2015 - Day 5

Woke up earlier this morning than I have been the last few days, even waking up before my alarm clock if you can believe that. The breakfast at the hotel was decent, more than enough to fuel my tank to start the day. It was nice to have this room for another night, allowing me to leave all the gear in the room and just ride. The air was cool to start the ride but the sun was out so that made it feel quite nice. I could not pass up the chance to leave the helmet in the trunk, riding without it feels awesome, almost like being a kid on a bicycle again!

I made my way north up highway 191, making the turn onto 313 west about 9 miles north of Moab. My first destination today was Dead Horse Point State Park and it did not disappoint. The views were awesome today, by many accounts similar to the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River flows 2000 feet below Dead Horse Point! It's too bad that pictures don't give one the depth perception of actually standing there.

I spoke with a man from somewhere in Carolina (I forget if it was North or South) who was driving with his wife to a lot of the same destinations I've got planned for the trip. We had an interesting chat for about 20 minutes, and he gave me some great advice if I ever travel down to his part of the country. There's a chance that we'll meet somewhere down the road again.

After Dead Horse Point I traveled up the road to Canyonlands NP, the Island in the Sky section. There were more stunning looks down from above at the canyons below, some literally taking my breath away as I got close to the edges. The drops are often sheer cliffs that drop down hundreds of feet, some probably over 1000 feet.

Once I had seen what I came to see there I traveled back to Arches NP to see a few more things that I'd missed yesterday. I did some hiking today, somewhere around 3 or 4 kilometers in total, which was good for the body.

By the time I got back to Moab I had some decent sunburn on my face, stupid me forgot his sunscreen in the hotel room this morning. It was great to eat some dinner after eating hardly anything since breakfast. All in all it was a pretty awesome day, great scenery and a few friends made again (even though I may never see them again). The positive interactions with people really help to make the trip that much better. One thing I've noticed is that there don't seem to be that many bikes on the road yet, I'm guessing it's still a little early in the year. I've been fortunate with the weather I've had so far, hopefully that keeps up.

Starting the drive along 313 

Used the zoom function to get a closer shot of the picture above this one

Looks kind of like I'm hanging over the edge to take this pic

Walking down onto the outcropping yields the picture of the road in the picture below

Wasn't going to try going down the face of that cliff with my big bike, but it sure would be cool on an ATV 

The road in the picture above eventually ends up down there

Back for more in Arches NP

Sand Dune Arch

Have to walk through this narrow gap to get to Sand Dune Arch

Was tempted to try eating one of the berries or whatever it is on that cactus, may have been getting a little hungry

Landscape Arch, but not the view one sees in the brochures. I'm not too happy about forgetting to take a pick from further down, got distracted by a snake (which I also forgot to take a picture of)

Tried the panorama function on my camera

I don't know how that rock stays up there, but I'm sure glad it didn't fall on me. Just the boulder on top is 55 feet tall, I think the total was 128 feet

The mountains look so much further away on the picture, but I just love all the colors in this one