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Wanderlusting Linley
Despite what you all think, the blog mostly fell behind because of poor wifi and more frequent location changes. Scout's honour. (Scout's cross their fingers when they say that, right?)
So Thursday 24 October had me waking up in Moab at a rather upmarket motel. Almost hotel quality. Almost. The microscopic towels let them down. They were roughly the size of postage stamps. And I’m lean. I’m not sure how those towels would go around the average American.
Moab is in short proximity to two of Utah’s famous national parks – Arches, and Canyonlands. Arches I had previously visited and was keen to do so again, but Canyonlands I hadn’t actually been into before. Canyonlands is overlooked by another famous spot in Utah – Dead Horse Point. Most of you will know this place from where Tom Cruise does his rock climbing at the beginning of Mission Impossible II. THAT’S Dead Horse Point. From there you can see well up into the main part of Canyonlands. I was planning to skip Dead Horse this time until The Yank mentioned he’d never been there. So I added it in. Now bear in mind The Yank has spent considerable months living in southern Utah. Stunning scenery is part of every day life there. But Dead Horse still blew him away. It’s a rough and wild place, dropping off to sheer cliffs on three sides, to overlook the goosenecks (big bendy parts of the river) below but it is also amazingly peaceful.
Another marvel of southern Utah is the fact that geographically speaking, it’s not an enormous place. Some of these places I’m visiting are only two or three hours from each other and the trip only takes that long because you have to drive tight insane roads to get there. The marvel is that they’re each so drastically different. As mentioned before, you can turn a corner and suddenly feel like you’re on another planet. It’s quite amazing. This is also the case with Arches and Canyonlands. Mere miles from each other but enormously different. At our first stop in Canyonlands, I learnt something new about The Yank. He appears to be alarmingly UNafraid of heights. And part mountain goat. I pointed out to him as he ambled along one cliff edge that I had no way of informing his mother how he wound up 5000 feet down a canyon should he slip. He shrugged it off and said I could just leave him there if he slipped because he wasn’t planning to slip. "You’ve got the car keys, right? Then it doesn’t matter," he said. Or something. I was really only paying attention to his feet at that point. Genius was wearing flip-flops.
We made our way from point to point in Canyonlands. Not unlike Bryce Canyon, the road through the park follows a ridge and you pull off to hike or view at each important point. With so much to see we didn’t have time to hike much but we did stop at the furtherest point in there, got the remains of the pizza from the night before, climbed up onto a rock 6000 feet up in the sky and basked in the sun as we ate lunch. Honestly. The day could not have gotten any better.
Side note – I had my first tumbleweed roll across the road in front of me. Very exciting!! I was driving along and yelled, “Look! A tumbleweed! That’s my first one!” The Yank thought me most strange. Although the second time one rolled across the road, he yelled and pointed it out and got excited on my behalf. Very sweet of him. Or very sarcastic. Jury is still out.
We stopped next at the Mesa Arch. This is a pretty famous piece of stone in Canyonlands. As the name might suggest, it is in fact an arch. And true to Utah tradition, absolutely nothing stops idiots from climbing onto it and posing for photos. Like The Yank did. I called out and asked if I’d be able to make it up there. “Hell no, you’d flip out,” was the immediate answer. So I stayed on Earth and took photos. The arch itself isn’t all that high. It’s the plunging million foot drop on the other side of it that is the bigger issue.
Sunset was slated to be back at Arches. There are heaps of things to see and do there, but Delicate Arch is kind of *the* place to go, especially at that time of day. The sucky part is the hike out to the thing. The trail is marked by little rock piles called cairns but pronounced nothing at all like the way we say it. Weirdos. And you simply make your way by going from cairn to cairn. Simple. Except for the hard arduous continual ***** of a slope up over some enormous rock that takes about half an hour to beat. Worth it though. Delicate Arch isn’t overly delicate. It’s huge. You could drive a semi through it. If you could get one up there. At the base of the arch, the rock just rolls away into this great hollow that can only be described as a bowl. It’s pretty spectacular and when the setting sun hits it, it’s something else.
Watching the mountain goat Yank scuttle around all over the rocks, as well as a few other twits doing the same thing, I thought we could be creative and walk below the arch – but above the bowl – and take a scenic route back, getting some uber cool photos in along the way. The Yank went frolic-leap-frolic-bound along the base of the arch with such grace, it fooled me into thinking it was dead easy. (With my camera bag on his back, and the tripod in his hand, just to add insult to injury.) Easy until I got half way along the ledge and realised my feet were on a 45 degree piece of sheer rock with b***** all for me to hang onto. I locked. And of course there were more mountain goats coming along behind me going “What’s the problem?” The Yank, bless his flip-flop wearing feet, came back, took my hand and pulled me along.
Photos came out great, once I recovered my equilibrium. Strolled off that rock back to the car park (in the near dark) thinking “Never a-freaking-gain.” I’ll go back to Arches naturally. But I will most likely stay on the correct side of the bowl and not be a nitwit.
Had Mexican for dinner (wasn’t terrible) then sprawled in the motel’s hot tub for an hour or so. Ten degrees outside, a thousand degrees in the hot tub. Had to find that fine line of just how far to hang over the edge of the hot tub so as not to freeze or boil.
Another side note – I’ve never come across so many horrendous pillows in my life!!! I think motels must all buy their pillows from the same terrible, shapeless, lumpy, unsupportive, neck-busting place. Rant over. Hmph.
