Spring 2018- Utah: Exploring closer to home. Part 1 Moab

View of the La Sal mountain range from Moab

Moab: April 2018

I took a break from blogging after all the complications during our 2017 Spring trip that I didn't even have the energy to post the fall trip. I see now how time consuming and hard it is to write and also manage the day to day RV stuff. I am in a better place this year and back to giving the blog its full attention in 2018.

Our RV travels in 2017 had everything; we hit both coasts, dealt with RV repairs along the way and  dodged smoke and fires in the west but we adjusted our plans when we needed to and made it a great year.

So, what is planned for 2018, well, we decided to take 3 smaller trips this year and focus on a year of mountain biking and hiking. We will stay closer to home with a trip to southern Utah and revisit some of our favorite places like Breckenridge and Sun Valley. We routed a stop in Helena, Montana which we missed last year because of the fires and visit some new ones: Jackson Hole, Santa Fe, Taos, Durango and Ouray.

We kick off 2018 on April 20th with a trip to southern Utah. Our 1st stop is 5 nights in Moab, a Mecca for mountain biking enthusiasts. I will tell you now that 4 days in Moab is not enough time to hit all the great biking and hiking trails but we have a another stop here in October for a week and should be in better biking shape by then. April is the warm-up trip.  Moab is not just for mountain biking ,although it is a big draw, it is also for those that like to ride their jeeps, utvs, and motorcycles on the local trails; it's as popular as the mountain biking. Moab is home base to some of the best national parks, Arches and Canyonlands in particular. April is a great time to visit Moab with mild temperatures but that can make it one of the busiest times of the year to visit. The RV parks can fill up months in advance which requires making plans early but there are plenty of RV parks in Moab and all are reviewed on RV Park Review. We decided to stay a few miles south of Moab at the Spanish Trail RV Park.  I booked my Moab reservations for April 2018 in November 2017. I happened to check  RV site availability in early March and it was full. They  have an on-line reservation system so you can monitor how many RV sites are available. For the non-RV park crowd there are plenty of primitive campgrounds and BLM land to park the RV in Moab but many are well subscribed and you won't be alone especially on the weekends.

 I chose Spanish Trail based on reviews and that it was 4 miles south of Moab. It was quiet and the drive into Moab isn't bad.
I checked out many of the RV parks as we drove in, many are right off the main road and I am glad we chose this one. The other popular RV park is the Portal Resort, but we are over 10 years old and would have to park in their campground section (North side). I think in comparison Spanish Trail was nicer and their rates with the Good Sam discount were comparable. Their resort section (South side) is for Class A only and a lot more expensive.
We are coming back to Moab in October and I booked again at Spanish Trail because we liked it so much. They also just put in a pool and Jacuzzi as of this year.

Office and pool area

Our site #502

View from the RV park at sunset

We did 4 days of biking while in Moab, the SLCMTB group happened to be here this weekend so we rode with them on their Saturday and Sunday morning rides.

Saturday we did the Brand trails(Bar M) an area of trails that had easy to difficult trails.
We did the Lazy/Easy loop which is rated intermediate and then did the North 40 loop which is an upper intermediate loop. We biked a total of 7 miles and rode for 2.5 hours. Not a bad start for our 1st bike day of the year.

A break on the North 40 loop

Saturday afternoon we took advantage of the free national parks day and went to Arches National Park to hike the trail to Delicate Arch.

Part of the trail to Delicate Arch

We came from around that bend

Lost the sun but here I am under the Arch for perspective of the size.

Delicate Arch

 More sites driving  the main road through Arches National Park.

Hard to see but this is Double Arch

Balance Rock

Sunday we did the Dead Horse State Park trails(Intrepid system), we basically biked the Dead Horse Point Tour for 13 miles. Nice trails with some great views.

Monday we tried some more advanced trails out at the Navajo Rocks area. We did half of the full loop by starting out across the street on the Rocky Tops Trail connecting on Middle Earth to the road and crossing to the upper parking area to pick up Ramblin' which took us back to the lower parking and our car. Fun ride with some climbing and technical spots on Rocky Tops but the ride down Ramblin' was fun.

Trail along the slick rock

Lots of views 

Monitor and Merrimac in the distance

Tuesday we rode the Klonzo North Trail System, which consists of several loops that all can be done in 2 hours and has 12 miles of trails. Access to the trails is a 3 mile dirt road drive on Willow Springs Rd. to the lower parking area. We biked up Borderline to Cross Canyon up to do the Wahoo loop then over to Secret Passage which took us to the Dunestone loop (our favorite) then back to the parking lot. Nice well marked trails, not too technical but some fun downhill's.

We ate at 2 restaurants in Moab, both were excellent. The 1st one is Miguel's Baja Grill on main street. Get here early......

Shrimp

Miguel's Baja Grill

We also ate at Arches Thai that a friend recommended. Definitely worth a stop when in Moab.

We also took a scenic drive on UT128 that follows the Colorado River towards Red Cliffs Lodge and made a stop there at the Castle Creek Winery for a wine tasting and bought a few bottles to take home.

Loved our trip to Moab and looking forward to coming back for a week in October and a chance to try some of the more advanced bike trails, especially the famous Slick Rock Trail that we last biked in 1999.



Next up: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.