As we set out for the South Rim we were
both feeling a little jaded, which was a shame in a way as we were about to go
and see the Grand Canyon for the first time.
The drive seemed a long one, but in reality it wasn’t that long compared
to some of the monsters we’ve tackled.
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| Ominous |
Along the way we saw the first wildfire in
progress, flames and all. It was way off
to our right hand side and at the time we thought nothing of it as it all
seemed so remote. By the time we pulled
into the hotel we were on our last legs.
It was a nice enough hotel, very “pioneer” style, but as we moved into
the basement (yes we were staying in the basement overlooking a car park!) it
went from Old Western Lobby to Shining-esque corridors. I would honestly not have been surprised to
see a pair of twin girls beckoning us on to our room!
The USA seems full of hotels that have
managed to cultivate the mustiest smells known to man. Here was no different. The air in our room smelled like it hadn’t
been changed in years. The bed was so
comfy though and it took a massive effort to scrape ourselves off it and head
to dinner. Later, when we returned to
our room, we turned on the TV and watched in horror and sadness as every news
channel carried the story of the 19 elite firefighters that had died in a freak
wildfire accident near a place called Yarnell. |
| A little hello to my dad |
We had driven passed this fire. I mentioned it earlier. To say we were shocked would be a massive
understatement.
That night we slept like rocks and woke up
early on feeling like we hadn’t slept at all.
Vegas just kept on taking!
So far the hotel experience had been “ok” ….a
5 out of 10 and the Grand Canyon hadn’t really impressed us. Frankly I don’t think we would have been
impressed if King Kong had been strolling down the thing, we just didn’t have
the energy.
However breakfast was a different
matter. We had a table overlooking the
rim and it was beautiful. We summoned up
the obligatory oohs and aahs, ate and then left, stuffed, desperate to get on
the road again because we had a long drive ahead of us (for a change!).
On our way out of the park we did stop a
couple of times to admire the canyon, but knowing we were going to visit the
North Rim in the near future, we tried our best to keep moving.
Our next destination was Moab. A small town set at the foot of some huge red
sandstone cliffs in the state of Utah.
Famous now for its mountain biking, it also has an interesting past as a
famous place for cattle rustlers and various criminal elements during the
1800s. Places like “Robber’s Roost” kind
of give the game away!
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| Stag Dos for the next 10 miles! Could be in Budapest |
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| We have a lovely collection of animal signs now |
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| You can imagine Clint Eastwood riding through that landscape |
As you can see from the photos….it was just
like being back in an old western movie.
On we moved and deeper into Utah and Mormon
country.
The Mormons had some of their earliest
settlements out here and there was some fine history of native bashing and land
stealing that we learned from the locals.
Bizarrely the Mormons didn’t appear to have tried to convert the
natives…rather they just stole their lands and wiped them out as best they
could in order to protect the livestock that they were convinced the natives
were stealing. As it turns out, it
wasn’t the natives at all; but why let the truth get in the way of a bit of good
old ethnic cleansing!?
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| Guess what this stone formation is called?! Yes, Mexican hut |
We pulled into our next home which was
pretty much directly under the red cliffs (separated only by the main highway)
and realized we’d probably overshot the whole “let’s have somewhere
comfortable” mark! At 3 bedrooms, two
floors and 3 bathrooms, we were probably overdoing it, but it was in budget and
turned out to be really comfortable, with a full on kitchen for us to cook
in. Cooking as we go, we have saved a
fortune in the USA, where you can easily spend $100 a day on 3 meals each. Easy.
Our guide, Jeff, on the Cherry Creek
rafting episode, had recommended we check in with the Poison Spider bike shop
and get some mountain biking done whilst we were out here. However in typical Saroian style, I had left
it to the last minute to book anything.
When I say the last minute, I mean we unpacked the car, found the
address of the hire shop, drove out and luckily came upon the lady in charge of
bookings just as she was about to head home for the day.
This is the USA though, not Italy or France
and so even though she was technically off duty she wasn’t about to pass up
some business! She quickly got in touch
with our guide and booked us in for 6.00am the next day, kitting us out with
bikes in the process.
We left her, Poison Spider and our bikes
behind us with a big smile on our faces….we were going mountain biking in
Moab! Some of the trails out here are
about as good as they get for mountain biking and tomorrow we’d have a private
guide to show us around and teach us some techniques.
Quick pit-stop at the grocery store and
then we had even wider smiles – the place was packed full of gluten free
goods. Heaven for Julia J
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| 5:30 am sunrise colours |
Next morning we awoke, bleary eyed and set
off for the hire shop where we were due to meet Michael our guide. As all our cycle gear had already been sent
back to Germany (poor Julia’s mum receiving that stinky package!) I had opted
to wear swim shorts with that curious mesh on the inside, you know, to keep
your bits where they’re meant to be.
Silly. That mesh would soon feel
like a cheese grater!
We met Mike and on the drive out to where
he had planned to take us we must have talked ourselves up a bit, because he
quickly changed plans and took us out to a trail called Klondike Bluffs. We had read about these and the guidebook
said they were in the Intermediate range.
What we didn’t know was that Moab was famous for understating the
difficulty of its trails – apparently people would arrive thinking they were of
a certain standard, only for Moab’s trails to take them down a notch or two.
