Moab

Posted on by nativetrekker

I’ll just get it out the way early, Moab is not for everyone! If your idea of a good time is stalking prey at the nightclub, Moab is not for you! If you like relaxing poolside with an umbrella in your drink and a cabana boy by your side, Moab is not for you, and so on. If you like being active and outside, there may not be a better place in the world for you than in Moab, Utah.

So what does the area have to offer the active traveler? First off, there are two major National Parks just outside of town that are great for hiking and sightseeing, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Arches NP has Looney Tunes-like terrain which will bring back childhood memories of the Roadrunner versus Wiley Coyote with backdrops like arches, balanced rocks and the reddest side of the color spectrum in the sand and rocks. Canyonlands, for me, is the uncrowded and toned down version of the Grand Canyon. Although the canyon is not as large as the GC, it offers more chances for solitude and is a great place to hike, drive your off road vehicle (on the miles of dirt roads), or even do some long distance cycling on the White Rim Trail.

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Delicate Arch, Arches National Park (as modeled by Anthony Gonzales)
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Graffiti, Ancient Style (Arches NP)
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Canyonlands National Park

The area is most famous however, as the mountain biking center of the universe. And the trail that elevated the area to that status has to be the Slickrock Trail at Sand Flats Recreation Area, which is a right of passage for anyone coming to mountain bike in this part of the country. Even though Slickrock is the main attraction for mountain bikers, it will likely not even make the top five rides for most people, but is certainly the trail you ride to see what you’re made of. Other popular trails include Amassa Back, Poison Spider, Porcupine Rim and many more.

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The Warning (Slickrock Bike Trail)
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Slickrock Bike Trail, Moab, Utah

Other popular activities in the area include Jeep and OHV trails. Although this is not something that I do when I go to this area, it looks like those who do have a great time. Even in this fairly parched landscape, the iconic Colorado River practically runs right through town. The river is known for rafting (although not really whitewater rafting in the truest sense), kayaking, and stand-up paddle boarding (SUP). The most popular day on the river is the appropriately named “the daily” which is a few hours of mostly lazy river drifting and a great way to stay cool in the heat.

One of the most commonly asked questions about Moab is “will I see snakes or scorpions?” And the answer is that you might. Moab is a very warm place in the summer and being primarily a desert environment, it’s only natural to think about snakes and other biting, stinging creatures. I have been to Moab maybe seven or eight times and have never seen a snake there. I know they’re there but still haven’t come across a single one yet. I have, however, seen a scorpion there. Scorpions are mostly nocturnal and are best spotted using a UV light to locate them. However, I only saw a scorpion because I intentionally went looking for them, had a UV light, the night was quite warm, and my wife was more patient/persistent in helping to find one. Admittedly, I liked seeing one and wish we had seen more.

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Scorpion Under the UV Light

Last but not least is the town of Moab itself. Moab as a town is probably not a destination in and of itself but it is a little more than just a gateway town like Estes Park, Colorado or Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Moab is extremely close to the activities that surround it. Five miles from town and you’re at Arches National Park. In Moab proper is where you’ll find the world famous Slickrock Bike Trail with Canyonlands National Park being a little bit farther by roughly 45 minutes. You’ll find the Colorado River just minutes north of town.

There are plenty of hotels and campgrounds to stay at, as well as plenty of dining options. One food recommendation I have would be Quesadilla Mobilla. It‘s a food truck (really, a food truck!), and had to be the single best meal in town and is highly rated on Yelp. The food was reasonably priced, the proportions were large, the toppings and sauces plenty, and the taste was top notch especially after a long day of playing out in the desert.

So if you’re looking for nightlife, go to Salt Lake City (kidding), but if you’re looking for some outdoor adventure and incredibly unique scenery, few places can match what you’ll find in Moab.

