Moab

(No pictures for now as this internet access is really crap. Watch this space for pictures hopefully soon!)

I am in Moab (Utah) now. Probably the furthest from Phoenix I'll be on this trip. According to my GPS, I am 473 miles away from Phoenix and it would take me 8 hours to drive there!

Since Monument Valley, I am on Utah time too. For some reason, Utah is in a different timezone (US-Mountain) than Arizona (US-Arizona). Weird. I am camping anyway, so I mostly live with the sun.

Moab seems to be a popular adventure holiday destination. It actually fits well with my mood. I feel like doing some organised, unusual stuff. So I booked a rafting trip for tomorrow Saturday and some Canyoneering on Sunday. Should be lots of fun!

Even if I used my card to pay these, I'm starting to run seriously low on cash... :-(

Since I left the Canyon, I'm starting to feel the pressure of time. It is not long before I have to go back home! I need to make real choices about where to go and what to do. Also the sheer excitement of the trip is wearing out a bit. I'm getting confused: when I go to climb in my car, I found myself more and more often going for the passenger door (on the right of the car), as if I was in England!

Today, I went in the Arches state park. This kind of park is really weird to visit, and it's very different from my experiences in the French Alps. It is so huge, you have to drive around, for miles at a time sometimes, to go from viewpoints in trailheads.

The roads here were built by miners, when there was an important need for Uranium after World War II. They didn't find much, but with roads came tourism. The Grand Canyon actually have a similar story (replacing roads with trails), where miners came first, if not as recent.

This kind of park feels like a drive-in "fast-tourism" (like "fast-food"). You can cruise through this amazing place in the comfort of your air-conditioned car, maybe listening to your favourite music, stoping every now and then to stretch your legs and take a picture. Sometimes you don't even have to get out of the car to take a picture! Sometimes, you have to hike a mile or two, which feels better, but it is still weird to have to do several mini-hikes in one day, interspersed with driving.

Also, people are much less friendly. I'm guessing it might be related to the drive-through style. People you meet don't look at you, don't say hi. Some don't even return greetings. These people probably would prefer to spend the whole day in the comfort of their car. It was like that too in the Grand Canyon, at the end of the Bright Angel trail, when after hours of hiking up you start to meet the look-like-a-star people that gently strolled 20 minutes from the top. They were not friendly at all and didn't want to have anything to do with sweaty hikers.

For most important spots, big wide trails are provided. Sometimes, you also meet "primitive trails" [sic], which feel a lot more like normal hiking paths. You meet much less people on these. Probably because "primitive trail? ZOMFG this is not where everybody go, it can't be worth it!" :-P

Sorry to be a bit moody, but I didn't enjoy the park as much as I would have liked. Delicate Arch was fun to see, though. One thing I should have done, had I known about it in time, is a guided hike through the canyon maze (you can get completely lost, they say!) of Fiery Furnace. People are not allowed there without a guide or a permit. That sounds like fun!

Moab is very busy these days because they have a big car show this weekend. It was very difficult to find an available campsite and I'm having to move every night. Tonight I'm in the Up-The-Creek campground, which I would thoroughly recommend. It's small, tent-only, and has some amazing old trees and grass. Very nice setup and the woman who runs it is very friendly (nice change with the people in the Arches park!).