moab, utah
Moab, Utah // May 2016
I know, I know, another Moab blog post. What can I say? We're hooked on this desert (and mountain) mecca. I'm going to have to start getting creative with names for these posts. The thing is, every time we visit Moab we find something new to love about it! On our first trip last summer, we got a quick look at Fisher Towers, bouldered at the Big Bend Boulders (at 11pm because it was 114 degrees that day), then we put on our tourist hats and hit up two national parks and one state park. Once we recovered from the scorching and exhausting melt-fest that was our first visit, we vowed to return in the fall when the temps dropped. That second time, we discovered the high-elevation (Texan standards) La Sal mountains and declared Moab the greatest place on earth! Desert to Mountains in 20 minutes? What could be better? By then we'd decided we needed to see Moab in all 4 seasons, but when we checked the weather app in January we saw a low of 14 degrees and whimped our way to sunny Southern California instead. After four months away, the snow finally melted and we headed back in March. That trip ended up being jam-packed with the discovery of Kane Creek Canyon, doing our first tandem skydives, and we finally got a real glimpse of the fringe desert sports scene that we have quickly fallen in love with.
This recent trip was pretty exhausting, and we actually spent more time driving to Moab than we spent in Moab, but it was absolutely worth it for a few sunsets (and sunrises) in the desert. Despite some intense flash flooding, hail, and tornado warnings on our way out of Texas, we managed to get to Colorado the first night where we camped near Great Sand Dunes National Park. After a quick visit to the park, we drove through Pagosa Springs and Durango towards Utah.
As always, we spent a majority of our time in Moab exploring the endless roads and finding new favorite spots. We camped in Kane Creek, climbed at Ice Cream Parlor, explored Sand Flats (for the first time - we loved it!), found ourselves at the edge of Porcupine Rim looking out over Castleton Valley, bush-whacked through Mill Creek in the La Sals, watched the moonrise AND the sunrise at Fisher Towers (don't worry - we slept for a few hours between the two), drove through Onion Creek and Fisher Valley, bouldered at Big Bend, shared a burger at Milt's, and even stopped at Looking Glass Rock on our way out of town! It was short, but eventful. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post for Callen's video!
