MOAB Commentary
Ok you asked for it, Dad. We left Big Sky Tuesday afternoon, drove into Salt Lake City and grabbed a bite to eat at this amazing Himalayan restaurant. We drove as far as we wanted and set up tent outside of Provo, UT. We set up tent in the pitch dark, all we knew from the sounds was that there was a small river nearby and possibly a cow field in the background. At about dawn hundreds of cows started mooooing like roosters on a farm. Needless to say we didn't need an alarm clock that morning!! We packed up and headed out. A few hours later we reached Moab, UT. Sky and I were along for the ride, so we didn't know what the schedule was at all...we were in Tom and Stasia's hands! As soon as we got into town, we wanted to go for a bike ride. So what do we do first, none other than the famous SLICK ROCK!!! BOOYA, checked off our list of things we wanted to do...we didn't waste any time. Slick Rock is famous for thier unusual terrain. It's miles and miles of moon like rock surfaces, where bicyclists, 4-wheeler/dirtbikers, and off-road vehicles go to test their limits and have soooo much fun. We did the 12 mile cross-country loop, and any pictures you see with this type of terrain is Slick Rock. The trail is marked by white dashes painted on the rock, so if you keep a close eye on it you can let your imagination run wild and get into a flowy rythym all your own. The week prior to our arrival consisted of torrential downpour, but our day was nothing but spectacular.
We get back to the van as the sun is starting to come down. Howie and Stella are having a blast running around checking out the desert fields. We decide to camp around the Slick Rock area, which is in National Park Land. We found a great site farther up the road with high desert walls surrounding us and a view of some snowy peaks. The sunsets on this trip were EPIC, the colors the sun reveals off of the reddish sandy rock walls is this golden hue you can't take your eyes off of. Ok, so day two we get up nice and slow drinking our coffee, eating pancakes watching the shuttle vans drive by on their way up to Porcupine/Kokopeli down hill trail. Out in Moab, their trails are so spread out that they don't have lifts, they have shuttle services for 10-20$. So eventually we get orgainized and Tom and Stasia offer to shuttle us up to the trail head since we were already in the Park Lands instead of heading back into town and paying a shuttle to drive us up there. Sky and I are downhillers-OK! So we were pumped to get some extreme desert downhillin on this trip. Kokapeli Trail is an extension of Porcupine Trail, the trail head is past the drop off for Porcupine and within a free range area for cows! This road (which was somewhat washed out from the rain the week before) was this windy one-way dirt road that curved around cliffs, to make a long story short I was more scared of the drive up to the trail head than the ride down on my bike! Heading near the top, we have to slow down and get the cows and bulls out of the road, we almost had to bump them alittle since they were so stubborn (they stared at you with these eyes that sent shivers down my spine). The road really wasn't wide enough for our van and the cows, so they had to shimmy down the cliff edge or get skimmed by the side of our van!! We make it to the top, with beautiful views. Sky and I get ready and start our 20 mile downhill adventure! Tom and Stasia took the "kids" into town and planned on picking us up at the trail end in a few hours. Kokapeli winds along a cliff edge with a 1000 foot drop, you can probably pick out these shots from the line up. We stopped more than we needed just to capture these views on camera. Eventually the trail attaches with Porcupine Rim and takes us to the Colorado River as the end.
Stasia picks us up and we head to the 24-hour race to camp for the rest of the week. I will get into the 24-hour race in another post, but it became tent city chaos!! So exciting to be around all these people all with the same outdoor passion. Howie and Stella were exhausted but they couldn't stop playing! We quickly set up tent and cooked some food, this is when I got my fav shot of the sunset peaks. The next day we decieded to take off from biking and payback Stasia for chauffering us around. We took her and a friend from Big Sky (Courtney) to the top of Porcupine Rim and headed to town to check out all the bike shops, coffee shops etc!! We picked the girls up and headed back to tent city. Everyone was prepping for the race the next day and the atmosphere was intense!
The next day (Saturday) it started raining. The worst thing that can happen is rain in the desert! Sky and I had high hopes that it would stop and drove into town in hopes to get a shuttle up to Kokapeli, but the rain didn't let up. So we waited until 11am to hit up the liquer store (which is a whole other story) and headed back to tent city. We got back just in time before the race began and before the roads washed out. The dirt out here turns immediately to river water clay. Eventually we had to build trenches around all our tents. But the race must go on!!! I finally got my first and only shower-the showers were in the camper thing!! Sky never took a shower the whole trip. It felt great but by Saturday my hair started to hurt and it had to be done, after waiting 5 days it was a religious experience!!
