31 May: Moab, Utah, grew into a prominent town during the early years of the Cold War because of uranium mining. Nowadays, it is a thriving tourist town, situated very close to the very popular Arches National Park. The lines of cars at the entrance station into Arches were long, and the trailhead parking lots were especially crowded this year due to road and campground closures due to reconstruction, but the scenery was not to be missed. There are said to be over 2,000 sandstone arches in the park, created by wind erosion of vertical “fins” of rock that formed from vertical cracking of an area uplifted into a dome. While Lowry took Corwyn on a shorter hike, we hiked to the iconic Delicate Arch, featured on Utah’s license plate and on the Utah quarter in the National Park series. Delicate Arch is as emblematic of Utah as the Old Man of the Mountain is of New Hampshire. Near the trailhead there is an old settler’s cabin and a particularly well preserved petroglyph panel of Ute rock art, chiseled into the nearly black “desert varnish,” a dark surface stain that occurs on some vertical rock faces due to chemical and possibly microbial action.
1 Jun: Today we hiked to Sand Dune Arch and to Broken Arch. Sand Dune Arch is hidden within a narrow vertical cleft between two tall rock formations, the trail to it passing over the floor of the cleft on pure, fine, pink sand. Corwyn really enjoyed playing there.
2 Jun: Lowry and Corwyn headed for home on the Amtrak train from Green River to Denver through the Rockies, and we did some biking near Moab. The Moab Canyon paved bike path ascends from the Colorado River up near the southwestern border of Arches NP, on the original highway route through the canyon. This is a popular mountain biking area, with many challenging singletrack dirt trails branching off the paved path we rode. The path diverged from the modern highway up into the solitude of canyon country, providing good views, a stiff climb, and an easy return ride. Back down at the Colorado River, we ate lunch at the beautiful Lions city park and bike path trailhead, then rode to the end of a paved spur trail up along the river and back. That was a very pleasant ride with towering cliffs on one side and the river on the other.
