MOAB - merrimac & monitor, and arches

Chris and I headed out of town by about 7:00 on Friday, of course stopping at Chikfila in Loveland. We drove over the continental divide, passing some snow on the way, and made it to our stopping point for the night by about 1 AM. We found a great place to camp off I-70. It is exit 1 or 2. If you drive south of the highway, you enter BLM land and we camped in a site with great views, a pit toilet, and no other people. The Kokopelli trail goes right by it, or starts nearby, so it would even make a nice weekend mountain biking destination that is not as far as Moab.

Saturday we woke up early and headed for Moab. We had a schedule to keep because the Georgia - South Carolina game started at 1:30. We decided to ride the Monitor and Merrimac trail because it was relatively short (about 7.5 miles) and on the way into town if you take 191 from I70. It was a great trail for the first half. You wind up some slickrock to great views of the Monitor and Merrimac buttes (not sure what else to call them) and amazing cliffs all around. The slickrock is pretty fun and easy to ride on, but I would recommend turning around when the trail reaches the jeep road. From there it is over 2 miles of sandy riding. It sucked. Even riding by some Dinosaur Trail did not boost my spirits. Stupid sand.





Well we got done riding by noon and then set up a campsite off Kane Creek Rd. The place we camped with Jeramy and Christine last year was gone - all the trees chopped down and no more campsites. But we found another nice sight that is stuck inside this narrow canyon with big cliffs on either side. It is a beautiful place to camp. The only downside is you have to walk in, but that makes it more private. It would be very convenient for Moab rim trail and Amasa Back.

Next we went to the Moab Brewery. We love this place - it has really good beer (I recommend the Wit), wings, and food at a good price. We settled in to watch the game and there happened to be 5 other Bulldogs there watching it too! It's a Dawg nation! The game turned out to be a nail-biter but luckily Georgia hung on to win (or I should say, luckily South Carolina screwed up twice to basically hand the win to Georgia).

After the game, we went to Arches, hoping to ride our mountain bikes on some of the dirt roads. We checked at the entrance gate first to make sure this was okay and were assured that there were plenty of places to ride. Then we went into the visitor center to get a map. This is how the conversation went ...
me: "We are interested in riding on some dirt roads. Can you recommend some?"
woman: "You can only ride on the paved roads, and not on the trails."
Looking back, I wish I had said:
"Damn, we were really hoping to ride up Delicate Arch and practice our jumps in Devils Garden"
Instead I said
"Oh, we were told we can ride on dirt roads."
She said: "Well, there are a few but most people can't ride on them because they are sandy and very difficult."
Now, again I could have said several things, like:
"Mam, we are not most people." or
"Did you see our legs when we came in?? Bring on your measly dirt roads." or
"Check out the gun show, lady."
Anyway, she begrudgingly told us where these roads were and we headed off. We decided to ride on Willow Flats Road, which begins just opposite Balanced Rock. Chris and I read some of Ed Abbey's Desert Solitaire on this trip and I am pretty sure this is the original road into the park and the first visitor center was off it. The road was fine. Everything was ridable. It had great views and gradual grades. I don't know what that woman was talking about. We watched the sunset over the park and then headed back to our campsite, completely exhausted but very happy to be on vacation.