Moab, Utah and Arches National Park

The drive from Bryce Canyon National Park took us through the edges of Capitol Reef National Park. The views of the high sandstone cliffs we passed were jaw-dropping. Squint your eyes hard and you could see a long row of beautiful cathedrals at the top, mile after mile. But don't do that while you're driving a motorhome.

Our campground for the next three nights was in the town of Moab, Utah, which is an interesting place.  This is sandstone country, and two major national parks are nearby - Arches and Canyonlands.  The town itself is surrounded by high sandstone cliffs. 

We drove into Arches National Park, so named because it supposedly contains over 2000 sandstone arches.  Near the entrance are monumental cliffs and beautiful rock formations, like the following: 

Some miles later we reached the Devil's Garden, trailhead for a hike to Landscape Arch, perhaps the park's most spectacular.  The trail was sandy and biblical, and at the end we saw Landscape Arch, but not up close, for the safety of the park's visitors.  A Visitors Center movie told us that erosion of the park's features continues, and back in 1991 some large pieces fell from it, captured, amazingly, by a movie camera, at a time when not everybody owned one.  (A different arch collapsed completely in 2008.)  The evolution of Arches' geology continues.

Later Nancy and I went on a self-guided tour in search of Native American wall paintings.  With difficulty we found walls with interesting images carved into them, but disappointingly, graffiti was present, too.  But a couple told us about beautiful wall paintings free of graffiti a few miles away, so off we went.  The road became terrible as we descended into an amazing canyon, but we finally found a huge rock with amazing Native American artwork.

Moab has quite a history.  The area is one of the richest sources in the world of dinosaur bones and footprints.  Butch Cassidy and the hole-in-the-wall gang hid out nearby.  In the 1950's, a rich vein of uranium was discovered here, and during the nuclear years uranium mining dominated the town's economy. In 1949 John Ford filmed Stagecoach, perhaps the first important western movie, in the area, and the motion picture industry has used the natural scenery there for many films since - The Greatest Story Ever Told, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, City Slickers II, Mission Impossible II, Star Trek, and a number of others that we all have seen.  Johnny Depp is currently filming The Lone Ranger there and is rumored to be staying in the outskirts of Moab.

The high-end Red Cliff Lodge is fifteen miles outside Moab, and the drive to it is within another beautiful canyon, with scenery that I'm sure has been the backdrop for many movies over the years.  Downstairs at the lodge is the Museum of Film and Western Heritage, which was interesting, and we also did a tasting at the Castle Creek tasting room on the grounds. The grapes are grown in Utah and the wines were fairly good, considering.  On the way back we saw a sign that let us know that we weren't in California any more: