The Blog Within

In pictures

12 hours and some minutes from now we’ll be headed to Moab!

The family mini-vacation to Moab has drawn to a close, and a good time was had by all. With the exception of one idiot in Grand Junction who, when faced with an entirely empty parking lot, decided to block me in where I had parked with the trailer, the trip there was uneventful. The invention of DVD players for the car is one of the true advantages of the digital age! The kids got to see the ghost town of Cisco, UT, but I don’t think it was exciting as they had imagined it would be. Shortly after that, Rte 128 follows the Colorado river down to Moab, providing ample means to fill a digital camera’s a flash memory card. Jen posted a great shot of the La Salle mountains from along here.

For this trip we opted to stay at the Slickrock Campground. Kids 8 and under stay for free, which made it very reasonable for us. The staff were friendly and competent, and the pool and hot tubs were nice, but to be honest, the bathrooms and cabins were a bit on the rough side and very close together. If the camping itself is part of your overall experience, then you should go someplace like the Moab KOA, but if you are on a budget or are just looking for a place to crash between other adventures, then Slickrock is fine.
**Note: we left our rather expensive battery charger and some batteries in the cabin. I called the campground staff and they located it and are mailing it to us for free. The service really is top-notch.

Our first adventure was to drive the Jeep up the Klondike Bluffs trail. The four-wheeling here is fun without being terribly difficult, and was perfect for letting the kids take turns driving. Set in the sandstone along the trail are dinosaur tracks, which kept the kids occupied for the better part of an hour. At the top of the trail, a short hike took us out onto the actual bluffs, with a great view into a corner of Arches National Park. Along the bluffs we also found some chert, which was pretty fascinating.

After Klondike, we hit the pool and then did the requisite shopping and dining in downtown Moab. The Italian restaurant is really good and they have a decent kids’ menu, and, as befitting any tourist town, there is plenty of shopping. While strolling about town, we saw maybe the most clever Jeep ever.

On Saturday our plan was to head into Arches National Park to see what we could see, and Jen picked a fabulous trail starting at Devils’s Garden and passing a number of arches, including Pine Tree, Tunnel, Landscape, Wall, Navajo, Partition and Double-O. Landscape Arch is truly amazing, and the very recently collapsed Wall Arch must have been impressive, judging by what is left of it. Navajo and Partition arches are together, and there is a short trail leading over to them, but we pressed on to Double-O Arch, which was by far our favorite.
By the way, this is what happens when you try to take a panoramic photo with a point-and-shoot camera without reading the manual…

The 2-mile hike back out was extremely hot. Ava was fine, Laney was whiny and Jen’s ankle was bothering her, but we pressed on and finally made it all the way back and found that on the way in we had missed Pine Tree and Tunnel arches. We detoured just enough to see Pine Tree and then continued, stopping only for the kids to play in the sand in a slot canyon near the trailhead. (Laney had recovered by this point and was in a good mood again)

At this point we were so hot and dusty that the next logical stop was the pool at the campground. We swam for a long time and then retreated to the air-conditioned cabin for a nap. Ahhh, vacations are nice! Did I mention those DVD players from the car also plug into a wall outlet?

On Sunday morning I had planned to take Ava mountain biking on Klondike Bluffs, but it had rained all night, and was still raining at 6:00 AM when we were to head out so I canceled and went back to bed. (Apparently Moab got it’s entire average precip for the month of August while we were there to mountain bike…oh well)

While we waited for the weather to figure itself out, we went for a bike ride to downtown and let the kids play on the public playground, and then on the way back we checked out the Moab Rock Shop. This place is amazing and is literally packed to the ceiling with fossils, gems, rocks and all sorts of other weird stuff. If you’re in Moab, you must check it out.

We again went to town for some more shopping, but by mid-afternoon the weather was clearing so we decided to go for some more four-wheeling. For this trip we opted to check out Gemini Bridges. The drive in from Rte 191 is VERY scenic, and the bridges themselves are amazing. We walked across both of them and Jen took copious of pictures. We continued on to Rte 313 and then back out to Rte 191. The drive on 313 was also dramatically beautiful, and showed us plenty more options for exploration when we return!

Ava was quite bummed that she and I didn’t get to ride Klondike Bluffs, so we opted instead to ride the Bar-M trail early Monday morning before heading home. While Jen and Laney packed (i.e. slept in) Ava and I figured out where the dumb trailhead was and headed out. I have two words to describe the Bar-M trail: boring and windy. This is mostly due to the fact that we opted for the short (4 mile) version, which is less slickrock and more road than if you do the whole loop. Still, Ava got to do some riding on real Moab slickrock, which she handled very well, by the way, but when we swung back around to the road, the headwind was so fierce that in her granny gear, and standing up to pedal, she couldn’t ride against it. We ended up walking for a mile or so and then I had her sit at the Bar-M Chuckwagon while I road ahead to retrieve the Jeep. Fortunately she still wants to go mountain biking after this!

Ava and I headed back to the cabin where Jen and Laney had finished packing (i.e. just gotten up) and we loaded the trailer in a hurry and headed for some place to get air for the Jeep tires. **Note: the Moab Texaco has free air. With everything settled we headed home with only two issues: Laney’s tag-a-long shifted and carved a nice groove into the sidewall of one of the trailer tires, and we hit MAJOR traffic at Georgetown, CO that continued bumper to bumper all the way to the turn-off for Highway 6. Fortunately Jen noticed the tire situation before any permanent damage was inflicted, and we were home by 6:30 PM.

Since returning home, both kids have asked when we are going back to Moab, Laney wants to have her birthday there and Jen is poring over all her photos, so I declare the trip a success!