The adventures never end when you meander out to Moab, UT. Our second trip to Moab this year didn't disappoint in making memories and seeing beautiful scenery. Our only wish for this trip was to have the temperatures be above 60 degrees. We were in luck when it finally hit 55 and the frigid wind died down!!! We were supposed to be going to WARMER weather...oops!
Our first day there was the nicest. We set up camp and quickly hit the trails to take advantage of the warm sun. Top Of The World was the first trail. Rated as "red/difficult," we were interested to see id we could make it all the way to the top, and we weren't disappointed. There were some pretty challenging spots where we had to choose some careful tire placement. The view at thew top was spectacular!!! Steep cliff that dropped off straight down opened up to a valley of red and green rocks with the snow capped LaSal Mountains as the perfect backdrop. In the distance you could see the amazing rock formations reaching to the sky! Wow!!!
We camped at Cowskin Campground (how'd they come up with that name???). It had three sites, a picnic table, a vault toilet with no roof or door, but hey it was free and had lots of room for Jadeyn to roam around, explore and climb! By the way, he was a great little camper. This was his first tent camp trip outside of his pack'n'play. We were certain that he wouldn't stay in his sleeping bag. He did great and slept better than he does at home!!!!
The next morning was pretty chilly. We loaded up the RZR and headed to Onion Creek Trail. At the last minute, we grabbed extra jackets, a couple hats, Jadeyn's gloves and a blanket. We used ALL of them. The trail began winding through a beautiful red rock canyon. Twenty four river crossings in about two miles!!! It would have been so much more fun if we had been able to blast across them and shower ourselves...not gunna happen when its only in the high 40s and an icy wind to freeze us!! The wild flowers were in full bloom and we so much fun to watch fly past us and occasionally stop to take a picture.
At the end of Onion Creek, we continued on to Thompson Canyon where we wound through and climbed on varried terrain. The red and green rocks contrasted beautifully; the only thing missing was the blue sky!! We climed and climbed higher in the mountains and actually reached redwoods!! Oh, and we came upon a beautiful snake sunning himself in the middle of the trail! The temperatures dropped as we climbed above 8,000 feet and then the snow began to fall! Really?! Snow!!?!?! We reached the end of the trail and examined the mining structures and some old abandoned shacks and looked over the edge to the valley and then quickly jumped back in the RZR and headed to lower elevations! We found a nice spot by the river to have lunch, take advantage of a break in the clouds to warm up and let Jadeyn chuck rocks into the water.
Dome Plateau
Our next trail was a "moderate" trail rock steps, ledges, arches, caves and nice challenges. There were a few places with a few different path options over the difficult stuff and even the "easier routes" were a bit tricky. We came upon a nice family from Salt Lake who had gotten stuck and couldn't get their Ranger up a steep incline. We bought a winch for our RZR hoping we'd never have to use it ourselves, but we got to lend a helping hand and pull these guys up the ledge. It worked like a charm!
The coolest features along this path were the caves which lines a whole stretch of sandstone. These caves had relatively small openings, but then opened way up inside and were filled with the finest sand! You could really imagine some nice camping going on on the soft stuff, out of the elements. It was pretty sweet to run up the sandy slope and feel the quietness.
That evening we huddled around the campfire and treated ourselves to some delicious s'mores. Then we hit the sack early, or at least we hit the tent early and stayed up reading snuggled in our sleeping bags! In the morning, we awoke to blue skies, but snow and ice on the tent. Wait...we are in Moab, aren't we? Where did the snow come from?!??! Since we were camped up against a huge sandstone wall, it would be awhile before the sun would reach us. We hiked up the road a bit until we hit the sun-line and played with Jadeyn as we followed it's progress back to camp. When the sun was finally high enough to reach our camp, we fixed blueberry pancakes and bacon!! Then the tough decision to pack up or stay. The weather today was supposed to be 10 degrees colder than yesterday and no wind. This would have been fine, but I-70 is predicted to get snow tomorrow for the drive home. After our last I-70 trip, that was motivation enough to call it a very fun and full weekend!
So....we'll just have to do Moab trip #3 soon to do the rest of the trails!
