Moab, Utah

 

Summer Vacation 2017, “Out West!”






Day 10:  Park City, UT to Dead Horse Canyon State Park to Moab, UT


  1. 1)A nice drive through much drier countryside  

  2. ⁃Watching Desolation Point arise on the horizon, grow, passing it, and seeing it fade in our rear-view mirrors

  3. 2)Dead Horse Canyon State Park

  4. 3)Moab

  5. 4)Seeing the once-wild, now clearly tamed, Colorado River literally five feet down the embankment off the side parking lot of the Marriott Fairfield Inn, Moab, UT

  6. ⁃Dad seeing a beaver in the bushes at the bottom of the embankment, then becoming quickly sorry that he talked so loudly to Mom, to let her know to “come quick,” and scaring the beaver off in the process.



Day 11:  Moab, UT and Arches National Park


  1. 1)Celebrated Mass at St. Pius X Catholic Church

  2. 2)Arches National Park in the 105-degree heat of Moab, UT

  3. 3)Pool time

  4. 4)Dinner in Moab

  5. 5)“Moonset o’er Moab” photos by Abby






Photos:


This was one of our longer drives.  We arrived and the rooms were nice and it was good to stretch after the time in the van.


And then I realized that it was almost sunset right there where we were, “in the valley.”


So Ann Marie and I went to see it... I literally had time to stand up the tripod and capture this video... timing was just that close to missing it.






When we first booked the Fairfield Inn and Suites we were both surprised that

  1. 1)we needed to invoke “the status card” to get a room... it was fully booked in August, 10 months before we arrived.  That helps explain why they are building a second Moab Marriott on the adjoining property.  Still... call ahead.

  2. 2)the hotel is literally right on the Colorado river... hotel - parking lot asphalt - slight hill and you’re wet right in the river. 

    It’s interesting and sad that the mighty Colorado River,

    which both caused so much damage from its floods over the years,

    and which could be harnessed to make electricity to power the dry desert west, and to also “save the property...”

    is now so predictable in its water levels (which sure, are incredibly low downstream... Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam and Lake Powell behind the Glen Canyon Dam are at record lows from the extended drought) that you can build a hotel right on its banks.



So Ann Marie and I visited the river.

I saw my first beaver right there in the water, called to Ann Marie to “come over here and see this,” and then spooked it away.  Ahem.







Arches National Park and much of southeast Utah have some of the darkest skies in the world.


When I asked the hotel host, she recommended that we go stargaze at Hell’s Revenge, so we did.  It is apparently a place to go off-roading... we couldn’t see much... barely could see the parking lot with the van’s lights off... but the sky... so many stars.


While the iPhone + ProCamera can capture the night time sky pretty well, the need for sleep led to only these images - good, but shorter than desired.


This is a print screen from the Distant Suns app, showing the Big and Little Dippers, both part of the Big and Little Bears.  Polaris, the North Star, is the one in the middle that hadn’t moved.  And two planes flew by, too.


Yes, these are the same stars of Scorpio and Sagittarius that Abby and I captured at Devils Tower last Saturday night  (http://vanvooren.us/OutWest/Climbing_Devils_Tower.html), at almost the same time.







We celebrated Mass at St. Pius X Catholic Church, ...







... got breakfast, and then visited Arches National Park


http://vanvooren.us/OutWest/Arches_National_Park.html







After Arches, and then some pool time, we went to get dinner.

As we walked back to the car, Abby spotted the moon, and she captured these images of “Moonset o’er Moab.”







The next morning, Abby captured this flower outside the hotel.








In Moab, we were briefly back down to the lowest point on our trip - 4,000 feet in elevation, and we’d soon be to the highest point in our trip - Vail.







Moab has a bike trail that starts right across the bridge leading into town.  We walked across the trail’s bridge, to say we crossed the Colorado on foot.








And then we left for Vail, CO.













Note:  we captured all other photos using ProCamera, by Cocologics.


See also http://vanvooren.us/Photography for more photography links





Links to the rest of this travel journal:


  1. 1)Out West 2017 - Highlights 1

  2. 2)Out West 2017 - Highlights 2



  3. 3)Out West 2017 - STL to Cheyenne

  4. 4)Out West 2017 - Cheyenne to SD to Devils Tower

  5. 5)Out West 2017 - Climbing Devils Tower

  6. 6)Out West 2017 - Devils Tower to Cody

  7. 7)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Day 1

  8. 8)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Bison

  9. 9)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Yellowstone Falls

  10. 10)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Day 2

  11. 11)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Grand Prismatic Spring Video

  12. 12)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone NP - Old Faithful Video

  13. 13)Out West 2017 - Yellowstone to Grand Tetons to Jackson

  14. 14)Out West 2017 - Mad River

  15. 15)Out West 2017 - Jackson, WY

  16. 16)Out West 2017 - Jackson to Park City

  17. 17)Out West 2017 - Park City

  18. 18)Out West 2017 - Park City to Moab

  19. 19)Out West 2017 - Moab, UT

  20. 20)Out West 2017 - Arches National Park

  21. 21)Out West 2017 - Moab to Vail, CO

  22. 22)Out West 2017 - Vail, CO

  23. 23)Out West 2017 - Vail to DEN to STL to home














 

Moab

Day 10 - Saturday, June 24, 2017 to Day 12 - Monday. June 26, 2017