Sunday turned out to be a great day in the afternoon, after the race we packed everything in the van and Tom took Stasia, Sky and I to Porcupine Rim for one last ride before we had to head out of town. Having two days off, Sky and I were pumped to get on bikes again and we tore down this trail like it was our job...it felt freaking GREAT! We reach the bottom, filled our water bottles up at the fresh spring, washed ourselves off and jumped in the van to head home.
We camped at the Provo site again, and headed into Salt Lake City for some breakfast at this Vietnamese PHO restaurant (which had the best iced coffee I have ever had). We get into Big Sky with snow on the ground and that is all she wrote!!
We get back to the van as the sun is starting to come down. Howie and Stella are having a blast running around checking out the desert fields. We decide to camp around the Slick Rock area, which is in National Park Land. We found a great site farther up the road with high desert walls surrounding us and a view of some snowy peaks. The sunsets on this trip were EPIC, the colors the sun reveals off of the reddish sandy rock walls is this golden hue you can't take your eyes off of. Ok, so day two we get up nice and slow drinking our coffee, eating pancakes watching the shuttle vans drive by on their way up to Porcupine/Kokopeli down hill trail. Out in Moab, their trails are so spread out that they don't have lifts, they have shuttle services for 10-20$. So eventually we get orgainized and Tom and Stasia offer to shuttle us up to the trail head since we were already in the Park Lands instead of heading back into town and paying a shuttle to drive us up there. Sky and I are downhillers-OK! So we were pumped to get some extreme desert downhillin on this trip. Kokapeli Trail is an extension of Porcupine Trail, the trail head is past the drop off for Porcupine and within a free range area for cows! This road (which was somewhat washed out from the rain the week before) was this windy one-way dirt road that curved around cliffs, to make a long story short I was more scared of the drive up to the trail head than the ride down on my bike! Heading near the top, we have to slow down and get the cows and bulls out of the road, we almost had to bump them alittle since they were so stubborn (they stared at you with these eyes that sent shivers down my spine). The road really wasn't wide enough for our van and the cows, so they had to shimmy down the cliff edge or get skimmed by the side of our van!! We make it to the top, with beautiful views. Sky and I get ready and start our 20 mile downhill adventure! Tom and Stasia took the "kids" into town and planned on picking us up at the trail end in a few hours. Kokapeli winds along a cliff edge with a 1000 foot drop, you can probably pick out these shots from the line up. We stopped more than we needed just to capture these views on camera. Eventually the trail attaches with Porcupine Rim and takes us to the Colorado River as the end.
Stasia picks us up and we head to the 24-hour race to camp for the rest of the week. I will get into the 24-hour race in another post, but it became tent city chaos!! So exciting to be around all these people all with the same outdoor passion. Howie and Stella were exhausted but they couldn't stop playing! We quickly set up tent and cooked some food, this is when I got my fav shot of the sunset peaks. The next day we decieded to take off from biking and payback Stasia for chauffering us around. We took her and a friend from Big Sky (Courtney) to the top of Porcupine Rim and headed to town to check out all the bike shops, coffee shops etc!! We picked the girls up and headed back to tent city. Everyone was prepping for the race the next day and the atmosphere was intense!
The next day (Saturday) it started raining. The worst thing that can happen is rain in the desert! Sky and I had high hopes that it would stop and drove into town in hopes to get a shuttle up to Kokapeli, but the rain didn't let up. So we waited until 11am to hit up the liquer store (which is a whole other story) and headed back to tent city. We got back just in time before the race began and before the roads washed out. The dirt out here turns immediately to river water clay. Eventually we had to build trenches around all our tents. But the race must go on!!! I finally got my first and only shower-the showers were in the camper thing!! Sky never took a shower the whole trip. It felt great but by Saturday my hair started to hurt and it had to be done, after waiting 5 days it was a religious experience!!
Sunday turned out to be a great day in the afternoon, after the race we packed everything in the van and Tom took Stasia, Sky and I to Porcupine Rim for one last ride before we had to head out of town. Having two days off, Sky and I were pumped to get on bikes again and we tore down this trail like it was our job...it felt freaking GREAT! We reach the bottom, filled our water bottles up at the fresh spring, washed ourselves off and jumped in the van to head home.
We camped at the Provo site again, and headed into Salt Lake City for some breakfast at this Vietnamese PHO restaurant (which had the best iced coffee I have ever had). We get into Big Sky with snow on the ground and that is all she wrote!!
posted by DANI at 8:29 AM
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