Day 5 Hanksville to Moab
Mileage 270 miles, States – Utah
Miles ahead of schedule 81 miles
Hanksville wasn’t much more than a junction and
two motels. We hit the road and soon found ourselves traveling through the Glen
Canyon, alongside the Colorado River on its way southwest to, what some would
consider, its master piece – The Grand Canyon.
We forged our way up stream, eastward bound for
Natural Bridges National Park. Any minute we were expecting to see a road
runner and a coyote balancing rocks on cliff edges. Meep Meep!
The views of rose colored cliffs, buttes, standing
rocks, rock walls with hanging caves (sometimes called arches) continued to
draw gasps of amazement from us such that our conversation for miles upon miles
seemed to be a continued exchange of “Wow!” “Look at that!” and at one point
“Oh God , I can’t stand it anymore – it’s too beautiful!”
We made it to Natural Bridges around lunchtime
which was unfortunate since it didn’t have a restaurant, or even a café. We did
manage to buy a couple of granola bars and some trail mix in the gift shop.
Luckily, we’d stocked the car with lots of water. We’d hardly starve in an
afternoon, but dehydration is a real risk in these dry parts.
There are three bridges to view on a 9 mile loop.
At each one you can take a hike down beneath them. This involves step hiking in
often extreme temperatures. We chose to hike down to the first one we came to, Sipapu
Bridge.
In places, it was so steep the trail was actually
a ladder.
There were steep drop-offs. This trail sign tickled me. If you needed to be told this,you shouldn't be hiking here!
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| Sign says, "This is not a trail. Turn Back." |
I don’t have a good head for heights, but the
splendor of my surroundings proved to be a great distraction, and I made it
down to the bottom. (Going up was actually easier mentally, if not physically.)
From here you could hike along an unmaintained
trail to the other two bridges, better still if you had a second driver and set
up a shuttle.
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| Kechina Bridge |
We hope to come back and focus more on hiking this
area than driving next time!
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| Owachomo Bridge |
From Natural Bridges we headed to the Needles, a
more remote section in the southern area of Canyonlands National Park. This
part of the park got its name from the rock pinnacles banded in red and white,
with sculptured rock spires, arches and canyons.
We had earmarked this as a
possible camping night, but as we approached the park, leaden clouds gave a
stunning backdrop to the terracotta red walls of rock we drove between. We’d
watched the clouds all day, as fascinated with their shapes and colors as we’d
been with the land they rolled across. Yesterday, we’d wished we were
geologists, today we wished were meteorologists! Especially when we noticed that the undersides of the clouds reflected the red earth below, turning them pink even before sunset.
The most special moment in a day that had already
set the bar high for special, was when a double rainbow sprung up, contrasted
perfectly against pewter clouds above a gigantic red wall of rock. By the time
we’d screeched to a halt (the road was empty so we just stopped right in our
tracks) and gotten out, the double rainbow had merged into one with more vivid
colors than I’d ever seen before.
The storm clouds on the horizon swallowed what was
left of the evening, leaving us without the sunset we had hoped for. Sprinkles
of rain made us think twice about camping. Besides, we’d no food. It felt like
we were on the “Drive Yourself Thinner” diet!
So we decided to break our “no road tripping in
the dark” rule (well, rules are made to be broken!) and blasted the 81 miles
straight to Moab. Once there, we’d have made up the miles we’d lost the day
before and even have gained some, since that was our port of call the next
evening as well. Two nights in the one spot! That’s a commitment, next thing
we’d be checking out real estate…
As night fell, a bolt of lightning on the horizon
lit up the sky in a yellow flash! What a treat. We continued to reel in natures
splendor as another bolt cracked open the sky on the other side of us. Rain
lashed the car, and the windscreen wipers got the best work out ever. We were
so glad we weren’t camping! Another cloud, white and billowy, unlike the others
lit up in a golden glow. This, My Husband told me, was an electrical discharge
within the cloud. I’d never seen anything like it, more used to sheet
lightening in Ireland and rarely seeing any in California.
We felt especially blessed to have witnessed this
on the one evening we choose to drive in the dark.***Please see footnote.
As we approached Moab, described in the guide
books as a happening hub for the National Parks in the area, the roadside
motels all displayed a sign that struck dread into my heart. “No Vacancy”s all
the way into town. My Husband got on the phone and began calling ahead too.
Three in a row full – I could over hear the third one telling My Husband that
the entire town was booked out. Would we have to camp after all? Would our tent
even be waterproof enough? The next town, 50 miles away might be full too.
The forth call – the Riverside Inn said, yes, they
had a room for $119 + tax. My Husband reserved it there and then, and five
minutes later we pulled up outside it. It looked nice from the outside…but
looks can be deceptive.
The lobby smelled strongly of “pine fresh”
cleaner. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. We found our room and went
back to the car for our luggage and noticed that the “No Vacancy” sign was now
lit. We decided that if we were a Wild West outlawed gang our name would have
to be the Last-Room-Lee Gang.
It might have been better than camping in the
thunder storm, but the room was dirty, very dirty. The carpet felt tacky
against bare feet. The sideboard was covered in food crumbs and there was some spilt liquid, now dried
to a translucent syrup. And the bathroom – ewgh! Earlier, on the way out to the
car I’d noticed not just a laundry room but also a bottle on Clorox on the shelf
above the sink. I sacrificed one of the facecloths and set too cleaning the
room. It’s amazing what a half cup of Clorox down the loo can achieve! It’s not
the first hotel room I’ve cleaned before – I’ve done this in France, India, and
Canada (but at least I got paid to do it in Canada!) and quite possibly it
won’t be the last.
We settled in for the night, trying not to think
about bed bugs and fleas and vowing to reform the Last-Room-Lee Gang.
Byddi Lee
***Footnote – by the time I got a chance to post
this account, we’d learned that as a result of this same storm there had been a
flash flood in Zion that killed at least 4 people, and 3 are still missing as
of time of writing. 16 people died in a town called Hildale, just south of
there in another flash flood. It’s hard not to feel guilty about enjoying the
spectacle of the storm having now learned of its devastation. It makes you
realize that nature really is (to steal a phrase from W.B Yeats) a “terrible
beauty.”
I'd like to dedicate this post to the victims of the
flash floods in Utah. May they rest in peace.
