Terrain & Route Map, Moab to Rile, Colorado
Terrain & Route Map, Moab to Rile, ColoradoToday would be a mixed day – we spend the morning and early afternoon exploring Arches National Park, just outside of town. This park, like yesterday’s Canyonlands, has interesting, somewhat unique visual appeal, with natural sandstone arches and other effects. It’s also one of those where the fragile off-road environment means you follow the paved roads and trails only, no hiking off into the desert wastelands except on pre-planned routes. We stopped at the Visitor Center first for a quick look-see, then took the winding park entrance road up, up, up onto the plateau and motored on through. We stopped at a dozen or so scenic vantage points where you could walk a short ways on concrete sidewalks to the natural wonders, or view from afar.
About half way through, Hal and I took the 1.5 mile hike to see Landscape Arch, a famous, fragile span. The hike to the more iconic Delicate Arch was a bit too long for us to attempt in the hundred-degree heat.
Mid afternoon, we came down off the plateau, crossed back over the Colorado River, and headed north-east along a scenic state by-way, heading for I-70 and then on to Colorado. Once we hit I-70, the scenery flattened out and became somewhat monotonous in comparison, and for some reason I didn’t take any pictures as we motored into Colorado, past Grand Junction, and up into the mountains to Rifle, where we pulled off, treated ourselves to some Sonic cheeseburgers, and encomped in another Walmart parking lot.
Part 1 – Arches
After packing up at the KOA, we buzzed through town, mailed a couple of postcards, and headed up the road a bit to Arches National Park. The Visitor Center was right at the base of the cliffs, and after messing around there for a while, we took the winding road up into the park proper. The switchback climbed up several hundred feet to the top of the mesa. No guardrails or anything that would spoil the natural beauty. Hal drove. I photo’ed out the window. It got a bit nerve wracking when Hal would drop a lit cigarette down between his feet and then bend over to feel around on the floor with his head under the steering wheel, and I watched the edges of a precipice pass by under our wheels.
First stop was the area known as “Park Avenue” – huge monoliths of red sandstone forming a natural canyon.
Once we reached the top of the mesa, we simply followed the laid-out route that most people have to take here. Arches is one of those national parks were there is a limited amount of public access to the ‘land’, off the paved and controlled roadways. The earth around here is biologically sensitive, full of what they call ‘cyanobacteria’ and just walking on it can cause actual, serious damage. So there are paved roads, and fixed trails that you MUST follow, and the powers that be frown on unscheduled side trips out across the dirt. So you’re in the odd situation of visiting a preserved national park, and being forced to drive and/or walk only on pavement or concrete. Learn More Here
After leaving Park Avenue, we noodled around a bit and came upon a couple of iconic red sandstone monuments in the park, the famous “Three Gossips” superstructure, atop a ridge to the left, and the equally famous and larger “Courthouse Tower” monolith.
As the Courthouse faded behind us, the land to our east was a panorama of hot, red sandstone and earth. We headed towards the famous “Balancing Rock” where a large bulbous boulder was perched precariously atop a pillar of un-eroded dirt, and threatened to topple over onto an unsuspecting tourist at any time. The rock is bigger than it looks in most pictures, since there’s often very little to provide scale. It’s easily the size of a semi-truck tractor.
After the Rock, we took o right turn onto a side road that past “Elephants Walk” and out to the Double Arch, where two arches formed just yards apart. You were allowed to walk out to the base of the Double, and there’s a shot here that shows the scale of these monuments.
Retracing our route back out the main road, we headed north, across vast flat plains of dry, dusty sandstone that seemed to stretch out forever in the distance. Next up on the route was the trail off towards the famous Delicate Arch, the arch you see on all the tourist promos for Utah. We took the side road to it, past the Wolfe Ranch, and at the trailhead, looked longingly at the Arch. It was a four mile hike there, and then back for another four. In 106′ heat. I wasn’t so sure we’d survive. So after some thought, and a cooling iced tea in the RV, we took some pictures of the far-off icon and headed back out to the main road.
We took some pics of the area, but unfortunately this was the closest we’d get to the famous Arch. So we headed back out to the main drag, and followed it along, to and fro, through the park past flat desert landscape, jagged rocky outcroppings, and large standing monoliths. We saw the signs to the next ‘big thing’, the tenuous and narrow “Landscape Arch” – this arch is thin and resembles nothing so much as a spiderweb in sandstone. The trail to it is about a mile, they said. Hal and I decided to do it. The AC in the RV was running full blast, and Melissa demurred. The trail head loomed, with cars and RVs for the people already on the trail. We pulled in and started out. The trail wound around through tall walls of stone. It was fairly level and flat though, so that helped. I tried not to huff and puff tooooooo much. After about half an hour of hiking, we turned a corner and could see the Landscape Arch in the near distance. We’d been seeing folks coming back along the same trail the whole time. Signs announced that chunks of the arch had fallen off recently (to no one’s physical detriment, luckily). Hal said he didn’t think the thing would last out the year, but it has, so far. But we got there, I took a bunch of pictures, and we hiked back, without incident.
We hiked back to the RV and finished up the tour – by now we were headed down the home stretch, the last few sights along the main road, and then down the Perilous Highway back out to flat land.
Along the Colorado, and on to Colorado
We exited the park, and headed for the next part of our journey – we’d be taking a Scenic Byway up along the Colorado River for a couple of dozen miles, and then we’d come out onto a flat plateau and hook back up with Interstate 70, headed east towards Colorado. The river ride was pretty, but once we came out of it, there wasn’t much but flat boring desert.
I’m not sure why I didn’t take many pictures of the run into Colorado. It was late afternoon but there was still light. It’s the one chunk of scenic trip I have no record of. We crossed in to Colorful Colorado, passed by Grand Junction, and stopped for the night in the little town of Rifle, where we ate a a Sonic burger or two and enjoyed the cool mountain air. We found a Walmart SuperCenter and parked for the night. It had been a long, hot day.
Day 11 – 222 Miles, Two States
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