Hiking Moab

We're done with National Parks, at least for now. We were growing weary of following tour buses into viewpoints. Turns out, this is the busiest time of year for these southern Utah parks now that the weather is cooling slightly (although yesterday it hit 100). It is actually not difficult to get away from the crowds since most of the tour bus people don't leave the asphalt, and there are tons of good hiking trails. Our problem was only The Dog, who was not allowed on the park trails.



In the photo of Ruby, she is asking us to please find a hike suitable for her. So we looked, and discovered that God did not put all the cool sights inside the park boundaries...there are plenty outside too. We also found shade. In three days we have done three hikes, up canyons with water for swimming (dog swimming, at least), plenty of shade and not too difficult. I am not good at hiking. I am physically reasonably fit, so it's not that. I find it mentally difficult to focus for long periods of time on where to put my feet, which rocks to step on in which sequence to cross the creek beds without falling on my head, how not to trip over tree roots, etc. After spending countless hours the last couple of years with my friend and personal trainer, well, more of a body coach, really, I have gained some control over my almost freakishly long limbs, as well as better balance, more core strength and greatly increased confidence. I fell two times today, only.


We're still basically in Moab. There's more here than first meets the eye. Did I mention there are petroglyphs everywhere? And we just saw some dinosaur tracks. All out in the open, not behind glass or fences and no admission charge.