MOAB, UT

We’ve spent five fun filled days at Moab, UT, stopping overnight at Ogden, UT on our way. This is the adventure center of canyon country. Moab has endless miles of mountain biking trails, hiking trails, river rafting, boat tours and rock climbing.  It is one of the most famous destinations for 4 wheel drive enthusiasts, or “jeepers” as they are known locally.  Add to this the fact that it is only five miles from Arches National Park and thirty five miles from Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.  Now you know why so many fun seekers come here.  We were amazed how it has grown since we were here four years ago.

Dead Horse Point State Park

Dead Horse Point State Park, which we have never been to before, towers 2,000 feet above the Colorado River and provides a breathtaking panorama of Canyonlands’ sculptured pinnacles and buttes.  According to legend, the point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa.  Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point.  The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush, creating a natural corral surrounded by cliffs.  The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted, and for reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River.  From the point, layers of geologic time may be viewed, revealing 300 million years of the earth’s geologic history.  We viewed the mountain peaks across the canyon and the river below, enjoying it all.

 

 
Canyonlands National Park

Our next stop was Canyonlands National Park, which is Utah’s largest national park (530 square miles.)  We’ve been here before, this time visiting some of the places we’ve seen, and some new ones to us.  Around every turn are sublime vistas, unique canyon country with river gorges, distant mesas, and mountain ranges.  The red coloring of the sandstone make all this even more breathtaking.  Water and gravity have been the prime architects of this land, cutting flat layers of sedimentary rock into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires.  We visited Mesa Arch and neither one of us remembered the hike there, but enjoyed seeing this beautiful arch.  The trail there and back was marked very well with rocks and tree limbs, weaving up and down and through shrubs, a few flowers and cacti.

 
Colorado River Jetboat Ride

We spent four hours on the Colorado River the next day, taking a jet-boat ride through Canyonlands National Park.  It was fantastic, seeing from the water what we looked at from above the day before.  We traveled 64 miles discovering arches, petroglyphs, rock climbers, a petrified forest, a fossil bed, places where well-known movies were filmed (Thelma and Louise), and many more.  Many pictures were taken of the rock outcrops, canyons, spires, arches, and more.  A fun day of excitement on the water.

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
Arches National Park

Arches National Park contains more than 2,000 cataloged natural arches of salmon-colored sandstone that have been sculpted by water, gravity and ice.  In order to be considered an arch, an opening must measure at least three feet (in any direction).  We drove the 18-mile scenic drive, seeing Balanced Rock, a 3,600-ton boulder that looks as it could (or should) topple any minute. Windows, a pair of huge arches that dwarf hikers, is another formation we viewed.  All the arches are so different from the next as some are so thin and fragile it’s a wonder they stand.  There are two viewing points for Delicate Arch which is on Utah license plates.  We stopped at Fiery Furnace, which we hiked the last time we were here.  The only way to go on this ranger-led hike through the stone labyrinth is by paying and reserving a spot, since one can sooo easily get lost among the fins and gullies.

 
 

 
 

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, WY

We’ve spent an enjoyable four days at Grand Teton National Park located outside of Jackson, WY.  With no foothills to obstruct your view, you can see the jagged peaks and deep canyons of the Teton Range rising up to 7,000 feet above the floor of the Jackson Hole Valley which itself is 6,400 feet above sea level.  The Tetons are the youngest mountains in the Rockies.  During the day the temperature has been in the low to mid 80’s and drops to the low 40’s in the evening.

We drove the Signal Mountain Summit Road where both of us were quickly reminded that we had been there previously.  The overlook is 8,000 feet above the valley.  It is a spectacular sight viewing the entire Teton Range and Jackson Lake.  Our picnic lunch tasted very good at that altitude.  The return trip down the mountain was an exciting one because we saw traffic stopped by the side of the road and lo and behold, there was a bear enjoying huckleberries on the bushes he was surrounded by.  We not only got a picture of him, we also got a video.  He seemed to be completely oblivious to all of the spectators watching him.  Seeing this made our day!

We drove the North Jenny Lake Scenic Drive and took the boat ride across Jenny Lake and hiked to Hidden Falls.

We stopped at Amangani, one of Jackson’s many upscale lodgings.  It is a luxurious and beautifully designed resort hotel perched high above the lush Snake River Valley.  It is owned by Aman Resorts, a Singapore-based chain that have luxury hotels in unique and dramatic locales.  Off season rates start at $565/night and during peak season the rates begins at $750/ night.   For us it can’t compete with a $25/night campsite.

After oooing and aaahing we went to Jackson Hole to walk around the square and do some window shopping.  There are wooden sidewalks and western attractions lining the town square.  At each corner of the square is an entry arch made of thousands of elk antlers.  We could see the moneyed elite, gung ho hikers and climbers, and even several real Wyoming cowboys.  During the winter the ski bums show up.  We even visited the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar that opened in 1937.

LANDER, WY

The town of Lander is at the base of the Wind River Mountains, 5,357’ above sea level.  The days here are usually warm and the nights cool.  In the afternoon the wind usually picks up and blows extremely hard.  There are soooooooo many grasshoppers here, it is like a plague!  They just don’t know what to do to get rid of them.  The Loop Road was our destination today. It is a sixty mile round trip where we saw mountains, canyons, historical attractions and many beautiful sites.

Our first stop was the visitor center at Sinks Canyon State Park.  The park features a geologic phenomenon in which the Popo Agie River (pronounced po-po-scha) vanishes into a large carvern, the Sinks only to reappear in a rainbow and brown trout-filled pool, the Rise, about one-half mile down in the canyon.  It was amazing to see.  The trout arrived naturally and stay because it is a protected area.  No fishing is allowed, but you can purchase fish food and feed them as we were doing.

Two more ‘ghost’ towns (both were gold mining towns) were on the agenda! South Pass was the first, which looked to us like the original buildings were left in place.  The town experienced its gold rush after the bulk of westward emigration had taken place.

Atlantic City was the next ghost town we visited, and it looked like there were many more new buildings than old and it was much more commercialized.

The next part of our excursion was driving through Red Canyon, which was probably the highlight today.  It was a deeply rutted, dirt road, probably used mainly for the ranchers in the area and four-wheelers.  Most of the drive was with the mountains on our right and green, green pasture and sagebrush on our left. It was an amazing ride.

Last on today’s agenda was Mike’s trained cow.  We stopped beside a cow resting by the side of the road (this is open range country) and Mike did his best cow imitation – believe it or not, the cow stood up and started mooing at Mike.