The beginning was fine and as it was still
early the temperatures were perfect.
Then the going got steep, then ludicrously vertical. Pretty soon we were going over rocks that
were taller than our bikes and coming down the other side leaning so far
backwards that my backside was over the back wheel! We were still on the easy bit though. Christ!
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| Proof that we actually cycled up there |
We climbed and climbed and then Mike told
us we were about to start the climb….at which point he began weaving back and
forth across the rock. It was deceptive
this trail. I couldn’t see why he was
making extra work for himself until I tried riding in a straight line and
nearly fell over backwards. It was steep
here. Dammit. So down into the lowest gear and up and up we
climbed. Pretty soon it leveled out
(relatively) and we were pedaling up the face of rocks again. Half way up there were some dinosaur tracks
and we stopped to marvel at the traces of animals that had walked the planet
millions of years ago. I also took the
opportunity to stop panting like a stalker and get my heart beat below 180BPM!
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| ontop of Klondike Bluffs...what a view for breakfast |
Then on again….and on again….and…..you get
the picture. We arrived at the end of
the trail and he turned to us and offered us the opportunity of walking our
bikes up to the place where we would park them.
Apparently most people found it too tough to cycle up.
“DAMN YOU!” I thought as he said those
words, because obviously we were not going to back down from a challenge like
that. So the last 100m were up a
vertiginous and rocky trail that to be fair, weren’t as bad as all that. Then it was a short walk into Arches National
Park to the top of the Bluffs. When we
arrived we realized why we had just spent the better part of 90 minutes and 20,000
calories getting here.
It was breath-taking. A panorama made even
better by the sight of our large truck parked way down in the valley, looking
like a tiny little white dot in the parking lot.
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| Back when I could still sit down! |
We could see for hundreds of miles in each
direction and really began to appreciate the landscape for what it was. We stuck around for half an hour or so and
then as the heat began to pick-up we realized we’d best get going. We were in a desert (pretty much) and, with humidity
at 10%, breathing alone would dehydrate you.
Cycling through 100 degree heat would just finish you off!
The challenging ascent turned into a
dangerous descent as we returned the way we had come. Then came a fork in the trail. Mike decided we had proved ourselves good
enough…..and headed off down a trail we later found out was marked as
“Hard/Intermediate”.
To put it bluntly, much of the time I was
thinking “holy sh*t!” as we crossed rock strewn patches, rode down steep ramps
and then straight back up what looked like the vertical face of another
boulder. Switchbacks that left zero
tolerance for a misplaced tire had to be taken at speed for fear of loss of
momentum and in general this was about as challenging and frightening an
activity as I had done on our travels. I
should caveat this by saying as the most accident prone man in the world I was
terrified……a fall here would cost you dearly and as I had already shown….I know
how to fall off a mountain bike! There
were a few hairy moments where my crotch was the only thing that stopped my
going over the handlebars and the back wheels nearly hit me in the back of the
head, or when I ploughed straight into a patch of sand and came to an abrupt
halt.
Julia was having troubles of her own. The heat, as we have learned, is not Julia’s
friend. Half way down she was struggling
and about the only thing that kept her going was the knowledge that if she
didn’t keep on going it was only going to get hotter. We had to stop a few times beneath bushes for
her to cool down in the shade before we pushed on again and towards the end I was
worried for her. I was worried for me. I think Mike was worried for both of us. But we pushed on and eventually made it to
the bottom.  |
| Michael and Los Saroians (artfully disguising bum agony and heat exhaustion) |
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t broken
anything. True my backside felt like it
was in ribbons, but on the whole we were safe and sound and pumped full of adrenalin
and endorphins.
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| Grand View Point Overlook at Canyonlands National Park |
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| Caprese Salad and Bubbly? Yum. |
That evening we took it easy – made
ourselves a picnic and drove up into the cliffs and onto the top of the mesa to
watch the sunset from Canyonlands National Park. It was a magical moment in time. I hadn’t mentioned that all this happened on
our wedding anniversary. From the
terribly early start, to the terribly enjoyable bike ride, we had been
celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. Now it was time to truly celebrate with a
bottle of bubbly J
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| Stroll in the sunset |
Though we had planned to do another day of
cycling, my bum exercised its right of veto and said “NO!”…..so we stayed home
and relaxed, which was, frankly, incredible.
Just mooching about and doing nothing, was in and of itself a fun thing
to do.
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| Just in case you always wanted to see Arches National Park....here are loads of Photos |
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| You see? Our blog is educational as well! |
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| The Courthouse (Arches National Park) |
In the evening though we went out again and
visited Arches National Park. Here there
was a little more to take photos of as the red sandstone did what the name
implies and formed beautiful arches for people to marvel at. It was significantly more packed than
Canyonlands and with Julia’s foot not feeling up to much hiking, we stayed
pretty much near the road for most of the trip.
Which wasn’t a problem frankly, as my legs were still recovering from
the cycling.
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| The mind boggles :) It just looks like a giant 5 year old's first sculpture |
Down we came and as night fell we were back
home again, in our lovely big bed and off to sleep. Next up was …..guess what…..a LOOOOONG
drive. This time to Kanab and what would
be a fantastic stay with a very cool man and his two huge dogs.
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