With my semester drawing to a close and knowing that R’s super busy season where he is not allowed to take time off from work was beginning, we decided to plan a long weekend getaway to Moab, Utah. I had been through there on my way to a conference in Denver this past fall and had been in awe of the landscape.
Gorgeous landscape - in Arches
I also thought it was a cute looking little town. We also figured it would soon be pretty darn hot there, so we should visit it before summer weather settled in for reals there. We had been itching to finally get back into camping, so it seemed like a perfect destination.
So, as I finished wrapping up my papers and what not, we also started making a list of gear and food needed, collecting gear, and packing. Good times. We decided to leave uber early on Friday morning (6 am-ish) so that we could get there around noon and still have half a day to enjoy after we set up camp.
Thursday arrived, and I am physically and emotionally spent from the end of my semester and here is how my day went. I worked until about 1 pm, then I raced home to start packing and cooking and prepping… So between then and about 4 pm, when I went to a friend’s presentation, I made cookie dough (Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip), these muffins (minus the dates because I didn’t have any. Next time I would toast the pecans.). I thought they would be both a tasty and filling option for breakfast and snacks, which they were. I also gathered other food and started collecting all the crap I thought I might need on this trip. At 3:55 pm, I zipped down the hill on my bike to watch my friend T’s presentation. Raced back up the hill. Baked the cookies and made hummus, kept gathering stuff, then raced back down the hill at 6 pm for the Thesis Public Presentations where I gulped down a couple of glasses of free wine to calm myself down a bit. Then I met R for dinner (where we got in a “fantastic” argument over something really stupid), picked up the car and the rest of our gear, and kept packing until about midnight. Good times. We began questioning whether or not this was a good idea. Maybe we should just call the whole thing off?
At this point we concluded it would get better and we had already invested a lot of time and energy into this process… So, we went to bed and the alarm went off really early. We had a few more hiccups, which I won’t bore you with, but finally, the two of us, our mountain bikes, a crapload of camping gear, with the white beast hauling all of it were on the road, for better or worse. Once we got on the road, we finally settled down and began to embrace the idea of getting away, exploring a new place, and (heaven forbid) perhaps even having fun!
It was enjoyable watching the terrain continue to change as we headed north. After about four hours, we stopped for a late breakfast in Bluff, Utah on the recommendation of our friend J. In this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, there is a great little coffee shop and restaurant called Comb Ridge Coffee. We had these freakishly amazing blue corn pancakes and some tasty coffee. Now we were feeling REALLY good. Yay for road trips and getting away!
We continued our trek north and enjoying the scenery and each other’s company. Finally, we arrived in Moab. We had done some preliminary research, and knew there was a number of Bureau of Land Management camp sites that were our best bet for a place to stay. So, we drove through downtown and confidently turned onto 128 with eager anticipation about picking out our camp site. We admired the canyon cut out by the Colorado River and began watching for campground signs. We drove through the first one – all taken. Okay, no big deal. Many more to go. Drove through the next one… all taken. Okay, we still have plenty of options. Well, as more miles progressed and we drove through more full campgrounds, our confidence and happy moods began to falter. Huh. Wow, these all filled up really quick. Twenty miles later, we reached the end of our options and concluded there was nothing available. Okay, well, there is other camping in the area. No big deal. We will just try some of the other locations. So, no need to drag you through the minutiae of our agony and failures to find just one. freakin’. spot. There is a happy ending of sorts. We did find a place to rest our weary heads. It just took us two hours, a lot of not trying to take it out on each other, and $20 to conclude that our best option was to set up camp in an open field along with a mixed bag of RV campers, mountain bikers, and off roaders. I squashed R’s skepticism, and said I want to stop and we WILL make this work.
I left R to unwind, and I headed back into Moab because I concluded we needed beer and we needed it stat! I picked up a growler at the local Moab Brewery, and then returned to help R finish setting up camp and unwind myself.
We concluded it was not exactly what we envisioned, but hey, we were finally camping! We were there. We were a bit sad at the wasted day. Clearly, our visions of getting in an afternoon hike were wrong. So, instead, we sat back and enjoyed the sunshine and the change of venue. We made a yummy dinner of steak and sautéed veggies (parsnips, potatoes, carrots, red pepper, fennel, and onion - most was from our CSA) and enjoyed that with the local brew. We enjoyed a little campfire and then called it a night. The next morning we enjoyed an omelet with cheese and the leftover veggies from last night. Yum, yum!
