Day 8 - Capitol Reef to Moab, UT

Friday, May 11, 2018

Weather:  Sunny, mid-80s

Steps: Shaun - 18,151, Shannon - 17,226

Friday morning, we ate breakfast on the front porch of our cabin before packing our car and heading out on our roundabout journey to Moab. We had two primary stops for the day between Tropic and Moab: Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon and Goblin Valley State Park. 

Shaun had been told by multiple sources that we had to go to Antelope Canyon while we were in the Southwest. It is one of the most famous slot canyons, known for the beautiful light that streams in at midday and the swirling walls. Upon doing some research, though, we learned that we would have to be on a tour or hire a guide to take us in, as the canyon is on Navajo land, and when we looked, the tours that weren’t super early or late were already booked. 

Little Wild Horse is another slot canyon that is only 5 miles from Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. It’s free to access and has some parts that are truly wonderful, including a narrows section that is just as swirling and interesting as Antelope Canyon. Plus, we could make our own schedule and travel in on our own at our own pace.

The entrance to the canyon is a ½ mile from the parking area, and then the canyon is 1 ½ miles each way in and back. However, when we arrived at the entrance, there was a giant lake blocking the way! We had to climb the rock wall along one side to bypass the area, which was interesting. Luckily, there were other people going in who knew what they were doing, so we just followed them. When we got to the section where we were supposed to descend to get to ground level again, Shaun got a little scared and had to make her way on her butt. She made it, though, and gained confidence after that, so that when we reached another large puddle blocking the path, she shimmied along a narrow ledge in the wall like a pro. Plus, we watched a lady carry a baby in one hand and guide a young child with the other along the same route, so we couldn’t balk after that.

The rest of the route through the canyon was super fun, with just enough rock scrambling and shimmying through narrow crevices to keep it interesting. It wasn’t too crowded, and the high walls kept the sun from being too hot, though it was really windy, which kicked up some dust.

Eventually we hit another lake in the middle of the path, but this time there were no walls to climb and we weren’t going to wade through, that’s for sure. So, we stopped to rest and eat a snack and then headed back through the canyon to our car.

Close by Little Wild Horse Canyon is Goblin Valley State Park, which is known for its crazy-looking hoodoos. The rock formations are super cool, with an almost melted appearance so that they look like fairy houses, mushrooms, chess pieces, etc. We were able to hike right up to some of them, and they had a weird feel to them, almost like they were just a hard crust around a soft inside. This isn’t actually the case, but that’s how it felt to touch them.

The visitor center introduced us to a new artist, Serena Supplee, whose art we saw everywhere for the remainder of the trip. We love how colorful and majestic her landscapes of the Southwest are, and we both bought prints of her work.

By this point, we were starving, but we were in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to eat snacks in the car and power straight through to Moab. We checked in at the main office to get keys to the apartment we were renting for our time in the city, and then drove to the Kokopelli Inn-Tower Lodgings to check it out and drop off our car before getting something to eat. However, when we arrived, we found that the air conditioner was not working. We called the office and they sent someone over, who fiddled with the thermostat and then called the the HVAC company. We left them to it as we headed to dinner.

We decided to go to Moab Brewery to get some root beer, but Shannon underestimated the distance that the brewery was from the apartment, so we walked for what felt like 15 miles (it was really less than a mile, but we were so hungry by that point, that we were ready to gnaw our arms off to tide us over while we walked). We finally arrived, and the food was good, the root beer was so-so, and Shannon bought an awesome pint glass.

We walked back to the apartment and called to check on the air conditioner, which was still not fixed. They had an emergency call in to the HVAC company, but it would still be a while, so we headed out in our car to explore a little bit along the Colorado River.

We drove down Rte. 129 (Potash Rd.) until the pavement ended at the titular potash factory, and then we turned around and headed back. The road followed the river on one side, with big cliffs on the other that rock climbers were scaling as we went by, even though the sun was setting. There were lots of bats flitting everywhere, and Jughandle Arch sticking out of the side of the cliff.

We tried to see petroglyphs that were supposed to be on one of the walls, but it was too dark by that point, so we saved that for another day. On the way back into town, we stopped at the Rock Shop. We stayed over an hour and spent way too much money on rocks, but we had a lot of fun.

From there, we returned to the apartment and found the air conditioner was working again. Yay! We ate a snack and then took it easy the rest of the night.