So Thursday 24 October had me waking up in Moab at a rather upmarket motel. Almost hotel quality. Almost. The microscopic towels let them down. They were roughly the size of postage stamps. And I’m lean. I’m not sure how those towels would go around the average American.
Moab is in short proximity to two of Utah’s famous national parks – Arches, and Canyonlands. Arches I had previously visited and was keen to do so again, but Canyonlands I hadn’t actually been into before. Canyonlands is overlooked by another famous spot in Utah – Dead Horse Point. Most of you will know this place from where Tom Cruise does his rock climbing at the beginning of Mission Impossible II. THAT’S Dead Horse Point. From there you can see well up into the main part of Canyonlands. I was planning to skip Dead Horse this time until The Yank mentioned he’d never been there. So I added it in. Now bear in mind The Yank has spent considerable months living in southern Utah. Stunning scenery is part of every day life there. But Dead Horse still blew him away. It’s a rough and wild place, dropping off to sheer cliffs on three sides, to overlook the goosenecks (big bendy parts of the river) below but it is also amazingly peaceful.
Another marvel of southern Utah is the fact that geographically speaking, it’s not an enormous place. Some of these places I’m visiting are only two or three hours from each other and the trip only takes that long because you have to drive tight insane roads to get there. The marvel is that they’re each so drastically different. As mentioned before, you can turn a corner and suddenly feel like you’re on another planet. It’s quite amazing. This is also the case with Arches and Canyonlands. Mere miles from each other but enormously different. At our first stop in Canyonlands, I learnt something new about The Yank. He appears to be alarmingly UNafraid of heights. And part mountain goat. I pointed out to him as he ambled along one cliff edge that I had no way of informing his mother how he wound up 5000 feet down a canyon should he slip. He shrugged it off and said I could just leave him there if he slipped because he wasn’t planning to slip. "You’ve got the car keys, right? Then it doesn’t matter," he said. Or something. I was really only paying attention to his feet at that point. Genius was wearing flip-flops.
We made our way from point to point in Canyonlands. Not unlike Bryce Canyon, the road through the park follows a ridge and you pull off to hike or view at each important point. With so much to see we didn’t have time to hike much but we did stop at the furtherest point in there, got the remains of the pizza from the night before, climbed up onto a rock 6000 feet up in the sky and basked in the sun as we ate lunch. Honestly. The day could not have gotten any better.
Side note – I had my first tumbleweed roll across the road in front of me. Very exciting!! I was driving along and yelled, “Look! A tumbleweed! That’s my first one!” The Yank thought me most strange. Although the second time one rolled across the road, he yelled and pointed it out and got excited on my behalf. Very sweet of him. Or very sarcastic. Jury is still out.
We stopped next at the Mesa Arch. This is a pretty famous piece of stone in Canyonlands. As the name might suggest, it is in fact an arch. And true to Utah tradition, absolutely nothing stops idiots from climbing onto it and posing for photos. Like The Yank did. I called out and asked if I’d be able to make it up there. “Hell no, you’d flip out,” was the immediate answer. So I stayed on Earth and took photos. The arch itself isn’t all that high. It’s the plunging million foot drop on the other side of it that is the bigger issue.
Sunset was slated to be back at Arches. There are heaps of things to see and do there, but Delicate Arch is kind of *the* place to go, especially at that time of day. The sucky part is the hike out to the thing. The trail is marked by little rock piles called cairns but pronounced nothing at all like the way we say it. Weirdos. And you simply make your way by going from cairn to cairn. Simple. Except for the hard arduous continual ***** of a slope up over some enormous rock that takes about half an hour to beat. Worth it though. Delicate Arch isn’t overly delicate. It’s huge. You could drive a semi through it. If you could get one up there. At the base of the arch, the rock just rolls away into this great hollow that can only be described as a bowl. It’s pretty spectacular and when the setting sun hits it, it’s something else.
Watching the mountain goat Yank scuttle around all over the rocks, as well as a few other twits doing the same thing, I thought we could be creative and walk below the arch – but above the bowl – and take a scenic route back, getting some uber cool photos in along the way. The Yank went frolic-leap-frolic-bound along the base of the arch with such grace, it fooled me into thinking it was dead easy. (With my camera bag on his back, and the tripod in his hand, just to add insult to injury.) Easy until I got half way along the ledge and realised my feet were on a 45 degree piece of sheer rock with b***** all for me to hang onto. I locked. And of course there were more mountain goats coming along behind me going “What’s the problem?” The Yank, bless his flip-flop wearing feet, came back, took my hand and pulled me along.
Photos came out great, once I recovered my equilibrium. Strolled off that rock back to the car park (in the near dark) thinking “Never a-freaking-gain.” I’ll go back to Arches naturally. But I will most likely stay on the correct side of the bowl and not be a nitwit.
Had Mexican for dinner (wasn’t terrible) then sprawled in the motel’s hot tub for an hour or so. Ten degrees outside, a thousand degrees in the hot tub. Had to find that fine line of just how far to hang over the edge of the hot tub so as not to freeze or boil.
Another side note – I’ve never come across so many horrendous pillows in my life!!! I think motels must all buy their pillows from the same terrible, shapeless, lumpy, unsupportive, neck-busting place. Rant over. Hmph.
- comments
kitten cool
kitten i found it - i think ive got this - the pics are awesome :) xo