ABOUT WORLD RECENT ISSUES E-MAIL US FREE INFORMATION MAGAZINE ADVERTISE LINKS & RESOURCES APRILAAAW 2 013 RLD TRAVEL GUIDE MOAB, UTAH This tiny town on Utah’s eastern border is an outdoor-lover’s paradise. Text and photos by Rebecca L. Rhoades Majestic Moab I’M HEADING DOWN HIGHWAY 279, also known They’re climbers, and they’re tackling other holes to use,” says Drew Peterson Wall Street, one of the most popular of Bend, Oregon. “There are thousands as Potash Road, on my way to view some ancient climbing spots in the region. This of climbing routes in these canyons, so approximately one-mile-long stretch, you can pick and choose depending on Anasazi petroglyphs when I see them. At first, they where 500-foot-tall Navajo sandstone your style.” cliffs meet the Colorado River, is just Peterson, a native of Lancaster, appear simply as brightly colored dots high on the outside the town confines of Moab, Pennsylvania, has been traveling the red-rock cliffs that hem the western side of the road. Utah, a destination renowned for country for two months with friends, outdoor and extreme adventures. seeking out great rock-climbing As I get closer, I notice more colorful figures on the “The sandstone here is really good for destinations. It is his first day in Moab what climbers call ‘crack climbing.’ You when I meet him. ground and ropes attached to the shapes above. just climb the cracks; there are very few “Moab is definitely an international ABOUT WORLD RECENT ISSUES E-MAIL US FREE INFORMATION MAGAZINE ADVERTISE LINKS & RESOURCES APRILAAAW 2 013 RLD TRAVEL GUIDE MOAB, UTAH destination for this type of climbing,” he says. “Some But it takes more than a chemical element to create of the strongest climbers in the world come here to test a must-see destination. And while there were some, themselves.” such as Captain Macomb, who saw the red rocks and They’re not alone. From its earliest days as nothing sagebrush as worthless, to others, they are worth more than an arid and rocky stopover on the way to more than all the uranium in the ground. Late author the West Coast to a modern adventurer’s paradise, Edward Abbey described the region as “the most Moab has been testing people for well over a century. beautiful place on Earth.” In the late 1930s, director John Ford discovered NATURE’S GLORY the area’s rugged beauty, and over the next few Centrally located on the eastern border of the state, decades, he filmed many of his now-classic Westerns Moab is a four-square-mile oasis hemmed in by those here, including Wagon Master, Rio Grande, and red rock cliffs, the 12,700-plus-foot La Sal Mountains Comancheros. In fact, it was during the filming of and the Colorado River. It was one of the last areas of Comancheros that John Wayne coined the now-famous Utah to be settled. description of the area: “Where God put the West.” In the 1850s, early Mormon pioneers tried to Moab continues to be a big draw for Hollywood establish a trading post where the Old Spanish Trail, with dozens of blockbusters—as well as TV shows, a historic trading route that ran between Santa Fe, commercials and music videos—filmed here over the New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California, crosses the last 60 years, including The Greatest Story Ever Told, Colorado River, but efforts were quickly abandoned. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, City Slickers II, In 1859, a U.S. Army expedition led by Captain John Mission Impossible II, Austin Powers 3 and the more Macomb surveyed the land in an effort to uncover a recent 127 Hours, John Carter and Johnny Depp’s The wagon route from New Mexico to Utah. At the time, Lone Ranger. And contrary to popular belief, Thelma Macomb said of the area: “I cannot conceive of a more and Louise did not take their final ride into the Grand worthless and impracticable region than the one we Canyon. They took it in Moab, off Highway 313, in now found ourselves in.” Dead Horse Point State Park. It wasn’t until the 1870s that interest in the area again peaked, and in 1881, following the building of a post BASE CAMP office, the name “Moab” was given in reference to the Despite it’s brushes with wealth and celebrity, the Biblical town—a dry, mountainous area at the edge of town of Moab has remained relatively unscathed. Zion. A fitting moniker. Sure, the main shopping district, a mere four blocks Moab boomed in the 1950s when geologist Charles long, offers plenty of shops selling T-shirts, sporting Steen discovered a million-dollar deposit of uranium supplies, crystals and plastic souvenirs, but