Moab: Day 5

Dave says: For our final full day in Moab, we tried to up our number of daily adventures from 3 to 4. It was pitch black and freezing as we were driving the atv back to the car at the end of adventure number 3 (we never made it to the sand dunes for adventure number 4) and it felt like a fitting end to our series of adventures to go from sunrise until after sunset.

 

We spent the day to the north of Moab and first did a mtb ride on the Moab Brand trails. We began with the Lazy E followed by the Rockin' A (bumpy slickrock that would have been perfect for a 5 inch trail bike but Alisha got to show off her much improved technical skills) and finally the Bar M which is a fairly flat and fast old jeep road.

 

 

It was a big day on the mountain bikes today because we threw them in the car, drove a few miles north, and then unloaded them (we didn't even take off our cycling shoes) and started on the Klondike Bluffs trail. Alisha liked riding up the big sheets of sandstone and was excited to find a mtb trail where she had to wait for me rather than the other way around. At the end of the Klondike Bluffs trail is a half-mile hike into Arches National Park to overlook the bluffs. We parked our bikes and walked in to see some great views. We looped back on the more technical Baby Steps and Little Salty trails before finishing with the Dino Flow trail which did have a good flow to it. 

Right across the street was the start of our atv adventure for the day. We drove Ten Mile Wash (although my odometer said 11.6 and we didn't even do the part that requires winching at the end) for a nice change of pace with a generally sandy trip down a canyon with tall sandstone walls on each side. The canyon traps the cold air and at one point we drove across a slightly frozen section of the stream that must not get much sun light during the day. I hoped that we would make it through the canyon in time to hit the sand dunes on the way back for adventure #4 (I even put my flag on the back of the atv for the dunes) but we ran out of daylight long before we made it back to the car and had a cold and dark ride back (or romantic sunset and moon-lit ride back depending on how you look at it). The best part of the ride back was the heated grips on the atv so at least one part of you was warm. We pulled into town and ate at the Moab Diner scarfing down a hot meal way too quickly and then rushing home for a shower.