned out this well.
I tried the Red Onion Primitive Loop, another new trail. Here were some more nice ichnofossils. You can very clearly see the preserved burrows in the sandstone.
A bit of burrow had fallen out and was lying on the trail. This is, obviously, actually the cast of a burrow--the burrow itself is the mold. After the animal moves on, sand fills the borrow, and eventually cements carried by groundwater glue the sand together.
The next several pics are from Arches NP.
Sand Dune Arch is a lovely place to sit and do some people-watching. And also do some brainstorming for a story, in my case.
Below is the amphitheater at the campground in Arches. No programs are being held due to the pandemic. The empty amphitheater made me a bit sad. Perhaps in the fall there will be programs.
This rock lives on the box.
The next morning, I was able to take some photos of animal tracks in the sand near my campsite.
I returned to Arches, and sat for a while at the magnificent Delicate Arch to do more people-watching and brainstorming.
This raven was very interested in what people were eating.
It was truly delightful to have warm afternoons to spend relaxing in the hammock, reading or writing. The portable stand was a great purchase. And of course, the view couldn't be beat.
I did have a day and a half of "bad" weather. But out of six, that's not so terrible. Anyway, hiking is a lot more comfortable when it's cloudy and 50 degrees than when it's sunny and 70.
Mountain biker in the sunset:
That's it for this trip. See you next time!
