Utah Trip Part 5 – Moab

We left Fish Lake on a newly paved forest road 640, 28 miles to hwy 70.   Very scenic and nice road.  I had been told at the Bryce visitor center that it was now paved and excellent for aspen autumn leaves.  Rte 70 was long and rather boring.  We finally got into Moab around 6pm.  A pretty big tourist town with lots of traffic.  The boon docking site we planned on was too far from town and trails, Arches etc, so we got gas, and went looking for something closer to the spots we wanted to visit.  We ended up in a desert spot just off the highway on Peace Officer Rd, not our favorite by any means.  Lots of traffic and truck noise.  Next time I have a better idea of a good spot to set up our camp at a campground off the road to Canyonlands.

The next morning we went into town to do laundry, get groceries, and a trail map at the visitor center.  then we took the jeep and the dogs on the Gemini Bridges trail, which was awesome.  This road took us to the highway that enters Canyonlands.  From the national park we took the Shafer Trail road all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and around Dead Horse Point gooseneck and back to Moab via the Colorado River.  A real highlight of the trip.  We saw amazing petroglyphs along the steep canyon walls rising up next to the River.

There are so many other places to explore around Moab, I definitely want to come back when we have more time.  I want to do some hiking in Arches Natl park which we also missed because of the long traffic lines to get in and lack of time.  We had to be back home and wanted to pace ourselves so we could see some more things on the way back.  The Moab area has so much to offer, only problem is the crowds of tourists at this time of year, fall.  Next time we will also include more southern Utah like Valley of the Gods, Zion, Monument valley and maybe into New Mexico.

Author: Geoff

Quick rundown: Grew up in Lombard, Illinois, went to Arizona State University, worked as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co, then Laventhal and Horwath, then Rolling Stones, then Heron International, then Goodby Berlin and Silverstein in San Francisco. Moved to the foothills in 1990 and traded futures and designed websites. Married to Kate Stewart, now living in Colfax, CA. We have six grandchildren. I enjoy camping in our RV, hiking, kayaking, fishing, droning and cross country skiing Also conga drumming, photography and dogs.