Moab 2010

      I left Colorado Springs on October 11 when freezing temperatures were forecast, and arrived at Moab on October 12.  The Colorado River runs east to west a couple miles north of town, and along the river (off HW 128) are a number of BLM campgrounds set down in the deep valley cut by the river.  October is still a somewhat busy time of year for Moab and cyclists, so I was rather fortunate to find a campground site large enough for my rig, even though it was 7 miles off to the east on HW 128.  The river does a couple immense switchbacks (or U-turns) here, and although I had driven east on HW 128, along the south shore of the river, I suddenly found myself on the north side of the river, heading west.  Even though I verified this on the highway map, I still saw the sun as rising in the west, setting in the east, for the full week that I stayed at this camp.  But there were immense rock spires rising behind my camp to photograph,      

 and the view downstream in the afternoon was grand.

  

   A couple days later I drove to Arches National Park, about 10 miles away, and found some interesting rock formations.

So-called Delicate Arch

 My favorite picture, however, is of Landscape Arch.  The primary goal of my visit to Arches was to view this one.  

Landscape Arch

  The next day I investigated bicycle trails around Moab, and quickly discovered that most of them were for riders much more experienced and "gutsy" than I - so I settled for a paved bike trail going north of Moab along US HW 191 for about 8 miles - including one section with 1.5 miles of 7% uphill grade heading out, and a couple miles of fun!fun!fun! coasting back downhill, at times hitting 32 mph!  Wow!

   On another day, I also visited Canyonlands National Park, also in the vicinity, where I found a few more interesting scenes, but overall, I was somewhat disappointed.  But the large mesas named for the  Monitor (right) and Merrimac (left), names taken from the Civil War, were definitely worth the trip.

     After a week, I was able to find a vacancy at the Goose Island campground, only 1.5 miles off HY 191, and they have good Verizon signal there, so I was able to get back in communication, both by telephone and Internet!  The views were good, too.

     The Colorado River runs between the campground and that huge sandstone wall. I especially enjoyed getting out to view the wall in the early morning sunlight.

    Another day, I drove several miles south of Moab to view "Newspaper Rock", which is a large, sheltered rock covered with petroglyphs, which I always find fascinating.

  

   Driving back from this Newspaper Rock, I found an area of interesting Autumn colors - silver, red, green, and yellow, against a blue-tinted rock.

    The good weather I had enjoyed in the Moab area, however, was forecast to come to a sudden end, so I departed for Safford, AZ - an area I had not visited before.  My first day, I drove south from Moab to the area of Holbrook, AZ through interesting country, and past Canyon de Chelly, which I had visited twice before.  The second day, however, was pretty dramatic.  Traversing the White Mountains (of Arizona, that is) was nice, but crossing the Salt River canyon was like driving down into, through, and back up from the Grand Canyon.  Stunning!  

   And then I came to the Safford area - miles and miles and miles of cotton ready for harvesting - the only thing lacking was "the big house!"  This appears to be an area of low income farmers, but in town itself, altho' a quite small town, there is a quite large and well stocked Safeway store, and a similarly large and well stocked WalMart just across the street.  I plan to boondock here for at least a couple weeks, and expect to visit both a few times, as well as the nearby Walgreen store.

   Today is my third day here, and I've taken an 8 mile bike ride early each morning on the adjacent, little traveled asphalt road, so far seeing more cattle (8) than autos (1).  It's like having my own private bike path.  

   I think I'm going to like it here.