The Latest From Moab

I've been trying to download some photos to go along with this post without any luck, so you'll have to be content with an update without photos.

We failed after two tries to get our name drawn for the Wave. We promised ourselves that we would try again in the future. We left Kanab and headed towards Moab. This is one of our favorite places as evidenced by the fact that this is our fourth trip here in the past 5 or 6 years. It is red rock country and home to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. On weekends and holidays the place is crowed with mountain bikers and jeeps, both of which traverse the slick rock which is in abundance.

Over the past week or so Southern and Central Utah has been hit with some real down pours, some places getting as much as seven inches. Most every back country road has suffered some damage, making many of them impassable. Most of this area drains into Lake Powell and some of you may know that it is only about half full. This one weeks series of storms raised the lake level by 5 feet. If you are aware of how big Lake Powell is, you will understand that is a lot of water. Now the ground is saturated and any small amount of rain becomes runoff. They are predicting rain for tonight and tomorrow with snow in the higher elevations.

We've been taking hikes most everyday, weather permitting. This morning we went on a ranger guided hike in Arches in an area called the Fiery Furnace. It is an area of narrow slots between towering rock formations. The hike last about 3 hours and is guided because it is very easy to get lost in. You scramble up slippery slick rock, through small crevices, and along narrow ledges all the time hoping you don't embarrass yourself in front of your fellow hikers. We managed to come through with only one skinned knee (mine) and a sprained finger (Cathie). This evening we plan, if it doesn't rain, on hiking to Delicate Arch in hopes of getting some great sunset photographs. If you don't know, Delicate Arch is the arch on the Utah license plate.

In a couple of days, we will start heading south, first to Durango, Colorado, then on to New Mexico. We I get a WiFi connection that is good enough, I'll send along some photos.