213 Moab - Arches Park

Wednesday 14th August 2013
Miles Today 131  Total  17,547

We set off a lot earlier today and were on the road for about 9:30. The sun was up and it was hot already.
We were headed for Moab. An adventure playground and the center for 2 amazing National Parks: the Arches NP and the Canyonlands NP.

En route we came through a small town and saw this. Two replicas of the characters of Walt Disneys 'Cars'.

"Cars". Can someone at home show this to little Charlie please.

The weather was gorgeous and starting to heat up to around 27C. The clouds that were there, were storm developing ones. Under them the temperature dropped several degrees and the wind picked up contra to the direction the clouds were going. Spooky. 

It was noticeably colder under these clouds

The scenery then started to get interesting. A taste of what was to come.

The 75 mile long road to Moab had a lot of roadworks on it but we still arrived before 12 noon. We found a tidy Motel and booked in for 2 days.

Karen sorted our kit out whilst I took all the bags off and stripped the bike clean for some easy riding.
At around 2pm we set off for the Arches NP. It is only around 5 miles to the park entrance and after showing our annual pass we were in. We filled our water bottles at the visitor center and after buying the obligatory 'Moab' sticker for Wallace we set off into the park. It was awesome. There is a 15 (ish) mile road through the park that takes visitors to the main attractions which are, oddly enough, arches.

The following is a sample of the scenery in the park and believe me it does not to justice to what is actually there.

After we left the park we went for a spot of dinner at the Moab Brewery, a restaurant that brewed its own beer. Nice.
It was then back to the motel for an early night so we could set off early tomorrow for the Canyonlands whilst the temperature was still bearable.