Moab, UT

"now that i've done it"

cool pics!

that one reminds me of camping spot we had in Islands in the Sky. Hiked about a mile from Murphy Point parking lot, found this lil ledge 15 feet below the main rim that was just big enough to set up camp.

That would be great! I was looking at pics from this guy whose instagram is super fascinating https://www.instagram.com/rlngstrt- one of his views from Island in the Sky makes it a must visit for me soon.

the desert gets cold at night, i think it's the dry air and the ground surface - no heat absorption.

arches is usually too crowded for me but canyonlands is magic. the scale of it is awesome. i'm much more into a big area with a lot of dynamics than like single rock formation destinations, although arches is pretty big and dynamic too tbf. thinking a lot about uplift and water erosion, how those systems must interact to make it all happen.

there's definitely still a lot of mining interest in the area but my anecdotal impression is that tourism is a much bigger boon than it used to be and that a fair amount of the local population is anti-mining.

one thing i don't get and find kind of annoying is the big 4x4 events there. looking up at these stupid people in their stupid jeeps on some 45 degree pitch. really you can't think of a better way to experience the insane land here than in a fucking car, ugh.

i put a deposit down on a basement apt there this weekend, moving in a month. so excited.

my favorite thing to do there and the reason i'm moving is to run on the mountain bike trails, especially over rock.

cool man, good luck!

I agree wrt Jeeps. Seems to be a lot of them are midwesterners coming for those events who have little to no respect for how fragile desert ecosystems are.
Ya cold at nights/mornings cause there's no clouds or even dense moist air to retain the heat. I can feel the temp drop the instant the sun goes down.

thanks

It's funny cause I'm a hiker, don't mountain bike, and I can get a bit perturbed by some bikers' attitudes to the land. Treat it like an amusement park rather than an ecosystem etc. But overall mtn bike community is really cool and respectful .

it's an unbelievable place to ride and hike...so jealous

There was pretty heated battle between mtn bikers and forest service/hikers here in Sedona in the last 15 years or so. Mtn bikers starting illegal/unsanctioned trails w/no regard to erosion and other issues. But they had a kumbaya relational shift in last few years, working together, compromising.

yeah mountain bikers can be a little bro-y but in general they're pretty eco conscious ime

I shed a tear when I see crisscross bike tracks all thru an offtrail cryptobiotic soil area but yes I'd agree

there's an amusement park aspect to running on rock too, it's kind of like dancing. i'm not really into distance running, more 6-7 miles on a trail with some power, speed and grace. there are very few somewhat developed places in the world with the kind of terrain that moab has. also really into hiking and camping too of course.

the soil build-up is so important, but there are so many other large-scale human intrusions on the ecosystem i can't really get too worked up about it -- like the giant potash mine below dead horse point or the constant sound of planes in the flyover corridor above - that kind of noise has a huge impact on a desert ecosystem.

i'm really curious about making it down further south to bears ears national monument at some point to get a feel for how that's shaping up.

there's so much around Moab to explore. even a Rocky Mtn town like Telluride is only lil over 2 hrs away iirc.

Gravity ride culture is generaly bro ey as hell afaict and...thats just not how i ride. (tbc all kinds of riding can be destructive and broey tho).

I have been spending some time looking at the stuff SUWA wilderness group sent me- they seem very cool.

agreed, would like to connect with those people

canyonlands is my fav of the desert national parks. so remote

you have to do an 8 hour 4x4 trek to even get to the maze. i've heard the easiest way to get to that part of the park is a boat taxi and then a hike up to the dollhouse.

map how does Moab compare to/differ from similar canyony places in the midwest/southwest?

map when I come visit you in Moab can we go camping or is it too cold?

moab is friendlier and more salt-of-the-earth than most western tourist towns i've been to, but it doesn't feel backwards or claustrophobic like ranching / mining towns that are trying to hold on.

steve it should be fine april - october at least so if you're planning on visiting in those months then of course we're camping.

i made it. omg spring here is sooooooooo beautiful

holy shit! that's great! you probably picked a good time of year to arrive. i've only been to moab a couple times, as a stop on the way to the deserts and slot canyons in southeast UT. both were incredible experiences and i was so jealous of everyone who lived around there. someday i hope to make it out west.

stay safe and gl

thanks my dudes.

