What inspires you? For me, it’s witnessing 14 of my girlfriends face their fears… on 200 ft cliff faces, or fins with seriously steep drop-offs on each side, or on raging, raft-flipping waves . From June 8 to 13, 2019, the Tredsup sistas hit Moab, Utah hard on a multi-sport trip that featured hiking, rafting, canyoneering, and sleeping under a canopy of brilliant stars.
Quick Google facts about Moab: Settled in 1878, “Moab is an [American] city in eastern Utah. It’s a gateway to massive red rock formations in Arches National Park. Southwest, Canyonlands National Park features mesas and buttes carved by the Green and Colorado rivers, plus Native American rock art. Dinosaur tracks can be found at sites like Bull Canyon Overlook and Copper Ridge. In the city, collections at the Museum of Moab include dinosaur bones and archaeological artifacts.”
Our photo diary follows, plus suggestions re: guiding, restaurants and accommodations:
THE SISTAS
GETTING TO MOAB
We flew into Grand Junction, Colorado and rented two 12 passenger vans.; the drive is 1 hr 45 min to Moab. The Scenic Byway of Highway 128 offers majestic views on a winding two lane highway that follows the Colorado River.
JUNE 8
ARRIVAL & HUMMER SUNSET TOUR
ACCOMMODATIONS: GONZO INN (clean, well priced, breakfast & pool)
We checked into the Inn and then the girls quickly hit the Sunset Hummer tour with Moab Adventure Center, led by some truly wild (but capable) weather-worn, Southern drivers. The hummers race up the red rocks at impossible angles because of the red slickrock. Slickrock, w
hile slippery to a horse’s hooves, is super grippy to rubber tires. It was a white-knuckler trip and the ladies loved the adrenalin rush.
JUNE 9 – DAY 2
HIKE: DEVIL’S GARDEN, ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
GUIDES: MICAH AND PAUL OF HIKE MOAB
DISTANCE: 7.2 MILES (12.23 KM) ELEVATION GAIN: 470 FT
HOURS: 6 TEMPERATURE: 76 F
DINNER: DESERT BISTRO (delicious especially the Vegan Tower and handmade agnolotti)
ACCOMMODATIONS: Gonzo Inn
This was a stunning hike featuring narrow rock walls called fins, which are formed over eons as rainwater erodes parallel fractures (caused by the uplift of salt deposits below the surface.) The park’s namesake arches are fully eroded fins, the finest of which is the Landscape Arch. It is the longest arch in North America at 306 ft (93.3 m). It’s only 6 ft across and hanging delicately and precariously.
Scaling the fins:
Don’t look down!
Goofing around (and trying to freak my sister out lol)
JUNE 10 – DAY 3
WHITE WATER RAFTING: COLORADO RIVER
GUIDES: EMMY, STEPHEN AND SHELBY OF MOAB ADVENTURE CENTER (WHO FARM OUT TO WESTERN RIVER EXPEDITIONS)
HOURS: 8 TEMPERATURE: 84F (BUT 40F AT NIGHT SO LAYER UP IF CAMPING!)
LUNCH, DINNER AND ACCOMMODATIONS: CAMPING
The Colorado has been called the lifeblood of the Southwestern USA. Starting high on the Continental Divide in Colorado, it surges down the mountains, through the deserts and all the way to Mexico. Some of the canyon walls are 2,000 feet high, and the soaring white-capped mountains are a view to behold as you dig in your paddle.
We loaded three rafts up: two split between our 15 paddlers and one with 3,000 lbs of gear, the latter stoically oared by Stephen. We paddled rooster trails, wave trains, ripples, eddy lines and holes on the swollen Colorado (which, because of record rainfall, was threatening to wash out its banks and the highway). Over a day and a half, we tackled Onion Creek, Cloudburst, Rocky Rapid and Whites Rapid.
We stopped mid-day in Bull Canyon, hidden by bullrushes and towering, red walls. It was tricky wedging the rafts into the narrowly slotted canyon and even more challenging wading out and hauling out the lunches! While the guides set up our yummy meal, we explored and climbed.
