Mesa Verde NP

Cliff Palace dwelling at Mesa Verde

Our plans to visit Mesa Verde were a little fuzzy.  The one campground in the park seemed to be open, but all services (including water and bathrooms) closed past October 1, so it was unclear where we would stay.  When we arrived, we also found out that the park had switched over to its shorter Fall hours and would close at 5pm.  So, naturally, we stayed at the Best Western.  Which was just as well, since Hurricane Sandy was hitting NYC that night, and we got to watch The Weather Channel for 5 straight hours.

The next morning, we packed up and headed to Mesa Verde.  The park is exactly as it sounds – a large green mesa, based around several archaeological sites – the cliff dwellings of the ancestral Puebloan people.  Only the main attractions were open – the massive Cliff Palace (and the accompanying ranger tour), and the smaller Spruce Tree House.  We spent the better part of the morning checking out the two sites, which were both stunning.  It was really amazing to see these places and to think about how these people had lived.

Moab

View of Moab from the top of Portal

Jeff riding the Slickrock practice trail

Jeff, Kristen, and our friend Beth on the Mag 7 trail system

Sunset on the Island in the Sky mesa

The morning after we got engaged, the phone calls and emails started pouring in.  We spent the first 3 or 4 hours of the day on the computer and on the phone.  After that, we needed a break, so we decided to hike up the infamous Portal Trail (where there is no cell service).  Portal is an experts-only mountain bike descent whose first few hundred meters rides along a 2-3ft wide cliff, with a 1000ft drop.  People die there every year or two.  Which is we decided to hike up it rather than ride down it.  But boy was it gorgeous up there.  The top of the hike featured a wide view of Moab below, as well as the surrounding mesas and Arches NP.  We also got to watch a few people do the descent (and one ride across the cliff!).  Afterward, we were drained from the day, so we soaked in the hot tub and ate some Indian packets.

Our energy restored and the congratulatory emails tapering off, we woke up the next day feeling pretty good.  We made an ambitious plan to get a good feel for the local MTB scene, headed to Denny’s for breakfast, and hit the trail.  We started at the Monitor & Merrimac trail system, which was a dud.  It was supposed to offer some of the famous Moab ‘slickrock’ riding, but it turned out not to be the good kind of slickrock.  It was bouncy, pock-marked Entrada formation sandstone, which chatters your teeth, shakes loose the bolts on your bike, and most likely would cause Kristen’s herniated disc to flare up.  We bailed on the ride half way through.

We had next planned to ride up Klondike Bluffs, but found out it also featured Entrada sandstone, so we decided to go back to the Moab Brands trails and ride the stuff we hadn’t yet been to (primarily the Bar B trail).  Afterward, Kristen could tell I was antsy.  I had read earlier that the famous Slickrock Trail (featuring swoopy and smooth Navajo formation sandstone) had a 2-mile practice loop.  We had already decided we were not going to ride the Slickrock Trail since it was supposed to be very difficult, but this offered us a low-risk way to check it out!  So she humored me and we went, and rode until the daylight failed.  I have to say, Slickrock is really not that hard.  It has insanely steep sections that burn the legs, but in all it’s not super ‘technical’ – far different that we had expected.  I rode the entire practice loop and put my foot down only once!

We planned to leave Moab the night of the 27th.  But our friend Beth called to say she was coming in on the 28th, and would be bringing her mountain bike.  Naturally, we extended our campground reservation.

We met up with Beth and her two friends Carlos and Eunice.  Carlos suggested we ride the Gemini Bridges trails, which was a fantastic idea.  Gemini Bridges is an old Jeep road with a network of singletrack running through it.  Anyone who didn’t want to ride the singletrack (namely Carlos and Eunice) could just drop down the road.  Beth, Kristen, and I all took the singletrack.  It was pretty technical and very fun.  Beth had only been riding a few times before, and we were worried it was beyond her ability.  Nope.  She’s so athletic and such a daredevil, her early spills only encouraged her, and by the end of the ride she was popping her bike over logs and rocks like a pro.

The ride was long (20+ miles), and we finished around sunset.  The temperature started to drop, and Carlos/Eunice were not yet at the car.  We thought we might have to stage a rescue, so we went back to the top to get our Expedition (which was the only car we had that could handle the jeep road).  Turns out it was unnecessary – by the time we got back down the hill, Carlos/Eunice were already finished.  We all ate some sandwiches, had a celebratory beer, and headed back to the campsite to pass out.

Canyonlands + Engagement!

The surreal Green River Overlook

Us at Grandview Point

Engaged!

The ring!

After Arches, we spent a day mountain biking the great Moab Brand trails (until it started raining, at which point we headed to a coffee shop to hang out), had our standard Moab dinner, and planned our next day at Canyonlands NP.

Canyonlands had some of the most spectacular landscapes we have ever seen.  The Northern part of the park is situated on the Island in the Sky Mesa, which looks exactly as it sounds.  It’s a high plateau, with hundred mile views into mazes of canyons, cut by the Colorado and Green rivers and their tributaries.  It’s also remote enough (~30 miles outside Moab) that it’s empty most of the time.