Moab, UT more like Moa bUT

LOL

Mill Creek flows out of the La Sals (a volcanic island of peaks about 12000 ft high) and runs through town. For about four blocks just west of Main Street it's just the creek, a Cottonwood grove and a dirt road.

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/31421594_10156318030637720_8515138990462634796_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=50d777f2277ae203533a994efd3c9761&oe=5B58C514
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/31404270_10156318030632720_16608587695829290_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=ccf8912833125488d5895c03366b8be4&oe=5B6489FA
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/31444997_10156318030672720_9162040987704711188_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=be17a5ae7b03e1992b009edf8a0a24eb&oe=5B8F8B66

this weekend main street was overrun by car show people (definitely not my bag). weird to see the main drag backed up for miles this morning with those folks leaving while just a few blocks west it's the usual sleepy small town barely-there traffic.

i can't get over how you can just walk out your front door and breathe extremely clean, delicious air. fills me with glee.

I love how the La Sals got their name.
Ha I even love when there's nearby wildfires...everything smells like a campfire. Unless the smell lasts for days, then it gets to be too much.

wikipedia has a great photo of the la sals from gemini bridges road. i love running in that area on the magnificent 7 trails.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/LaSalMountains.jpg

the cottonwoods are going wild right now and the air is very sweet-smelling.

never been more grateful for thai food becoming popular in middle america 15 years ago, because there are two (!) thai restaurants here and one is actually pretty good.

👍. Pretty soon itll get HOT. Where are u from?

Dry heat tho, outta the sun its no prob really.

salt lake so just a few degrees hotter really

ahhh, you are practically a local- Wasatch, uintah, la Sal no big dif. 😬 jk

I've eaten at the one Thai place that's in an old house a couple times. It was good! Though my friend did have a big ol hair in his curry.

Got sick after eating at El Ch@rro Loco. It hit me just after starting overnight hike in Canyonlands. Not fun!

hm yeah, i noticed that place for the first time today. for late nite i like a giliberto's burrito. so much utah food sucks but the mexican fast food places that are open late or 24 hrs are usually pretty decent to delicious. the moonflower co-op deli is a godsend for lunch. main street is a zoo i try to avoid as much as possible tbh. the hospital has a little grill where you can get a 3.50 hamburger that isn't bad.

today i went up mill creek to the waterfall. it was a thursday so not super crowded, 15-20 people around max. for a minute no one was around. i fucking love being in water to a ridiculous degree, i giggle like a stupid kid if i'm going swimming. anyway i spent a solid 30-40 minutes swimming around in the hole, then hiked further up to the next little slide, swam some more, came back down to the main hole, swam some more. three hours total. it was a blast.

http://actcampground.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SwimmingHole.jpg

90 degrees today but with a breeze so being in the water for too long felt a little chilly. but i did not give a fuck, i wanted to get as much of it in as possible.

swimming in relatively clean water that isn't chlorinated is totally divine and something i think i need to do at least once a week this summer.

hey map this thread has been a total treat to check into lately, nice work. $3.50 hospital hamburgers por vida

yea i have never been to moab but i love this thread

btw do you pronouce it like mo-ab or mobe

Mo Ab

holy shit the tourist season is finally over in moab and the streets are motherfucking empty and i'm so hyped for winter -- as long as we don't get snow pack down in the valley because that makes running a bitch especially on slick rock. i really don't like venturing out for a run and seeing a full parking lot at the trail head and a bunch of screaming kids etc, which was the case through a lot of october and november, although there has never been a real crowding problem once i'm on the actual trail.

residents of moab are called moabites ftr.

i went to a hip hop dance party at a mountain bike store last saturday night. 30-40 people showed up, which is a total party here.

