The First Ride in Moab

Moab of the Red Rocks. I can't tell you how excited I was to get here. I ended up staying in a small private campground in Moab. It was nice and had shower facilities that I used well. The next day was to be the first time the bikes were taken out of their seclusion.

I had been checking out these roads on the maps for weeks now, as Herself can attest. I drove out from Moab on the north side of the Colorado River. I think it was about seven miles out from town when Long Canyon presents itself as a side canyon to the main one the Colorado River is now in. The rocks here were unbelievable. This is a popular climbing area as well.

The bike finally is released from its bondage to go to the hills. One of the first arches I saw in the Moab area was one right here where I parked my car. The Jug Handle Arch. It is a side arch extending off the face of the cliff.



The road starts out as paved, until you get to a mining operation. This is obtaining potash from the below ground here and is extracted as a liquid. The slurry is then put in evaporation ponds to solidify.
Some of the early sights were the red striped rocks and the way the roads are not gravel but rocks.

The earlier reference to Thelma & Louise was for all you movie buffs out there. In the final scene of the movie the two characters decide the only way out of their problems is to be found at the bottom of the cliff they found themselves at. The Colorado River is 1400 feet straight down to the right. I guess they had to go get the car they sent over the cliff. As typical of this area there is no protection of any sort.


The next item on the ride agenda was the Shafer Trail. This is a dirt road that takes you from the White Rim Trail, which completely encircles the Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky Unit, up to the plateau that actully forms the "Island". This trail is 15-20% grade the whole way. A comparison for GH folk, 5 Mile Hill is between 8 to 9% grade. The views are staggering, and the effort is beyond belief. Very few go up this trail except by means of a motor. This actually did not turn out to be the most demanding part of the ride. I just put it in low gear and kept plodding along. At one point I had to stop and talk to a ranger that was on his way out to install a traffic counter on the White Rim Trail. I had to be sociable "ya know".



The road then reaches the top of the plateau, where the "Island in the Sky" name comes from. This is a relative term as there are still ups and downs. Oh, yeah, did I mention the wind? Holy Crap! I had about 4 miles of riding to do to get to my turn down Long Canyon. This was the most psychologically draining riding I have ever done. I was beginning to get a little tired from the earlier riding, and the top of the plateau was cold and the wind was blowing into my face at at least 25 knots. "This is the season", as they say out here. I was heading for the turn off at the Knoll as seen in the road photo. As soon as I made that right turn, it was literally "all down hill from there"!


Long Canyon is a tight little gash that leads down to a more open area above the Colorado River. I was truly glad I was going down this and not up. There were some stretches that were very sandy and torn up from the jeep traffic that is also a very popular activity here.
As you can see from the photo of the big chunk of rock it was a good thing I had me helmet on in case something like that happened while I was riding under it. That would leave a big mark.


I finally came around the last corner of the canyon looking up at the Jug Handle Arch and then saw my cute little blue car. I was happy to be done but was well worth the effort.
An unbelievable place to ride.