Kristen knew something was up.  I was demanding to go to Dead Horse Point State Park for Sunset.  She asked, “why not the Green River Overlook for Sunset?”.  Nope, I wanted it to be Dead Horse – relatively unknown, more remote, and even lower chance of seeing another person.  The perfect spot!

We went for a quick mountain bike ride in the State Park, and then headed over to the Point to watch the Sunset.  I was nervous.  I had the ring in my pocket.  Storm clouds were brewing on the horizon and it was cold.  But the sun was hitting the clouds just so, the canyon lit up in the afternoon glow, and Kristen traced the path of the Colorado river left to right.  I took out the ring and put it in the path of her hand, just out of her vision, until she turned far enough to see it.  And she said yes!

As far as I can figure, it was a quintessential Jeff & Kristen moment.  We got engaged wearing cycling tights, matching wool beanies, and rain coats.

We spent a few seconds debating the merits of eating Indian packets and greens for dinner, but we thought better of it and went out for a nice meal.  What a day!

Arches NP

Us with the Delicate Arch

Jeff lounging in a natural window

Kristen on the rim of a sandstone bowl

Our first stop in Moab was Arches National Park.  After we got in and set up camp, we were dying to see the park, so we drove in for sunset.  It did not disappoint.

The next day, we got the full Arches experience, mostly on foot.  We drove to the back of the park to hike out to Devil’s Tower, and saw the famous Landscape Arch plus numerous other arches and windows along the way.  We then made our way over to Delicate Arch, the structure so famous it’s on the Utah license plate.  The Delicate Arch hike was fun, and we spent some time playing around in a sandstone bowl on the way up.  Tired from the previous two hikes, we warily saw the remainder of the attractions at Arches, and ate what would be our standard Moab dinner – a Trader Joe’s pre-made Indian packet poured over bagged mixed greens.  Mmm.

Bryce > Moab

View of some badlands from Route 12

View of the Escalante Canyons from Kiva Koffehouse in Grand Staircase/Escalante

The desolation on Route 24

Google wants you to take the highway to get from Bryce to Moab, but the guidebook suggests Scenic Routes 12 and 24.  The guidebook is right.

Aside from the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper, Route 12/24 was the most scenic drive we did the whole trip.  Route 12 descends from Bryce Canyon into the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument.  The road started as a wide, green plain surrounded by mountains, but soon snaked its way up and down red rock canyons and on to ridges with great views.  We woke up early to do the drive at dawn, and decided to forego breakfast so we could eat our morning meal at a place we had heard about in Boulder, UT.  On the way, we passed a coffee shop we couldn’t refuse – the Kiva Koffehouse.  We couldn’t even see it from the road, but we knew we had to go based on its location.  It’s a tiny, kiva-style hut built into the side of one of the Escalante Canyons, windows on all sides, featuring commanding views of the lush surrounding area.  Wow.  We decided it would be a great place for someone to have a small wedding ceremony (wink, wink).  We continued from Kiva a few miles down the road to our original breakfast destination – the Hell’s Backbone Grill.  The food was great, but the setting simply did not compare to Kiva.

From Boulder we ascended Boulder Mountain (peaking around 9,000 feet).  There was a storm brewing, and it seemed like every 5 minutes we stopped to take pictures of the incredible surrounding landscape.  The entire experience was enhanced by the music we were playing.  Kristen’s dad Steve had given us a couple dozen CDs to listen to on this leg of the trip, and we randomly selected Eberhard Weber’s ‘The Colours of Chloe’ for our drive up Boulder Mountain.  It’s a free-flowing chamber jazz album, and for some reason, the build-ups and peaks in the music seemed to correspond to our view out of the window.  For lack of a better description, the experience was ‘transcendent’.

From there we hit Route 24, which was far more desolate, and looked more like the high desert landscape we were expecting.  At one point we came to a junction indicating we were within 20 miles of Lake Powell.  We stopped for gas and drinks there, and realized we had entered a very special part of Utah.  All locals had NRA hats on, and the cashier was cleaning a gigantic rifle behind the counter.  I was pretty glad at that point that we had not put a Sierra Club decal on our car.

The rest of the drive to Moab was fairly uneventful, though beautiful – the desert got drier and redder, and the road stretched out forever.

Bryce Canyon NP

Bryce Canyon as seen from Sunset Point

Descending into the canyon on the Navajo Loop trail

Us on the Peek-a-Boo trail

Bryce Canyon NP is just a couple hours down the road from Zion NP.  But the landscape is totally different.  Bryce doesn’t look real, or natural.  And it’s not even really a canyon, at least not an identifiable one.  It’s more like a giant bowl filled with red-and-white banded hoodoos (rock spires) and rock fins.  Some rare combination of odd geological structure and weather created the place, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were seeing something temporary.  The spires and fins are so delicate, it seems like we happen right now to be in the right place at the right geological time.  How long until it’s all eaten away?  It made us feel incredibly lucky to see it.

