Zax in Moab

I’m just finishing lunch with a guy named Felix. There’s a Harley out front and he has a helmet so I struck up a conversation. The first thing he said was “sorry I don’t speak english”. Seeing him use postcard stamps without the butterfly (the only natinal one in service now), I knew he was sending international post cards, so I was prepared. When I found out he was from France, I got to break out my slowly rusting French.

UT 128 plus Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

I’m sitting on the rim of a canyon at Canyonlands National Park looking out over several hundred miles of arid ancient rock. In the distance, snow covered mountains loom over the horizon. Water is scarce here in a place created by erosion. Eons have passed with the occasional snow or rain shower making a small mark in the layer-cake of rock. When rain does fall or snow does melt it carries away bits of and pieces in an irregular way leaving the most amazing formations. The Colorado and Green rivers meet in this park and carry it away. If there was more water lush vegetation would cover and speed up the process, so a landscape like this can only exist where harsh conditions stunt the growth of plants. That doesn’t mean this desert looks anything like the grade-school textbook example of white sand dunes and tall cacti. No here there are relatives of familiar plants and trees often smaller than their brethren and certainly tougher.

Arches National Park is about 45 miles from here but since there’s no development between them the distance passes easily. Arches is a much smaller park and is focused on an unusual formation which leaves an arch in the sandstone. The unofficial state symbol of Utah is the Delicate Arch which is many times larger than a person. I only caught a glimpse of it yesterday at a distance because I didn’t want to take the several mile hike in my motorcycle gear.

The road I took from Cisco to Moab, UT 128 was spectacular. Coming from the rolling hills in Cisco, just south of I 70, I headed south towards the mountains mentioned above. The road takes a dip into a canyon that happens to be carved by the Colorado Riverand follows on the north shore until the historic Dewey bridge, one of the only links for southern Utah to Colorado and a large suspension bridge in itself. Crossing the new bridge next to the suspension bridge built for horses, the road goes deeper into the canyon just above the water level. It may be further south, but imagine driving in a small part of the Grand Canyon with red sandstone walls towering above you on both sides and an occasional view of those mountains in the distance.