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Archview Campground

Cacti, Guns and Snakes – Hiking the Peralta Trail in Arizona

Posted on by nativetrekker

The Peralta Trail is a very popular Arizona hike, and with good reason.  Being a relatively short drive from the Phoenix metropolitan area, it provides easy access to great hiking for the majority of Phoenicians (and snowbirds too!).  Located on the eastern edge of town off of Highway 60, the drive really starts to get interesting once you leave the pavement of Peralta Road near the town of Gold Canyon.  If you’re lucky enough to catch a cactus bloom in the springtime on this section of desert track, you may not even want to get out of the car to hike.  There are so many cactus varieties and my botany background is weak but even I could identify flowering saguaro, ocotillo, and prickly pear, all blooming with different colored flowers.

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Prickly Pear Cactus Flower, Gold Canyon AZ

The hike begins at the Peralta Trailhead in Tonto National Forest, although this forest is probably different than any other you’ve been to before.  This “forest” isn’t full of many trees like you’d see in a traditional forest, but it does have the aforementioned cactus and there are some trees and shrubs along the creek bed.  In those trees and shrubs, you may even have the chance to see an Arizona cardinal.  When the football team moved to Arizona from St. Louis, I thought for sure a name change was in order because I’d never seen a cardinal west of Kansas, but there are real cardinals in Arizona and their color stands out vividly from the desert landscape.

Most people hike up approximately 2.5 miles to the overlook of Weavers Needle and then head back down.  From the trailhead, the first 2.5 miles are almost all uphill with only a few spots along the way to get out of the sun.  Take full advantage of these shady areas as the temperature can get pretty hot on the trail.  Hiking in the spring and fall can offer temperatures that are decent enough, but summer hiking here would be borderline crazy. Temperatures in the Valley of the Sun can reach into the 110’s and sometimes even hotter.  The day of our hike was a near perfect 84 degrees.  Even still, we went through three bottles of water each and wish we would have had more.  As a side note, when I was at Sky Harbor International Airport, one of the souvenir shops was selling t-shirts that read “Keep Phoenix Hot” along the lines of “Keep Portland Weird” I guess.  Clever and I should have bought one!

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Several trails can be accessed from the Peralta Trailhead

 

 

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The trail

Once at the top, you get a spectacular view of Weavers Needle and the Nothern Arizona landscape in the distance.  The view is hard earned so savor it, we were really tired and pretty much only stayed for a few minutes.  A family sitting near us had packed sandwiches with them and I think my dad was about ready to pull out his wallet to try to buy one.  At least one of the kids in the family was also packing heat on his belt and had a Crocodile Dundee worthy knife on it too.  Arizona is known for having alternative politics and having kids with guns on a hiking trail is definitely a first for me.  We’d seen a few other hikers with guns holstered along the trail throughout the day.

Next up is down, downhill that is.  Hiking always seems harder going downhill for some reason.  You’re already tired and you’re having to use your legs to slow your body down.  This is also a good time to make sure that you focus because there may or may not be a rattlesnake on the trail, just sayin’!  A couple was stopped on the trail ahead of us and one of them turned up the trail towards us to let us know that there is a four foot rattlesnake across the trail and to be careful.  It was gone by the time we got there but our radar was definitely up from that point on.  The couple also warned another hiker on the trail to be careful and when he got to us he had a walking stick and a holstered handgun.  He said both were for the snakes.  On a serious note, you do need to keep an eye out for snakes.  Every place has its hazards.  After talking with a few hikers, this snake (allegedly – innocent until proven guilty 🐍) had rattled as a warning to a group of hikers earlier.  Here in the desert, the heat is a much bigger concern than the snakes but you need to be aware of both.  Wear sunscreen and a hat for the sun and drink plenty of water.  Walk softly and carry a big stick for the snakes or something like that says Teddy Roosevelt (not to hit them with of course but for gently nudging them to safety off of the trail, for their own good and for the good of anyone walking the trail, something I actually did a few days after this hike).

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The view of Weavers Needle

 

After finishing the hike, there are many great Mexican restaurants in the Greater Phoenix area to choose from to load up on some of the carbs and sweat you lost out on the trail.  We chose the outdoor seating at Los Gringos Locos in Apache Junction.  I had a margarita, chips and salsa, a Dos Equis Amber, and a cheese crisp (basically an open faced crispy quesadilla) to cap off a great day hiking with family in the Arizona desert.