We visited Moab for the first time about four years ago during the kids’ spring break. Unfortunately, soon after arriving in Moab, Archer came down with a stomach bug. She started feeling better a couple days later just in time for Smith to come down with it too. So, Jamie and I spent the week exploring separately with whichever kids was healthy – me in the morning, Jamie in the afternoon. We loved it, so we were really looking forward to exploring Moab further and enjoying it together this time.
Moab was a mining town, once known as “The Uranium Capital of the World”. Now, outdoor tourism drives their economy. There is so much to do and see if you love the outdoors. We tried to squeeze as much of those outdoors in as we could during the week we were here but we only scratched the surface. We visited two national parks and a state park, mountain biked, hiked, ran, and even sneaked in a little bouldering. Moab is also a world class destination for off-roading, rock climbing, rafting and kayaking, canyoneering, and other thrilling activities like BASE jumping. We still haven’t sampled it all, so I am sure we will be back one day (don’t worry Gaga, not for BASE jumping).
The Town
The town of Moab is a great little outdoorsy mountain town. There are several bike shops and outdoors stores in town. One outdoors store had the largest selection of climbing gear that I have ever seen – probably by a factor of two or more. There are neat restaurants with a mountain town vibe, like The Spoke where Jamie and I got to have a date night. Utah is apparently strict with drinking as Jamie got carded and they wouldn’t accept her expired license (I have no idea why she kept that). Thanks to our cousins for watching the kids! It is also home to the best quesadilla on the planet at a food truck named Quesadilla Mobilla.
Our campground was about two miles outside of town but was right across the street from Lions Park which provides easy access to town and biking from a large network of trails off a great path, the Moab Canyon Pathway. I had a great time exploring area trails on morning runs starting there.
National Parks
We explored two national parks while in Moab, Arches and Canyonlands. Smith and Archer worked with their cousin, Emory, on Junior Ranger badges and we all spent a lot of time hiking as well. Arches National Park is one of our favorite national parks. There are lots of short, easy hikes that lead to beautiful arch formations and incredible scenery. Jamie hoped to have a professional photographer take family photos somewhere on this trip; Arches seemed like a great place to do it. A photographer from Colorado, Evie, met us at Arches to take the pictures on our first day in Arches. She was very outdoorsy. We climbed on the rocks and ran around getting our picture taken. Evie was 37 weeks pregnant yet she was still climbing up and down the rocks to get the perfect shot. What a badass. I can see Archer turning out like that.
We spent several days hiking around Arches National Park as well. This time of year is a great time to visit because there are very few people in the park – just the way we like it. We hiked to Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and the Windows Area. All of these arches were beautiful in one way or another. Some, like Sand Dune Arch, had interesting features like a canyon full of sand. Others, like Delicate Arch, were perched isolated high on a hillside with a stunning backdrop of desert, sandstone formations and mountains. Archer and I even had time to sneak in some bouldering while there. It is amazing what the forces of nature can create given several hundred million years.
We only spent one day in Canyonlands National Park. One day was not enough. The park is so vast and spread out. We visited the Island in the Sky area, which is high up in the mountains overlooking the network of canyons below and the La Sal Mountains. We did several short hikes but nothing that ran the risk of requiring the heroics of “127 Hours”. The views were awesome. But, I found myself staring down into the maze of canyons and off-road trails below and wishing I were there. I told Jamie that we were going to need to come back to Canyonlands and dedicate a full week to it one day to really enjoy it.
Mountain Biking
Moab has a reputation for having some of the best mountain biking in the world. Bikers often refer to Moab as the “mountain biking mecca”. That is no exaggeration. There are at least fourteen different mountain biking areas with hundreds of miles of trails. People travel from all over the world to ride on the area’s slickrock. Slickrock is large areas of sandstone rock that you can ride over. It got its name from how dangerous it can be covered in sand or small rocks near the edge of the many cliffs here.
We mountain biked at MOAB Brands and Dead Horse State Park (named after the horses that often died there while being corralled). The rides at MOAB were fast and fun. We rode several trails together before splitting up for some more fun. Jamie and the kids road the Moab Canyon Pathway eight miles back to the campground while I tackled some slickrock. I came to realize my old hardtail was in need of an upgrade on that slickrock but I still had a blast.
The riding at Dead Horse park was great as well but with the added benefit of epic views of Canyonlands National Park and the surrounding area. We only scratched the surface of these two areas and there are at least twelve more we didn’t even explore. There is a lifetime of riding around Moab.
So Long, Utah
Our next stop is the Grand Canyon which means that we will be leaving Utah. We were in Utah for nearly a month and loved every bit of it. Utah is like Disneyland for outdoorsy types. So, if you asked us, we would probably describe it as “magical”. On our way out of Utah, we had to visit the spot in Monument Valley where Forrest Gump suddenly decided to stop running. Unlike Forrest, we aren’t tired yet and we definitely aren’t going home yet. As Jackson Browne said, “Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels… I’m just running on.”
