Moab Things to Do

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Allergic to the Great Outdoors? Go to New York - you'll be miserable here. Everyone else? This could be the best vacation you ever had. Proximity to the Colorado and Green Rivers, acres of slickrock, countless towers and slot canyons, and miles and miles of both paved and off-road paths make more big fun for adventure travelers than anyplace I've ever been. Add in the most drop-dead gorgeous scenery anywhere and you've got yourself one 10-star experience. Providing gear, tours, training and advice for slickrock bikers and 4-wheelers, canyoneers, rock-climbers, kayakers, bladers and rafters is what the good folks of Moab do best so whether for solo or group endeavors, they have exactly what you need.

The excellent Moab website is the best place to start: tons of great information there. The locals are your next best, once you hit town, as being able to spend their leisure time doing all of the above is often the very reason they chose to call Moab home.

My only caution would be not running off to your first big encounter with the landscapes alone - especially not if you're a novice. The high desert, while beautiful, is not to be taken lightly. Falls, dehydration, sunstroke, near-drownings, frostbite and a host of other nasties are good ways to ruin your day - and your trip - so go make sure you have the right gear, find a buddy, keep an eye on the sky, and heed all posted warnings. At the very least, always, always tell someone where you're going and when you're expected to return if heading off the beaten paths.

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Sadly, this is one of the more vandalized sites on the route but I'm giving it special mention because it's near the mouth of a pretty box canyon that's worth a side wander. The petroglyphs are easy to get to: just a stroll from the parking area and behind a protective fence. The canyon is also a peaceful, primitive (no water) camping area with 8 walk-in sites scattered along the creek near the mouth to a large pothole pool at the rear. Cool, shady and quiet, it's a nice alternative to busy N.P. grounds and fills early:

http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/moab/recreation/campgrounds/kane_creek_road/Moonflower_Camping_Area.html

After a look at the petroglyphs, just jump on the trail and follow it along - being careful not to disturb any campers - a short distance to the pothole and back. If you're lucky and there has been a recent rain, you might catch a waterfall cascading into the pool. Along the way you'll see vines of the lovely-but-poisonous white moonflowers (Datura or jimsonweed) that give the canyon its name.

Special mention: if you should happen to be a flutist, I'm told that this canyon has some pretty awesome acoustics so bring along your instrument!

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This is the best of all the "Rock Art Tour" stops but also the one that involves the most work. High up in a rock alcove overlooking Hwy 191 is a very old and very rare panel of Barrier-style pictographs. Some of the first images of this type to be studied were in the canyon of that name (now called Horseshoe Canyon) out in a detached section of Canyonlands National Park; you can read more about a great hike to those in my Canyonlands pages. Pictographs from this era often date between 2000-9000 years old and no one really knows what they mean but many theories suspect that they were shamanistic in nature and symbolistic of death and rebirth or transformation into animal spirits. These are especially interesting because later prehistoric people superimposed white shields, and even later Fremont and Ute cultures pecked outlines around the old figures and added animals, reptiles and post-16th century figures on horseback.

These were unfortunately not the last hands to add their mark: in the 1980's, vandals tried to remove the figures with cleaning fluid and wire brushes, dimming and scarring the once-bright images. The site has been repaired as well as possible but the original colors can never be restored. Faint to begin with (I pushed the contrast on 2 photos for visibility), they all but disappear in sunlight so are best shot in the early morning when the panel is in shade.

Parking is in a lot on 191 north of Moab, on the righthand side, abt. 1/2 mile after crossing the Colorado River. Walk across Courthouse Wash on the footbridge, and then uphill to the panel at the base of the cliffs. Look closely at photo 4 and you'll see a tiny white dot, just right of the big boulder in the center: that's the shirt of a photographer we climbed up with, and the approximate location.

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This is another hiker's gotta-do. Corona rivals - or even surpasses - most of those found at Arches National Park and is a free trek besides. The link I'm attaching has complete directions so I'll skip the details; the short version is that this 3-miler (RT) is not difficult but does involve a couple of short ascents/descents over some steep areas of slickrock with the aid of safety cables, Moki steps (toe-holds), and a ladder. Sturdy shoes with a good tread are a MUST. Folks allergic to long drop-offs may have a tense moment or two, and it's completely exposed/very hot in summer so the usual precautions (water/hat/sunscreen) apply.

But it's a peach. Corona's graceful rise and reach measure 105 and 140 feet respectively: it's huge. And just to make things more interesting, you get a bonus arch besides: Bowtie is a 30' pothole arch just a couple hundred yards away. This is one of the more popular hikes in the Moab area so if you're looking for solitude, you're SOL - you'll have lots of company and may have to do some waiting about to get that shot with no humans cluttering up the scenery.

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We were having a post-hike brew at Woody's and noticed a creek just below the patio with a paved trail running alongside; hmmm, let's take a look? Turns out it was a stretch of several-mile Mill Creek Parkway: a local beautification/recreation project that provides a traffic-free route from various point A's to point B's around town. Families with wee tots can use the trail to get to the musical playground/picnic area at Rotary Park or for a safe, low-key pedal on a bike from one of the rentals around Moab. It's also nice for blading, jogging, dog-walking or an after-dinner stroll.

Campers at cool, shady Up The Creek Campground (seasonal - small tents only) can jump on the the parkway for a short amble to downtown restaurants and shopping, and several hotels and inns border the creek as well.

The website lists all the fun stuff to see along the way. It's a work in progress so expect more paving (some sections are still dirt) and activities as they raise the $$ to make that happen.

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I'll give this one a mention 'cause it's a cheap and easy way for non-hikers or people not visiting the national park to see an arch. It's on a dirt road spur off of Potash Road on the tour (see link for the brochure below) and there's a small panel of petroglyphs below and to the left of the jug handle. To see them well without binoculars you have to make the climb or look with the zoom function of your camera.

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Ancient hunter-gatherers and later indigenous peoples carved (pertroglyph) or painted (pictograph) images of animals, people and mystical shapes into desert-varnished rock faces and sheltered alcoves in this area. They are too often referred to as "rock art"; a term I find misleading as archeologists believe they are far from purely decorative.

Some think they were a form of worship while others believe they could be records of important historical or astronomical events. Or all of the above. So while none of them really know for sure what the squiggles, footprints, animals and otherworldly anthropomorphic (human) forms mean, they have a rough idea how old they are and which groups of people carved them by the age of other artifacts found nearby and specific attributes of the images themselves. For instance, bows and arrows first appeared in this region around 500 A.D, and horses not until after the Spanish brought them in the mid 1500's. Sometimes the age of the surface they've been etched into is a clue, and older figures are darker than more recent additions. More recent images are sometimes superimposed over older ones, too.

Moab has a number of these which don't involve long hikes to see, and a nice road tour of where to find them. While not all of them will be accessible to folks unwilling or unable to make a climb, others are located right beside a road or just a short, easy stroll away. You can download the brochure for the tour from the link below, and I'll cover a couple of my favorites in separate tips.

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Moab has a terrific info center where you can get the skinny on road conditions, hotels, restaurants, trails and park info, and pick up brochures for things to do in the area. It also has a gift shop and interpretive displays. If you're unsure about weather before hitting the trails, this should be your first stop!

The "Discover Moab" website I'm including here is also a GREAT resource for planning your trip: probably one of the best tourism sites I've seen. It has a ton of well-organized information, and brochures you can download before you go.