Moab's Playground

With the two national parks and all the hiking, rafting, biking, 4-wheeling, rock-climbing, and many, many other things there are to do around here, Moab is like one big giant playground!

We decided to first do a little exploring and set off to look for some dinosaur tracks.  I had read in a Moab guidebook, that there were some dinosaur tracks at a spring just as you turn off on Hwy 128 heading east.  We found the spring but didn't find any dinosaur tracks...just people stopping to fill up their water jugs with fresh spring water.

We drove out Hwy 128 just a few miles further in search of dinosaur tracks but all we saw was more beautiful Utah canyon walls alongside the Colorado River. 

What looks like will be a terrific paved bike trail is currently under construction along the Colorado River.  Another thing to do if we come back to Moab!

We went back to the visitor center and the same lady who gave us the great itinerary for Arches told us where to find the dinosaur tracks and where to park the car so we could ride our bikes on the Moab Bikeway. 

After parking our car, we began heading north on the Moab Bikeway that runs parallel to Hwy 191.  We crossed this really nice bridge over the Colorado River. 

 

The trail was probably one of the nicest bike trails we have ever ridden on.

 

We rode out about 5 miles and then headed back south stopping to get our Arches NP entrance picture on the way back.

There were some beautiful flowers along the trail...

 

...and gorgeous fall colors on the trees.

 

After lunch at Subway in Moab, we next headed west on Potash Road in search of dinosaur tracks and to hike to Corona Arch.  We stopped and watch some rock-climbers for a few minutes,

 

saw another Indian petroglyph,

and found some dinosaur tracks.

 

We couldn't walk up to them because they were on a rock resting on the side of a cliff.  The information sign in the parking area showed us where to look for them.

 

We headed further west on Potash Road to go to the trailhead for Corona Arch also known as Little Rainbow Bridge.

 

 After parking at the trailhead parking lot,

 

I took a picture of the trail directions (just in case we needed them later as we were hiking on the trail).  :)

 

We began hiking up a dirt and rock path,

crossed the railroad tracks, and then continued hiking on the dirt path along a canyon wall.

We then began following the cairns along over a rock surface sometimes and along a dirt path at other times.

We began to follow along a rock ledge (these pictures were taken looking back -- behind me)...

 

...and then came to a cable to hold on to as the ledge path became narrower.

 

We crossed over more rock...

...and then we had to climb up this steep rock that had another cable and "footholds" cut out in the rock for your feet.

We crossed over more rock...

 

...and then climbed up this ladder.

 

 

Once we were up the ladder, we could see Corona Arch in the distance.

 

We could see another arch to the left of Corona Arch.

As we got closer to it, this other arch was more like a hole up through the rock.

Chuck had recently read where people would swing with a rope from the top of the arch.  A You-Tube video entitled "World's Largest Rope Swing" has attracted many other thrill-seekers to the arch.  In March of this year, a man miscalculated the length of his rope and was killed when he hit the ground below.     

There weren't any rope-swingers here today.  This arch was HUGE.   Can you see Chuck in this picture?

Can you see me?                                              

You can get an idea of how big the arch is by looking at one side of the base of it.

There were not many people on the trail today; and for several minutes, it was just Chuck, me, Corona Arch,

and a beautiful view of the valley in front of Corona Arch.

As we headed back, we noticed this big crack in the canyon wall.  Yikes!

We headed back to the ladder (which was right beyond Chuck in this picture)...

 

and then back down the cable with the footholds.

We found it easiest to scoot down on our "backside."  WARNING:  The below movie of me scooting down is neither graceful nor pretty...but it worked!

We came to this wall where previous hikers had stacked rocks.

We added our rocks to the wall too.

We crossed the narrow ledge with the cable,

passed by these pretty little yellow flowers,

and this lizard,

...followed the rock cairns and headed back down the trail.

Wow!  That hike was challenging and fun!

As we passed by the rock-climbing walls on Potash Road, we stopped and watched this young family enjoying a fun evening of rock-climbing. 

The dad was climbing first with the mom holding the rope below while at the same time watching their very cute toddler son. 

After dad rappelled back down, mom climbed up...

...while dad was holding the rope and watching their son.

They asked us if we wanted to try out the rock-climbing.  We thanked them but said not this time. 
We had played enough today.  :)