Have you obtained some local knowledge on "secret" trails ie unofficial social trails? Dunno if they exist there but I'm guessing so.

https://vimeo.com/49544042

if the season ended in september in the late 50s when abbey worked arches, winter musta been pretty desolate in moab.

as is often the case, pplains is completely opaque

More like Mopaque, amirite.

https://i.ibb.co/DbbmZ0B/Screen-Shot-2021-01-25-at-15-44-35.png

those are pictures of moab, interesting

It's an interesting place.

I keep getting ridiculously cheap hotel rates in Phoenix area fwiw

uhh so i was getting confused by per night vs total stay and they are indeed cheap.

we're on the edge of spring which means i've got desert dreams again, and we're going down there this weekend. it will probably be pretty busy even though "the season" is just starting. it's a singularly beautiful place and the access is well-developed, but the crowds are becoming more and more of a problem for me, personally. it's become more clearly a requirement for me to find some semblance of solitude on trips to the colorado plateau desert - the space and quiet is very important for me on a personal, spiritual level. i know it sounds corny but *shrugs*.

so i've decided to shift the locus of my future desert trips to either escalante / boulder or green river for a few reasons. the most important is that these two areas are both reasonably close to the kind of rock running i like to do. the exposed slickrock has to not be *too steep* and there are drainages outside of both of these places with the kind of wide-open slickrock bowls i love to prance through (google maps satellite view is such a boon for scouting out these areas). also, these areas draw far fewer tourists. i'd say most people out in the san rafael desert south of green river or in the less declined slickrock drainages around the escalante are more hardcore / committed desert rats looking for the same quiet and solitude i am. also, both of these towns have some basic motels, and while prices are higher than they used to be, they each have at least one or two cheaper options. i'd eventually like to be able to camp in a way that suits my requirements for comfort and the fact that i am lazy but until i am driven to do so by increasing hotel prices i will go for the cheap rooms.

the vanlife meme of the past 5-10 has made a shitton of people blee they can do that from what i can tell. i think i'm better suited for it than most and i still say that's way too big and costly a step for not a lot of satisfaction. i do think i could dig a decent minimalist teardrop thing though.

Escalante area is amazing. I am far from experienced in exploring the deserts of the west but a life highlight was a 4 night backpacking trip down Coyote Gulch in Escalante Nat Monument, about 15 years ago. I think it is one of the most popular routes in that area and we didn't see more than a couple dozen other people over that full time period. Not even sure what the rock running you're describing looks like but there were many wide open bowls and lots of scampering opportunities. Just breathtaking scenery. I am in New England now for the past 8 years and the foreseeable future but dream of getting back out there for a trip.

Last May I went through Escalante, to some of the narrows south down Hole in the Rock Rd, then back up rt 12 through Boulder to Torrey, then rt 24 to Capitol Reef. Def TONS of cool natural areas to explore, many relatively unvisited. I car-camped just off the highway outside of Escalante one night and outside of Boulder another. Cool to have some alpine type environment (near Boulder) so close to all the more typical Utah rock desert scenery. Capitol Reef is pretty unpopular as far as a national park goes and it is AMAZING if you're a fan of slickrock deaert, I'm sure you can find some solitude there on certain routes.

Not even sure what the rock running you're describing looks like

literally just doing a slow jog on the rock avoiding the sand as much as i can, picking lines, up and down, trying not to trip, pretty casual. i'm not a serious trail runner or anything, i got a few miles and i'm good. spencer flats road outside of escalante has some good stuff. (check out the cosmic ashtray on google maps - would love to run in that area). the other areas that are good for this are on the cliffs above the green river, south of the town of green river. bull bottom, june's bottom (there's a charmingly homegrown and exhaustive website called utahmountainbiking dot com with detailed information about these areas, because mountain bikers also like to free-ride on sandstone, but apparently some of this is now blm wilderness [june's bottom] so bikes aren't allowed).

fwiw i want to go running here (42 miles south of green river)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eu4EGWUVIAA7atq?format=jpg&name=900x900

and here (20 miles se of escalante)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eu4E69yVIAceIfD?format=jpg&name=medium

The blue pin is the mars lander “cosmic ashtray,” after its recent touchdown. “It’s a godawful huge affair,” observed one viewer.