the brick south of town. Prospectors flocked to the area, and the and clapboard buildings, none more than two stories population exploded to about 6,000 residents. Today, tall, still retain the comfortable feel of an old-time fewer than 5,000 live here year-round. Wild West town. Canyonland’s Mesa Arch ABOUT WORLD RECENT ISSUES E-MAIL US FREE INFORMATION MAGAZINE ADVERTISE LINKS & RESOURCES APRILAAAW 2 013 RLD TRAVEL GUIDE MOAB, UTAH Art galleries abound, featuring such diverse works from handcrafted metal art and jewelry (at Earth Studio) to award-winning images by local photographer Tom Till. Downtown dining is also varied and typically casual. Start your day with some ginger pancakes and Dutch apple butter at the Jailhouse Café or one of the many creative muffins (blueberry and bacon, anyone?) at the Love Muffin Café. After an active day outdoors, head to Moab Brewery, the town’s only microbrewery, for a thirst-quenching Dead Horse Ale (or a Moab-brewed root beer for the little ones). Moab is also home to two wineries, Castle Creek Winery at the Red Cliffs Resort on the northern edge of town and Spanish Valley Vineyards on the south end. Of course, to truly appreciate Moab, you really have to leave town. “Most people who call us say ‘I’m coming to Moab, Dead Horse Point and I’m going to be there for a day. Tell me everything that I can do, ’” says Marian DeLay, executive director for the Moab Area Travel Council. “Well, everything your main location and never have to pack and unpack peak of the first fin. “And to your left and right is… you can do can’t be done in a day, so the first thing and repack.” down.” we tell them is, ‘We think you should change your Wait! What? I lean out over the edge of the Hummer. vacation.’” WHERE ADVENTURE BEGINS Sure enough, the slickrock beneath us falls off at an DeLay suggests spending five or six days in Moab, On my first day in Moab, I find myself on specially almost 90-degree angle. I barely have time to tighten using the town as a base camp and branching off for modified raised seating in the rear of a Hummer my seatbelt a little further before we’re off, climbing day trips to nearby areas, many of which, including heading into a vast field of sandstone slickrock fins. It’s and dipping through hills and gorges impenetrable by Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado; Edge of the just one of the many tours offered by Moab Adventure normal vehicles. According to Thompson, some of our Cedars State Park in Blanding, Utah; The Needles in Center (MAC), one of the town’s numerous wilderness climbs are at angles upwards of 60 degrees. It’s a roller southern Canyonlands National Park; and Monument outfitters, which offer everything from horseback and coaster ride through an undulating extraterrestrial Valley on the Utah–Arizona border, are no more than canyoneering tours to Jeep rentals and even hot-air landscape, with the snowcapped La Sals rising in the a few hours away by car. balloon rides. distance. “Moab is a really good central location for “Up ahead of us, you’ll see the trail we’re going to A few days later, I meet up with MAC again, this southeastern Utah,” says DeLay. “You can use Moab as take,” says our guide Erik Thompson as we stop on the time for some whitewater rafting on the Colorado. The ABOUT WORLD RECENT ISSUES E-MAIL US FREE INFORMATION MAGAZINE ADVERTISE LINKS & RESOURCES APRILAAAW 2 013 RLD TRAVEL GUIDE MOAB, UTAH weather is cold (a rare spring storm has brought cool This narrow circuitous road, which is considered temperatures, rain and high winds to the region), and moderately difficult for high-clearance four-wheel- the Class II rapids are even colder; still, the friendly drive vehicles, can take upwards of 24 hours to travel banter of guide Max Gans and the spectacular scenery completely. It is not recommended for those with a fear replete with stony buttes that rise along the banks like of heights, as it is edged on one side by a sheer drop of some otherworldly skyline make me wish our trip lasts several hundred feet. for more than a mere two hours. Consider that a solid As I stand at the top of the cliff, looking down into testimonial from a city girl who would prefer to stay the deep canyon below, I spot a black 4x4 slowly warm, dry and on terra firma. traversing the hairpin curves, a couple of mountain “Moab is the closest thing to Mars you’ll ever see bikes attached to its tailgate. Perhaps it’s headed toward on Earth,” says Peterson. “It’s just a totally different the 100-mile White Rim Road, a popular yet strenuous atmosphere.