Hiking around Moab, Utah

Delicate Arch

Park Avenue

I’ve had a great time hiking at Moab. The weather has been nothing but sunshine and after chilly early mornings it gets warm in the daytime. The distinctive red rock has been weathered into dramatic shapes everywhere you look, literally everywhere. Unlike Monument Valley where the unusual formations were isolated among the desert landscape, the formations are prolific, often within canyons, but still surrounded by the desert scrub. I’m surprised at how busy it is everywhere; the hotels here are full and the trailhead parking areas are packed. I’m also surprised how many huge trucks are rolling through the town because it is in the middle of nowhere and it isn’t on the way to anywhere apart from a selection of national parks. I came through here before on the way to and from Monument Valley when the weather wasn’t good.

The day after the half marathon I headed back to the same area to do a couple of hikes that were off the canyon road. First I hiked in Grandstaff Canyon four miles out and back to the Morning Glory Arch. This was a peaceful canyon with lots greenery. The trail followed a stream and it had to be crossed several times; at first this was easy but later on I ended up getting wet shoes. The sand would then stick to my shoes and I was back to having disgusting dirty shoes again. The trail ended at an arch, but unfortunately it was an arch with huge rocks behind it so you could hardly see that it was an arch.

Next I did the four mile hike at Fishers Towers. This might have been the best hike of the lot. Fishers Towers are huge slabs of rock sticking up from the surrounding boulder fields; they have jagged edges but have little depth so they looked to me like placards standing up saying Here I am. First off I managed to get on the wrong trail and came to a dead end; there were some climbers on the trail too and at the dead end they just jumped down into the abyss but I wasn’t keen to follow. My GPS came to the rescue and I wondered why the trailhead sign neglected to say that there are two distinct trails here.

Once on the right trail I loved it. I wound along canyon edges, sometimes high and sometimes low, with views of the towers and down into the canyons. The trail practically went around the towers so I could see them from all angles. One, called the TItan, was amazingly tall. The canyon walking reminded me of the mesa I ran inside at Monument Valley: a tumbled mess of rocks and a feeling of privacy. In the distance were snow capped mountains and I could see isolated buttes on the horizon. 

The trail, which was elevated and along rocks towards the end, finished atop a boulder, where a sign said Trail ends here. I did not immediately grasp the significance of this sign. I sat down, then thought that the view might be better from the next boulder along so I clambered down off the trail boulder and onto the other one. Problem: when it was time to start back on the trail I could not get back onto the trail boulder because it was too big and too smooth and there was no way to go around it. Fortunately there was a couple sitting there and they helped me up!

The next day it was time to see the sandstone arches that Moab is famous for so I headed to Arches National Park. I started with the three mile Delicate Arch trail, to the park's most famous site. The trail was nothing special, mostly on a sandy trail and along slickrock, but the arch is most impressive. It’s a huge arch but it’s also unusual in being out in the open on the slickrock and isolated; all the other arches in the park are in among rock formations and quite difficult to see properly until you are right by them.

Then I did the two mile Windows trail to a pair of arches side by side which look like a pair of glasses when seen from their back side. On the front side another trail led to the Turret Arch and when I climbed beyond this arch I could see a little window beside the arch. This sounds like a major discovery but I believe they have identified 2000 arches and windows in the park. They knew of 97 of them when the National Park was created.

Next I did the even shorter hike called Park Avenue. Before hiking I sat on a rock to eat my lunch, a sandwich snaffled from breakfast (because I like to practise my routines) and while I was eating a man asked me to take a photo of him and his woman. He even acknowledged that he was interrupting my lunch. I could have sworn there were five other people there he could have asked so he must have been sure I would take the best pic.

Park Avenue was lined by slab rocks like the Fishers Towers, but the highlight of the trail was the view of the Courthouse Rocks at the far end, large intricately worn buttes and multi-headed needles. I could make out the jury seated in two rows, the judge and the accused, who was shackled to two other people. But then someone came along and threw me saying Wow, that really does look like a bighorn sheep, and later I learned that the rock I had taken for a shackled defendent is known as the Three Gossips.

On the short distance back to the car I managed to go off the trail and ended up in a side canyon. I could hear lots of voices, presumably climbers high above me as I saw nobody.

I thought I was done for the day so I went back to Moab for a coffee at Maccas, but while there I decided to do one more hike. So I headed out to the Corona Arch trailhead, up a road similar to the one we ran along but on the other side of the Colorado River. This was only a short two mile hike but very pleasant in the late afternoon. After climbing from the road I was among a morass of rock and canyons and much of the trail was across slickrock, with an assisted section and a short ladder. This arch was a bit different from the others as it resembled a flying buttress rather than being a complete arch. 

Today I went back to Arches to do a longer hike in the Devils Garden area. It was supposed to be seven miles but with all the extra bits I did I think it was at least nine miles. I started with hiking to Landscape Arch (via Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch). Landscape is the longest arch in the park, or maybe the world, and is roped off because some large bits fell off in 1991. You can sit under all the other arches and this is very popular even though you can’t see the arch when you’re under it.

From here the trail is rated primitive, a term which means little to me although I have now learned that there will be inadequate trail markers. The trail markers are tiny, and I mean tiny, cairns which you can never see when in doubt about where to walk. So I went wrong almost immediately. I thought there were lots of other people on the trail but nobody was around to follow and I went the wrong way. There are so many people out hiking that usually I just go where there are a lot of footprints on the ground but I think lots of folk must go the wrong way because this strategy once again proved most unreliable. GPS to the rescue, again. Then I ended up, in company, on top of a long stretch of slickrock boulder and nobody knew which way to go. We had to wait for other walkers coming towards us to see where they came from. Meanwhile I could admire the Devils Garden, a dense mass of tall rocks called fins.

The hike took us to Double O Arch which was an impressive arch with two openings, one above the other, and then I continued to Black Angel, a tower-like rock with a blackened exterior. From here was an excellent view down over a vast area of salt flats. Next came Private Arch, which took some boulder hopping to reach and was quite secluded. From here there was a lot of slickrock to traverse and some of it quite tricky. I had to do plenty of jumping and clambering. Fortunately there were plenty of the tiny cairns for guidance. I’m very surprised that in this litigious country there are trails like this one which come with only moderate warnings but must see lots of accidents. The last mile of the trail was a sandy path; it was hard going in the hot sunshine and I hadn’t worn my gaiters so my shoes were full of sand, but I didn’t get wet at all.