Yukon to Patagonia: Nevada and Utah.

After finishing our JMT hike a few days early, we thought we were in good shape for the next hike on our itinerary. We were heading for the Maroon Bells Four Pass Loop near Aspen, Colorado. It's a four day hike that is reputed to be one of the best hikes in Colorado, and that's saying a lot. There are four passes over 12,400', so given the elevation and our now anticipated start date of October 1st, we knew we'd be pushing the season a bit.

Even though we we had no off days planned, and were really just focused on driving the 1600 kms from Groveland to Aspen, we enjoyed the trip. Our first night, we stumbled across a small campground in the desert at Benton Hot Springs, California where each of the sites had its own stone hot tub. It was the most expensive campground we've stayed at, but well worth it.

Our hot tub and trailer at Benson Hot Springs.

The next day we raced across Nevada. Our route took us down the "Extraterrestrial Highway" past the infamous Area 51 and through Rachel, Nevada. Unfortunately, there were no signs of aliens except for the stuffed or inflatable kind at the Little A'le'Inn. Not even Mulder or Scully bothered to make an appearance.

The Little A'le'Inn just outside Area 51 in Nevada.

The only real highlight in Nevada was the campground at Cathedral Gorge State Park. A very nice place with the added benefit of the orange bluffs of the gorge a short walking distance away. This was the start of almost four weeks straight of orange/red rocks and desert.

Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada.

Heading into Utah, we decided to take the scenic route up Highway 12. This runs past several state parks as well as Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks, and Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. It was often slow driving pulling our trailer on the narrow, twisting road and steep hills, but it was a much more enjoyable drive than the Interstate option. We camped at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park on September 28th, then headed for Moab the next day on what would become one of the most memorable birthdays that Cyd has ever had.

It all started innocently enough with light rain as we grabbed coffee in Escalante. When we headed up the pass over Boulder Mountain, the rain intensified then turned to wet snow at about 8,000'. As we approached the 9600' summit, there was about 4" of snow and slush. It was a fine line as we had to keep enough momentum going to pull the trailer up the steep hills going up the pass, while maintaining control on the slushy road. Imagine our joy as we came around a corner to find 15 cows in the middle of the road! We safely navigated them only to encounter 4 wild turkeys crossing the road a couple of corners later.

Snow in southern Utah in September?

After cheating death for a second time, we reached the summit and began going downhill. Still tricky driving, but at least we knew the snow would soon turn back to rain. We weren't done though. Shortly after the summit, 2 deer bounded across the road, the second one crossing within 5' of our car. It all happened so fast, all we could do was laugh when they disappeared back into the bush.

15 minutes later we were down in the sunshine of Torrey, Utah. We continued north towards Moab and the sunshine soon turned into a violent thunderstorm raining so hard we had to pull off the road for 15 minutes. It did pass though, and a couple of hours later we were driving around Moab looking for camping options. As we cruised the streets, the ominous black clouds we'd encountered earlier in the day appeared over the ridge on the west side of town.

Apparently Moab doesn't usually experience heavy rainfalls, because their streets have no ditches or culverts to speak of. Within 10 minutes of the rain starting, the streets were full of red water, branches and mud and traffic was almost at a standstill. Water flowed across parking lots and into stores. We headed for high ground. Unfortunately the road to Sand Flats Recreation Area was washed out in several places and boulders had tumbled down from the red stone bluffs above. Given the conditions, and the day we'd already experienced, we did the only logical thing. We headed to the Moab Brewpub and stayed there until it was safe to go outside again.

Floodwaters in Moab.

Two hours later, everything was fine. Except for the red sand all over the roads and the odd misplaced boulder, there were few signs of the great flood. We found a campsite and went out for a nice dinner in celebration of Cyd's birthday.

Moab was absolutely delightful. We had planned to spend a night there, but spent four. The city has great services with more outfitters than you can count, and one of the best outdoor stores I've seen. Cool coffee shops and restaurants everywhere, and did I mention the brewpub?

There's a great energy in town, as people are enjoying some of the best mountain biking in the world, wonderful hiking in every direction, two great National Parks in Canyonlands and Arches and Dead Horse Point State Park. We hadn't really researched Moab before our trip, but I'd heard some good things, so we thought we'd check it out. We could have happily stayed several weeks, but we had other places to go.