i was not aware of the cosmic ashtray until doing these google maps scroll-and-zooms. google maps has pretty profoundly changed humanity's relationship with their world and wilderness in a short amount of time imo. anyway, here's the cosmic ashtray:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-giant-cosmic-navel-formed-utah-180955188/

the la sals are burning :(

Is it bad? Human caused I assume?

got back from a weekend, hadn't been there in a year and a half. more new development etc. very busy for january. from one (1) dinner out at the thai place, i definitely get the sense that the mountain bikers / visitors have more money than they did 10-15 years ago. beautiful-looking people tbh. handsome young men with camper hair. plenty of locals out and about with that pinched mormon look. they're so insular and miserable-seeming. the weird mash of different eras of settler colonialism on display, different from the city in that it's more strident and unapologetic. american flags on the hotel keys. cottonwoods are so beautiful in the winter, hairy masses of black-brown-grey life. i wonder exactly what the water shortage is going to do to this place. there won't be anyone to work the service jobs, maybe a few severe masochists. i wonder if the worker shortage in places like sun valley has actually raised wages or not. seems like the rich people just have kids who can afford to work these jobs.

“different eras of settler colonialism” is a nice analysis, i have long understood the feeling of it without an efficient description.

the petroglyphs, to me, sorta say “we know this place and are of it and mean to stay.” but the current main strip, so overburdened, has nothing— is mute but simultaneously cacophonous. the overladen lot at sandflats— nothing to say. all the rzrs everywhere, too.

i guess the 4x4s creeping up lionsback at least left all that rubber and some wheel trenches behind.

weird place to behold.

yeah, there is definitely a strong impression of emptiness there. i think it's right to look at the original inhabitants for the only real semblance of balance the place has ever seen from a human pov. and i mean it's shocking how much i don't know about that and how much i'd like to know, but iirc the people moved elsewhere when drought set in.

even the wilderness conservationists and national park stans derive their thinking from settler colonialism. sometimes i'm tempted to favor the recreationists in my mind because at least there's some honest enjoyment they get from what they do, like they engage with the land in a way that feels more authentic and less pious somehow. though to be honest i despise the rzrs as much as anyone. and without the conservationists, it would be really really trashed, so ultimately i'm on their side.

i don't know if i've said this before or not, but there is a lot of masculine energy in moab, for better or for worse.

it's wild how displaced that kind of energy has become. like drive is now about one's place in an entanglement of globalized capital and everything else becomes an accessory to that, to the point where every biker that passes me is talking endlessly about gear and the market for gear and like... why? because that is identification now.

even as a person deeply enmeshed in gear, the gear is not the experience and in most ways alienates you from it and diminishes or destroys the natural matrix to it.

i am reading a 1960ish book _The Great Gates_ about the histories of the high mtn passes of the Rockies, and the vibe off it is so similar to me to the utah desert. the extractive and military and social dominance based roots of all human exploration— human conquest— is so fundamental.

i can’t even get to a balanced place on the issue.

this said, my first post cancer bikepack in april will be to visit the san rafael swell area for a quick overnight. i wanna see some petroglyphs and canyon rock

Here for the weekend. It abides. Cold but not freezing and no snow anywhere below 5500 feet. Deep fresh air giving me a detox from salt lake. The air thing is such a big deal for me I always talk to my boyfriend about living here again, or at least grand junction, which I hear is more affordable than anywhere else in Colorado.

Hunter if you see this how was your april trip?

fuckin rad, san rafael is cool space. objective achieved. my little escapade got wonderfully friended/transformed into a 6 person rodeo posse.

and weirdly, we were pretty far in the back of beyond near the end of day one and we went through an uncommon and random campsite near muddy creek (which campsite looked v grand, with sand bocce going and kiddos and dogs around). days later after the trip, i got pinged by a close pal from grand junction who asked me "how was your outing over the wknd, i saw you and your crew buzz by our camp/bocce setup? i couldn't yell to you in time." damn, you think you got away from everything, but nope. wish i'd seen him and stopped tho.

still, that buddy of mine knows that space well, and he noted that the increase in traffic at san rafael generally is p significant, lots of bikepacking and hiking. at our trailhead post-ride we met two separate sprinter van couples from outide of usa (uk and germany). both were bikepacking extensively in the rockies and further west.

the pack route we took was the standard one you can find in bikepacking.com, nothing novel. scenic.