At 4 pm, we pulled over at the Onion site, overlooking the mountains, spires, and the roaring Colorado River, to set up camp. A few brave girls swam. A J-Raft delivered my special dinner (allergies) at our campsite. Water Uber! (Thanks Moab Adventure Center!)
Lynn yelled out the Raptor’s basketball scores throughout the night as we were tucked into our cots. We opted for no tents and froze out butts off, gazing into the impossibly midnight blue sky laden with stars. (Hey, if you’re going to be huddled, shivering, and wide awake all night, this was the best view possible). The sistas are quite sure a cougar circled and marked the territory around our cots.
We loved the potty with a view.
JUNE 11 – DAY 4
WHITE WATER RAFTING: UPPER COLORADO
GUIDES: EMMY, STEPHEN AND SHELBY OF MOAB ADVENTURE CENTER
HOURS: 4 TEMPERATURE: 86F (30C)
LUNCH, DINNER AND ACCOMMODATIONS: RED CLIFFS LODGE (spacious, lovely rooms; great food; stunning views of the river; well priced)
We were back on the river after a pancake breakfast and striking camp. The river was so high we rafted over an island. We had a buffet lunch at Red Cliffs Lodge, viewed their museum and returned for a patio dinner that offered the pinkest of sunsets. Amazing…
JUNE 12 – DAY 5
HIKING: HIDDEN VALLEY, MOAB
GUIDES: MICAH AND PAUL OF HIKE MOAB
DISTANCE: 7.2 MILES (12.23 KM) ELEVATION GAIN: Initial ascent is 1 km straight up and then you hit a nice plain; some steep climbing necessary to find the rock wall with petroglyphs
HOURS: 8 TEMPERATURE: 108F (42.2C – we Canadians are not used to the heat!)
DINNER: SUNSET GRILL (great food in the Uranium King Charlie Steen’s original 1950’s house; lovely view)
ACCOMMODATIONS: UNDER CANVAS MOAB (kinda cool camping in Safari tents with king beds and good bathrooms; downside is the noise from the highway)
This beautiful (and challenging) hike is off the tourist-beaten track. We saw but one other hiker on the trail. Our guides, Micah and Paul, took us up some steep climbs to an incredible rock wall dating back to the Hunter Gatherer period of 3000 BCE. This wall is living history: embedded in the desert varnish are examples of Ancestral Pueblo rock art, with broad shouldered Anthropomorphous beings with horn-like headdresses and long, arc-like arms. For thousands of years, indigenous peoples left their stories on this long wall — stories of bighorn, bear and dear hunts, greetings, and human passages. It is simply incredible.
Pat and I went exploring over lunch, climbing some faces to find this cool view:
JUNE 13 – DAY 6
CANYONEERING: EPHEDRA’S GROTTO
GUIDES: ROBERT, HYRAM, AND CORT FROM MOAB ADVENTURE CENTER
DISTANCE: 5.09 MILES (8.2 KM)
HOURS: 6 TEMPERATURE: 111F (43.8C)
DINNER: SORREL RIVER RANCH AND SPA (and massages for a few)
ACCOMMODATIONS: UNDER CANVAS MOAB
Our final day featured two exhilarating rappels in Ephedra’s Grotto by our intrepid sistas: 100 and 120 ft. The pictures tell it all:
Before dinner at the Sorrel River Ranch (stunning and expensive), a crazy mini-hurricane wind whipped all the pool furniture into the pool. The roofs and walls were shaking! It was followed, at dinner, by cheers and thunderous applause as the Raptors won the NBA finals! It was truly epic.
What a trip! Thanks, Utah!
FINAL THOUGHT
If you’re hesitating about pushing yourself, and adding some adventure into your life, here’s a simple poem by Robert H. Smith:
The clock of life is wound but once,
and no man has the power.
To tell just when that clock will stop,
at late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own,
live…love…toil with the will…
Place no faith into tomorrow,
for the clock may then be still.
TREDSUP 