Southwest Road Trip
Southwest Road Trip
Southwest Road Trip
September 2021
It was two weeks ago we got back from our Upper Peninsula trip that we got back on the road again to drive to Arizona to see David’s mom, Sharon. Sharon had visited MN earlier in the summer and mentioned that she’d love to have George come back down to AZ with us. So, we loaded up the RV and hit the road. This would be our last RV trip of 2021 before we “hunkered” down during Open Enrollment for David’s work. We are so thankful we have the ability to travel as much as we want at this point in our lives!
Our trip down to Tucson wasn’t noteworthy since we decided to drive down in 3 days and then on the way back, take our time and see some sights.
Our first stop after spending a week in Arizona was Moab, UT. We stopped there last year after David’s dad, Bob, had died, but it was during Covid when the National Parks were closed. David had also gone out there for a guys trip in 2021 (see Solo Adventures for David) but he was more than happy to go there again.
It took us nine hours to drive from Tucson to Moab. Moab had similar weather to AZ- HOT! Arizona and Utah both had daytime temperatures around 100 degrees. Luckily, neither one of us love extremely hot weather, so we decided to get up before sunrise and head to Arches National Park so we could get the majority of our hiking done in the morning. We also didn’t know how busy the park was going to be and wanted to get there early for a big enough parking spot for the RV.
Arches National Park has over 2,000 natural stone arches and hundreds of soaring pinnacles, and giant balanced rocks. Entrada Sandstone- the rock in which arches are formed- was deposited more than 150 million years ago. Over time it was buried by new layers, hardened into rock, and shaped by erosion.
Window Arches
Me sitting on a big boulder in front of Double Arch
Double Arch-third largest arch in the park, 144' wide by 112' high (widest arch)
Inside Double Arch
Juniper tree- massive underground root system which can account for two-thirds of its mass
Looking out from Double Arch- you can see the parking lot
Hike to Delicate Arch
Snake on the trail!
Delicate Arch -look at the people under the arch for perspective
Delicate Arch
Moab has got to be one of the biggest ADVENTURE destinations in the country. They have multiple places to rent jeeps, side-by-sides, bikes, mountain bikes, you can go rafting, hiking and I even saw a zipline. I did kind of want to rent the razor side-by-side but didn’t know if I could handle the anxiety of David driving but didn’t know if I had the skill to do it myself. So… we just hiked- which was amazing!
Moab Fault
A break in the earth’s surface occurred about six million years ago. Under intense pressure, unable to stretch, the crust cracked and shifted. Today, the highway (below) parallels this fracture line, called the Moab Fault. After the rock layers shifted, the east wall of the canyon (the side I’m standing on) ended up more than 2,600 feet lower than the west side (across the highway).
Fisher Towers
Leaving Moab we drove along scenic Hwy 191 by the Colorado River to get to Fisher Towers. After turning off Hwy 191 there is a 1+ mile dirt road to get to the trail. It says at the entrance, “No vehicles longer than 22 feet” (the RV is about 25 feet plus the bikes on the back) but we decided to chance it anyway. The road was very rough and bumpy and I might have been drifting in areas where there was an abundance of sand, BUT we made it and it was so worth it! The towers, soaring monuments to erosion, are composed of dark red cutler sandstone topped by harder moenkopi sandstone and draped with mud curtains. There is a 4.5 mile round-trip hike that goes through canyons and cliffs. We started the hike early in the morning but had to turn around about 2 miles in when we came to a steep verticle ladder- we tried to find a way to get George past this area, but eventually had to turn around. I’m glad we got to see and hike what we did on Fisher Towers Trail. It’s less crowded than Arches National Park and just the sheer magnitude of some of the spires were amazing.
Colorado
Moab, Utah to Aspen, Colorado is approximately 240 miles. Aspen is home to 4 ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains and is “nestled” in the White River National Forest. Aspen itself is about 8,000′ above sea level.
After leaving Aspen and driving up and over some really HIGH mountain I thought we’d be back in “civilization” relatively quick so I didn’t make my morning coffee… the first coffee available was the VW Camper Cafe- we had to get out and give it a try. My parents used to have a yellow VW Camper when I was growing up. I think I took at least 1 or 2 trips to Montana in it to see my uncle Dale’s family. My, how times have changed…or not 🤔.
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide is an important mountin range in the Americas, dividing the continents in half and extending all the way from the Bering Strait and Strait Magellan and cuts right through Grand County, Colorado- elevation 12,095′.