(advisory-- if you find muddy crk tranquil and filterable, filter and store it immediately. creek can mysteriously become turbid and unfilterable while youre not looking, and it can wreck your breakfast and your hydration).

oh and also since my jan post i've read _west of the 100th meridian_, by stegner. it's basically about the great basin, j. wesley powell, and the region's exploration by euroculture and the mess and destruction we cannot stop making in and around it. generally recommended if that's your kind of thing. cool to consider in relation to like, _cadillac desert_. or abbey.

the swell is no longer a secret i guess. it's been a few years since i've been anywhere deeper than the reef, not a soul to be seen at the time but it's probably a little different now. i have a friend who is a super outdoor adventure guy, also very kind and very gay, who rafted the muddy a few years ago, i think he said they saw a handful of people the whole trip.

i've been having a long running conversation with my partner about why we love the utah desert. it's generally the quiet, the visible time, and the clean air, tho i have fun on my short little trail runs (shuffles really). my partner takes photos of small plants, leaves, sand eddies, that kind of thing. occasionally we hit the mtn bike trails because they're good running. my partner drifts off trail because he doesn't like the bikers. i have to concur generally, i've certainly met good souls who are bikers but more often than not whenever they pass me there's a lot of nervous energy on display... people are fuckin loud out there for no good reason.. also packs of men with something to prove to each other and male gear acquisition bonding rituals to engage in. it's fucking tedious. i don't want to hear anything human when i'm out there except for the sound of my breath and nervous system. anyway, rant over.

it was quiet this weekend. moab was pretty dead. the winter dark at night and the quiet have such a depth to them.

ayup, i hope u can keep finding peace.

i def understand the disruption u feel, i fear we may be rowdy enough to annoy. fwiw none of my set are gravity types who yip or yowl “spontaneously.”

i rode the lake city alpine 50 this year in CO, and i’ll say this— several circles of hell are navigated almost entirely by RZRs, and they’re now overspilling into the rockies/grt basin in astonishing abundance.

i try to stop and remember that slickrock was “founded” by throttle twisters and then just think about serenity and shit.

ha here was day one of the swell, good sense of the space
https://www.relive.cc/view/vPOpZ1NyrRq

mlk weekend scene report

a few out-of-towners for the holiday weekend but mostly empty. snow level at about 5000 feet, snow free in the valley and blessedly snow free at klondike bluffs when we stopped in on saturday. the entire desert south of price was blanketed in snow, almost all the way to green river. i've never seen that before. looks like tons of snow in the san rafael swell. it's going to be an explosive spring. boyfriend noticed a lovely little plant with large flower stalk at klondike, ided it as winged buckwheat.

we've been down 3x per year over the past 3 years. still dream about owning a piece of land with a cottage or trailer on it in the area. have this idea that it should be in thompson springs.

Dream it do it.

And yeah the Lower Green and Jordan and Weber basins are all 200%+ and are just getting hammered over and over. My friend in the Wasatch is already wore out by snow.

down for another mlk weekend! this trip was so so good. i went with an incredibly beautiful boy who i love. we hiked horseshoe canyon to the great gallery. the art was overwhelmingly sublime. that canyon is glorious. no one else the entire time.

nice and so appealing. front range is tucked under that below 0°F zone and i’m like dreaming of even 40° desert skies.

a grand cottonwood and me

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kjWnV6xpyOIEtGS83wsmCZrQ0tsY0lNd/view?usp=drive_link

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/drive-viewer/AEYmBYSbTTde6mQi28NbKb5eLKdIO89AZgcbOy1dCHVkfRAdVsDBJKit4NJ9dSms-VzIhnyN-Onp17XU9P8_beEeQsaJU1abrQ=s1600