The End of Day 5 Finds Me Back in Moab, Utah

This was taken on Highway 191 heading down to the Canyonlands NP's Needles Area.

Canyonland NP - Needles area.

Canyonlands NP - Island in the Sky area.

Canyonlands NP - Island in the Sky area.

Arches National Park. If you click on this image to enlarge it, you will see some people below the arch an get a sense of just how large this arch is!

From a distance this sure looks like three women in front of two tables.

Arches NP

Arches NP - What a balancing act!

I am back in Moab after visiting the Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. I rode a total of 265 miles over 8 hours and took some hikes in both parks. The day was beautiful, mostly sunny with temperatures in the 70s most of the day.

The ride down to the Canyonlands' Needles area was on Route 191 and it was a beautiful ride with lots of rock formations to keep it interesting. The canyon was interesting and hugh. I backtracked northbound on 191 to reach the Canyonlands' Island In The Sky area. This section of the canyon was even larger. It is impossable for me to fathom the amount of rock and soil that was eroded to create it. I can't wait to see the Grand Canyon to see how it compares.

After spending time looking down into vast canyons, I journeyed over to Arches National Park where you had to look up at the hugh and wonderous rock formations. It was amazing how many of the formations looked as if they had been sculpted by an artist to portray everyday objects that we are familiar with. I did a couple of hikes. The first was uphill for about 3/4 of a mile to get the picture of the arch. (I had my motorcycle jacket and boots on so the hike was quite a challenge.) The second hike I took was in the Devil's Garden and I think that I hiked about 2 of the over 7 miles of trails available.

I met a couple from Pittsburgh (Jeff and Mary Ann) that we riding a trike pulling a trailer in Arches NP. When I pulled into the motel parking lot their bike was sitting there. While I was offloading my bike, they came out of the hotel so we got to talk some more and decided to go out to dinner together. The company was most enjoyable and the food delicious. (I was ready for a nice steak and got one!)

Tomorrow I'm off for Capital Gorge and Escalante NPs. I have no idea where I'll end up tomorrow night.

P.S. I think that I am finally getting the hang of posting pictures to the blog. I apologize for the previous posts. But it is way too hard to straighten out what I've already done.