And, as we found out, you can hike down into the “canyon.”  We chose to descend the famous Navajo trail, which switchbacks through a narrow crease in the rock wall, and then catch the less-traveled Peek-a-Boo trail to get a good feel for the place.  The weather started to turn when we were more or less at the halfway point of the hike – about 3 or 4 miles from our car.  We watched the sky and hurried along, praying that the rain would hold off and we would not get caught in a flash flood in one of the endless narrow canyons we were walking through.  We got lucky.  It drizzled but the heavy stuff never came down.

Exhausted that night, we collapsed in our tent on what would prove to be the first of many frigid nights on the Colorado Plateau.

Zion NP

View of the Virgin River from Scout Lookout

Fall colors on the West Rim Trail

Spectacular view from the Canyon Overlook trail

We left Joshua Tree NP early in the morning and hit the road.  Again, more Mojave Desert.  Desolate as it is, it’s beautiful in its own way.  Especially after you stare at it for 5 hours straight.

Our next destination was Zion NP, for our first taste of the Colorado Plateau.  I had never been to the plateau before, so I was extremely excited.  Zion did not disappoint.

The park is fairly simple – one road, going up and down Zion canyon.  Red rocks surround, with multi-colored spires and rock formations everywhere.  The canyon walls rise 1-2,000 feet from the valley floor.  But this is true all over the plateau.  What makes Zion unique is how incredibly lush the area is.

We only had one full day in the park, so we decided to do a long-ish hike up the West Rim trail.  The trail was quite busy on the climb up to Scout Lookout, as many park visitors seemed to want to try their luck on Angels Landing – a very narrow rock outcropping with a precarious trail leading up to it.  Not for us.  We continued on the trail past Scout Lookout, and immediately we were alone.  The trail wound its way up spurs and down valleys, with incredible (and incredibly surprising) fall colors.  It was amazing to see so many leafy trees in an area we thought was the desert!  The valley bottoms were wet, and we could feel the humidity in the air.  After about 5-6 miles of hiking, we came to a natural viewpoint of the surrounding canyons and decided to turn around.  In all, I think we got a great feel for Zion that day.

The next morning, we packed up early and drove East out of the park.  However, our guidebook told us we had to hike up to one last spot, the Canyon Overlook.  The hike was short – only about an hour round trip – but the view was spectacular.  The colors of the rocks were incredibly deep in the morning sun.  What a place.

Joshua Tree

The ubiquitous Joshua trees

Beautiful sunset from our campsite

The tarantula

Our first stop on our way to the Southwest was Joshua Tree NP.

On the drive in, we stopped for coffee and lunch in Palm Springs, where it was incredibly hot and dry.  The town is pretty cute, but more remote than I had expected given its iconic status as a retirement location.

The rest of the drive was pretty much just Mojave Desert, which is a wasteland of scrub brush and nothingness.  We arrived at Joshua Tree in the early afternoon, which gave us enough time to drive the main park road and take some pictures of the ubiquitous trees and the beautiful surrounding hills.  While very pretty, we definitely did not need more than just a couple hours there – the landscape and trees are the only thing to see.

We set up camp in the park that evening and went for a walk after watching the sunset.  Kristen had read that tarantulas are known to run across the road at night, so we were hoping to see our first desert wildlife.  We were having a nice time looking at the stars and spotting constellations, when all of the sudden Kristen spotted a tarantula on the road.  Neither of us had ever seen one in the wild before, so we were pretty thrilled.  The things are pretty gross looking, though, so we snapped a quick picture and got the hell out of there.

Riverside

We chose to access the Southwest via the South – driving through California’s Central Valley and heading East out of LA.  Our first stop was in Riverside, CA, where Kristen’s sister Julie goes to college.  Julie put us up for the night in her apartment, and we had a great time hanging out with her and her friends/roommates.

Sacramento, Detroit, San Francisco

Jeff, Corey, CJ, and Kristen riding MTB at Camp Tamarancho, CA

Us at the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate

After our long trip through the Northern US and Canada, we planned to rest for a couple weeks in Sacramento.  Our ‘break’ consisted of 3 parts:

A week in Elk Grove:

We did a ton of cooking, sleeping, organizing, and hanging out with Steve and Barbara.  Steve’s friend John also came to town, which gave us an occasion to visit Apple Hill and the fantastic wineries of Shenandoah and Amador counties.

A week in Detroit:

Visiting my family, the excuse being that we had come in for Yom Kippur.  We also set up a couple road bikes we keep there and did a lot of great riding at Kensington Metropark.

A bit more time in Elk Grove, followed by a long weekend in San Francisco:

We were thrilled that two sets of our NYC friends were going to be in SF on the same weekend – CJ and Joanne (in town because Joanne was running the Nike Women’s Marathon), and Corey (in town for fun).  We rented a room in a guy’s apartment from AirBnB in the Bernal Heights neighborhood (which happened to be in the same house CJ/Joanne were staying in).  We had a great time walking around the city and watching Joanne race.  And to top it all off, we went for a 3 hour MTB ride in Marin County on Monday with CJ and Corey.

We were sad to be done with our few weeks of ‘rest’, but excited to start the next leg of our travels – the Southwest.