Day 136 - Roadrunner Country

We had a relatively early start again today as we had a 280 mile drive to get to the Canyonlands Campground in Moab, Utah where we’d be spending the next two nights.

Before we really got going we stopped at a walkway that led us along a tiny trail where we could see some petroglyphs. These were pretty well preserved in the rock so we took a few piccys before moving on.

On this journey we got dropped off at one end of a short mile or so walk called Park Avenue which took us through a lot of landscape very similar to that found in the roadrunner cartoons. At the other end of the avenue we were picked up by Damian and he then drove us to Balanced Rock which is just as it sounds and is again reminiscent of the rocks wily coyote would try and topple down onto roadrunner!

The next stop was at the Windows Arches where we all trotted off to have our pics taken in the natural rock frame before we were taken along to our campground in the town of Moab.

This town is clearly a town for petrol heads and off-roading enthusiasts as it is full of pimped-out Jeeps and varying off-roading vehicles, along with dirt bikes and mountain bikes. The campground was no exception as it was full of adrenaline junkies itching for their chance to conquer the rocky terrain all around us. There was also a strong wind picking up at camp but once we’d set up camp and unloaded the trailer we were on the move again, this time to the renowned Delicate Arch where were going to watch the sunset. We firstly had to make the hike to the arch which Corrie managed to do in flip flops and so we all made it to the arch with plenty of time to spare. The wind was still blowing strong though and, once we’d all taken the mandatory photos of the arch, we all sat on the rocks on top of the rim to wait for the setting sun. Damian then surprised us all by producing some non-alcoholic cider and a selection of crackers and cheeses which we all took great delight in getting stuck into. The wind was incessant and eventually drove us all down to lower, more sheltered ground, in the inner rim by the arch. We all watched the sunset, along with watching a couple of people losing their hats in the strong gusts of wind before we all headed back to the town for tea.

We had tea at the Moab Brewery which was nice and the all went back to camp where we were pretty much forced to stay inside our tents due to a sand storm sweeping the area!