Thursday, July 31, 2008

Sweatin' it out in Arches and Moab

After a great couple of days biking in Fruita, I drove down to Moab to check out the legendary slick rock. Everyone told me that late July is just about the worst time to ride in southern Utah...and everyone was right. It was a frickin' oven in Moab. I had to stop and go swimming three times in the Colorado on my drive to Moab to cool off. Once I arrived, I did a little exploring around Arches National Park, which is amazing but best seen in the fall or winter, and then scoped out a camp site. It was still 98 degrees at 9pm, so sleeping was a little tough but it cooled off by 11pm or so.

I did a quick ride on the slick rock trail before I ran out of water and it got too hot. I didn't make it around the whole Slick Rock loop, still had a fun time riding with a dude from England who I chatted with about the riding scene over there while zooming up and down the perfectly smooth rock faces. If you're ever driving to Moab or Arches, you should definitely take route 128 off of I-70. This was my favorite stretch of road of the whole trip by far (see picture below). Here are some pics:

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