Summer Vacation - Colorado & Utah

Slickrock Trail & Canyonlands National Park

After a quick continental breakfast at the hotel, we walked across the street to Rim Cyclery and rented some full-suspension bikes. Our main event for the day was to ride the Slickrock bike trail.

We rode from the hotel to the trailhead, which was about 4 miles away and straight uphill pretty much the whole way. After what seemed like forever, we finally got to the trailhead where we decided to ride the practice loop before tackling the main loop.

Once on the main loop, we got about 1 mile in and saw a huge storm brewing overhead. We pulled out our big bag of excuses and decided we were worn out from the ride over there and the practice loop, oh, and from the hike up the tallest mountain in Colorado a couple of days before, and figured we wouldn't finish the ride before the storm hit. So we headed back to the hotel.

Good thing we turned back because about an hour later this unbelievable thunderstorm hit Moab. There was thunder, lightning, and floods in the streets. It was really cool.

After a late lunch at Poplar Place we decided to go check out Canyonlands National Park. The map indicated there was a shortcut road to the main road into Canyonlands. We decided to check it out.

Well, it turns out the road was a shortcut, but only if you have a 4x4 vehicle with about 2ft. of clearance! We tried in our little Ford Taurus, and we almost made it, but right towards the end the road was too washed out and we had to turn back and take the long way around. Good thing we were in a rental. The best thing about this road was the views. We probably saw some of the best views of the whole trip from here.

We got into Canyonlands just as the sun was setting. We had great views of Mesa Arch and we hiked to the top of Upheaval Dome. We finished off at an overlook where we saw a great view of the White Rim Trail.

The firewood is holding up very well in the trunk.