We had plans to spend most of the day at Arches National Park, but didn’t feel comfortable leaving our gear at its current location. This meant packing it all up, which meant giving it another go for another location. Again, will spare you the long drawn out story, but no go. However, some friends from Flag had made the last minute decision to head to Moab, and we soon heard that they scored a really great site near where we had been the night before. Great. We knew we had a place to sleep and some fun people to hang out with, too. Off to Arches we went… trying to ignore the ominous gray clouds that were quickly filling the sky. It could NOT rain on us, right???
Arches was amazing and beautiful. I highly recommend everyone consider going at some point. Rain continued to threaten to dampen our fun, but ultimately, we only had to deal with a few sprinkles. We also quickly realized that it was actually a good thing because it was keeping it cool. We did the hike to Delicate Arch, which is one of the most famous in the park, and from when we started to the end the clouds completely burned off and the temperature probably increased by about 15 degrees.
Although we had not made it all the way through the park, we decided to head back and locate our new campsite and set up camp again. We figured we could explore the rest of the park and the other hike Sunday afternoon after our bike ride.
Our other friends were off rock climbing (crazy people), so we set up camp and then decide to bike the couple of miles into downtown Moab and enjoy a beer at the Moab Brewery.
We were decidedly more relaxed and happy than when we started this crazy adventure. We were excited about having people to share a campsite with as that is always a more fun way to camp. After finishing our beer, we headed back to the campsite to start dinner (bean and veggie burritos). Everyone else arrived soon after we started prepping dinner and so all cooked and ate dinner together.
We then decided to go into Moab to check out the Art Walk that was happening that night and pick up some beer for campfire drinking. We wandered around for a while, and then we missed the closing time for the state liquor store (9 pm sharp!)… so no beer for us. We decided to have a drink in town and then head back to camp for the night. All in all it was a good day.
We had planned to eat breakfast in Moab our last day, then head out for a mountain bike ride, and end with a hike in Arches. Well, not all this happened, and everything took more time than I hoped. First, we had to pack all our gear up again so we didn’t get into town until about 10 am. Our friends who had been to Moab before kept raving about The Love Muffin Café, and I had also been interested in trying the Ekleticafe, which was a cute looking little hippe joint.
More Arches
However, there was a line out the door at The Love Muffin and Ekleticafe looked just as busy. So, we ended up down the block at the Jailhouse Café, which still was estimated to have about a half hour wait. So, we waited as that seemed to be what was going to be case for the day, and it had Eggs Benedict, which Robert expressed a hankering for. Well, it ended up being worth the wait. The place specializes in breakfast only, and was the location of the county’s original courthouse and jail. We also got to sit outside. Robert got the Southwest Benedict and I got the cheddar and bacon omelet. We will just have to go back and try the other two next time!
However, it meant it was after 11 by the time we finished breakfast and half our day was gone and we still had a 6 hour drive to factor in to our day plans. So, we decided to start with biking since we had dragged our bikes along and the biking was one of the draws to Moab. Most of the biking is quite technical, so we had few options that were “Cori friendly.” Based on recommendations, we decided to head out to the Bar M loop, which was a ways past Arches.
It started out well, then the trail split and R, who was in the lead went to the right. I tried to flag him down because based on the signage, I thought we should veer to the left. However, he kept going and I followed. Heh… that was my first mistake… After a little ways, we found more signage that made it clear we were now on Bar B (You may want to click on Bar B and read the trail description for better context of this story). R sez, this isn’t so bad. You are doing fine. Let’s keep going. Against my better judgment, I agreed to keep going. Eventually, the slick rock got the best of me and this happened.
I stuck it out though, with lots of bike walking and putting down of feet, and we finally ended up back on Bar M. Bar M was awesome. Great views. A trail that I felt comfortable on with a little challenge here and there. With the extra couple of miles and the scraped up legs, I was pretty much done by the time we got back to the car.
We concluded we would have to save the rest of Arches for our next trip and that we should start making our way back to Flag. We decided to grab lunch on our way out of town and went to the Peace Tree Café. I had an AMAZING spinach salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, bacon, and parmesan crisps along with a smoothie. Robert had a yummy looking Thai Peanut Chicken Wrap. It was a nice way to end our trip to Moab. I really wanted a tshirt because it had a tree with little peace signs instead of leaves, but they were super expensive.
Despite the headaches of preparing and the bike crash, it was a wonderful weekend getaway to celebrate the end of my first year at NAU and the start of the summer.
