I arrived in Monticello (a city 50 miles south of Moab) on Monday night. I arrived in the city (these cities are like small towns really) I pulled over to the side of the road to check where the motel was where I was staying. As I stopped this load siren rang. I nearly had a heart attach. I thought I was next to a fire station or something but when I looked right I noticed I was next to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It turns out this siren rings daily at 18:00 and 08:00. I have tried to find why this happens online but haven’t had any luck. If anyone can shed some light on this please let me know.
The lady at the front desk of the motel where I was staying was so lovely I decided to spend two nights there. She gave me a run down of everything that I had to see in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks while I was in the area. The next morning I was on a mission to see the southern part of Canyonlands National Park. This park is huge so I was concentrating on the area called the Needles.
The 40 mile route to the park was very scenic but I wasn’t particularly fond of the road. Part of it had some gravel on it and part of it had loads of cracks that had been filled in with tar. These strips of tar are very slippery on the motorbike and therefore slightly nerve wrecking when driving along sections with tight bends. Needless to say I took these sections nice and slowly.
As it turns out that was a blessing as my GoPro nearly fell off driving down a hill. It appears that the plastic bottom bracket of the attachment which mounts onto my bike has bent that the one screw pops out of place. This is something I will need to look into when I get into a city. A walk up the road I was travelling down fortunately reveals the missing screw. I was very relieved to find it! This is where it happened.
I was very happy to get my GoPro back in place as this is one of my favourite parks so far and I manage to capture driving into it on video. I unfortunately cannot post any of the GoPro video until I get back home and to my computer.
There is something about the rich red rock formations agains the green ‘bushveld’ like vegetation that gets me very excited.
Everything in the park is about rock. The buttes, the mushrooms, the arches and the canyons are all made of rock. It’s mind blowing to think that I’m standing amongst rock formations that are millions of years old and for the most part, I get to enjoy it on my own.
The park, possibly because of its size, is relatively quiet. There is nowhere that I have been that you don’t see someone at least every 20-30 minutes (it is peak tourist season after all) but those moments of silence I treasure. The calm; the quiet; the pure raw beauty of nature! It puts everything into perspective.
I have posted a video and some additional photos of the park on my Facebook page (Mel & Trinity) but here are a few to give you some of the highlights of the park.
https://instagram.com/melandtrinity/
One of the highlights of my day was running into two South Africans, Barry and Bridget, from Durban on the Elephant Trail. They are spending 5-6 months travelling around the U.S. so we certainly had a few things to talk about. What a lovely couple. It was so amazing to hear their story. Here they are on the trail.
What an amazing day!
Mel & Trinity 