Wayback Wednesday #2

Exploring Moab

Wayback in the spring of 2009, Paul and I took a trip out to Moab, Utah to join Ben and Amanda on some desert adventures. The trip out to Utah from Colorado Springs was a very grueling drive, which caused us to make an emergency nap-stop in Fruta, Colorado on the top of a dinosaur mountain.  Once crossing into Utah the next morning, we were greeted by the “Eagles on Highway” sign, which Ben had first hand experience with the previous night by almost running over one in the dead of night.

Moab is definitely an alien landscape, but to me it gave the feel of time-travel back to a more primitive time without a human impact on the land.  In the morning, Paul and I made our way to the canyonlands national park.  This was a pretty awe inspiring location.  It was very inhospitable and rugged,  however this didn’t stop us from scrambling around the pillars and trampling out beyond the beaten paths.

Later in the day, we met up with Ben and then decided to take the Blazer down the very foreboding road into the canyon rim.  The road seemed to be carved by a mad man into the side of a cliff.   It started along a solid rock shelf that was severely undercut and seemed like it should not stand the test of time.  The road then turned back down into the canyon with a series of steep switchbacks.  After descending approximately 2000 ft into the canyon we were on the canyon Plateau.  From here, the Blazer drove through a old slot canyon to reach the side of the canyon rim.  Here we stopped to take some scary photos for my mom.  She wasn’t as thrilled with the idea as I was.  The rest of the drive took us through some strange Potash/Military salt flats.  I am 90% sure we drove through radioactive leaching bed.  After obtaining a healthy dose of radiation, we drove the back to the campground on top of large windswept mesa to rest for the night before we would explore the hidden areas of Arches National Park on the following day.

In the morning, we parked at the entrance to the park and all piled into one car and headed for the Fiery Furnace.  Only a certain amount of people are allowed into to the furnace unguided and we were lucky enough to get a pass. The furnace is a unique formation located far into the park.  It is a series of slot canyons that intertwine with one another creating an elaborate maze.  Deep within the maze, we located several toadstool rock formations.  After some further scrambling, we found the hidden arch in the park which proved to be a pretty difficult to find.  Late in the day, we made our way out of the park and played on sand dunes before heading back to the springs.