Staircase Escalante, Capital Reef and Arches National Park

Day: 88 – 89
Date: 29/06 – 30/06
City: Boulder and Moab, Utah
Miles ridden: 270
Cumulative miles: 7882

In the morning we went back to the old western town and took pictures of the Trabbi.

On our list today was to visit the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. There we would see a landscape that looks like a huge staircase with cliff edges that look like giant stairs. Our first stop was at Tropics visitor centre where we got a map and some information about the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We found this old petrol station on our way out, lucky that we didn’t’ need petrol! By the way, petrol is called ‘gas’ in the US, which brings me to another question: Why is a bicycle called a pushbike in Australia? We don’t really push it J

During the day it got hotter and hotter, I guess the thermometer went over 100 degrees and getting in and out of the car was a shock every time. At Escalante, we stopped at the visitor centre which had a giant bronze lizard at the entrance.

A bit further down the street there was a nice green and shady rest area; they are not many around in the USA. We had a power nap under a tree on the lawn – it’s amazing how much cooler it is under a tree. Once reseted we continued to Boulder, on the way to which we came down from a mountain and looked over a large plain. The road down was meandering down below us and disappeared in the distance. We saw a couple of motorbikes riding below us, it was fun just watching them riding the curved road and disappearing into the horizon.

At boulder we had a look at the Anasazi State Park Museum where some excavation unearthed a small village from the Anasazi Indians. We had a look at the exhibition, the ruins

and a replica. I must admit it was nice and cool inside the replica houses.

When we left, Sigrid saw a motel opposite, so she asked for a price. The price was too high and no internet, but they referred us to another hotel ½ block down the road. Well the blocks must be large here, but we found a motel after driving a couple of minutes. The gate was open but the office door was closed. A sign indicated, self-service, take a key, have a look at the room, if you like it, stay and pay in the morning. The price and the amenities were written on the back of the key tag J. We took a room, the internet in the room didn’t work but as soon we went into the garden behind our room, we got reception. So we settled in a tree swing, in a shady place with lawn and wrote our blog and made a couple of Skype calls. After a while two dogs came to say hello and wanting us to play ‘catch the apple’ with them. They brought an apple from the ground, put it in front of you and expected you to throw it. When the apple was chewed trough, they jumped into the tree and picked a new one. That was fun.

We talked to Wombat and Val, they are in Tok. Val has a bit of a cold so they rested for a day and they will meet with Mike tomorrow. Mike didn’t get to Dead Horse, since it rained heavily for the last couple of weeks and the Dalton highway was boggy. Hope it dries out and that Wombat and Val have a good ride! In the evening we went for a stroll thought the neighbourhood and saw a nice sunset

The morning I updated my dairy for the last 3 days. Then we left for Capital reef. On the way we meet a couple of ‘wanna be burgers’, but honking the horn made them reluctantly move off the road:

I can only describe Capitol reef as ‘the view is stunning’. I wish I had a better camera! Well for the moment, but as soon we are on the bikes I wouldn’t have the space for it. Anyway, with plenty of stops at viewpoints we drove to the visitor centre.

Looking at the time we made the decision not to take the scenic road, which was 20 miles return. Instead we would have a look at the Petroglyphs and spend a bit of time on the Capital Dome. So we drove towards the exit of the park and had a look at the Petroglyphs (rock engravings),

Stopping at the Capitol Dome to take a couple of pictures- as a side note the dome is actually a remnant of an ancient Sahara like desert.

On the way to the dome we saw a small creek with a beach at the Hickman Bridge car park, so we decided to turned back and spend a bit of time there. Since it was very hot, we sat at the beach and put our feet into the small stream and just enjoyed the view.

After half an hour or so we continued to Moab. On the way we saw landscape that looked like a moon scape which seemed to go on forever,

But the shape and colour of the stones was consistently changing. It is hard to describe and impossible to capture truly on camera, so I just put a couple of pictures up for you to have a look at. I also noticed that since we started traveling by car, the blog gets more and more pictures J . After a while we arrived in Moab, most of the hotels were booked out or too expensive. We went to the information office; they recommended the Riverside inn for a reasonable price, so we got a room there. After a short rest we continued to the Arches National Park. As usual, we had a couple of stops

before we arrived at the Windows section (and no, the name has nothing to do with rebooting, it refers to the stone formation…). During this time the moon was rising, (well, the moon doesn’t rise, its really the earth which turns but ‘the earth was turning towards the moon’ …is a bit longwinded :-p) – which gave us a really nice view.

When we approached the North Window, it didn’t look spectacular, so Bryce, the Diddles and Sigrid were posing again.

When we came closer, the sheer size of the window became more obvious, I like the shot with the clouds in the background, it looks like a window to heaven J

Sigrid and Moon on the side of the North Window :-). Me sitting in the middle of the window.

Then we had a look at the South Window which was just around the corner.

Since the ‘earth turning away from sun’ was close (aka sunset), we went back to the car park to set the video time lapse mode to record the north window. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that we had seen.