Red Rocks Everywhere - Utah — YOFO Adventures

So many red rocks! And all different shades of red and pink and white and brown and grey, but lots and lots of reds. Not only were there tons of colors and shades, there were tons of shapes too - hoodoos and spires and fins and windows and arches and needles and ... and all of it left us wishing we paid more attention in our geography and physical science classes. The simple version - millions of years ago, plate tectonics uplifted the Colorado Plateau and exposed super old rocks and layers which then faced the erosive effects of wind and water/ice (mostly water, which is wild in a part of the country that gets under ten inches of precipitation a year). Science lesson over - we know you only care about the jackassery and the pictures.

Afer leaving Mesa Verde, we knew we wanted to get up near Moab and play in Canyonlands and Arches and that general area. Turns out that if we had done a smidgeon of research, we'd have found that September is the busy season and not the off season. And rightly so - gorgeous weather and reasonable sunrise times! Since the NP's had full campgrounds, we checked in with a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) field office and got the scoop on some BLM campgrounds. Its sort of like the Forest Service but more likely to have open grazing and slightly more rugged sites (in general), as well as free boondocking.

Colorado River view from the Needles District of Canyonlands.

On the way to the Needles District of Canyonlands, we passed by Newspaper Rock - if petroglyphs are your thing, this place is nuts! Must've been a landmark/billboard/ancient-graffiti site of sorts through multiple centuries.

This rock formation at Needles was one of Dawn’s faves.

The Needles are spectacular- you go from open rangeland to bizarre canyon rock formations that have tons of needles and spires and hoodoos and more. We had fun hiking to a natural joint (geologic, not medicinal) and also busted out the mountain bikes to discover the joys of pedaling in sand.

The Joint Trail in Needles District, Canyonlands NP.

We jumped up to another BLM campsite right on the banks of the Colorado River so that we could play in/around Moab and Arches National Park. Highly, highly, highly recommend getting a backcountry permit and exploring a bit in the Fiery Furnace area of Arches. We stayed close to the semi-marked trail and it left us wanting more - more time, more chaos, more sandstone knee-scrapes. We also explored the Windows area of Arches, saw Delicate Arch, and hiked in the Devil's Garden area

Slick rock is more like a bumpy, undulating, giant sheet of fine-grit sandpaper-covered rock.

Moab is something of a Mecca for mountain bikers who want to try biking on red rock trails and slick rock (which is oddly not slick at all!). Unfortunately, our mountain biking adventure ended a bit abruptly at the end of our first afternoon. After playing on some of the red rocks trails, we took a chance on a slick rock trail that was just a smidge above our skill level. Went really well right up until the point that it didn't. And that involved Dawn crashing - no permanent damage but a bloody busted lip and a slick rock rash on the knee we’re enough to temporarily curtail the mountain biking. The next day it “limited" us to an 11-mile kayak down a very leisurely section of the Colorado River the next day. Super float / paddle and amazing views up toward the Amasa Back and Poison Spider Mesa.

We continued on to Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands and again took advantage of a BLM campsite. It was pretty interesting seeing how Island differed from Needles and how both differed from Arches The views from the elevated area allowed us to peer down over 2000' and several tens of millions of years/layers of geology.

From the Moab area, we headed across Utah to check out Capitol Reef NP. Again, we are really not sure how it is possible to have so many different shapes and colors and arrangements of red rocks. After the three vastly different areas in the Moab area, Capitol Reef was again somehow different. It made for some fun hiking and we were able to snag a few apples from the historic Mormon orchards inside the park.

Walking thru a wash on the Syncline Loop Trail at Capitol Reef NP.

We thought we were starting to get a bit of red rock fatigue, but our last Utah stop, Bryce Canyon National Park was straight up insane. The formations: windows, hoodoos, fins and even marching fairy armies....wild. Loved riding the park shuttle (parking is super limited) and the drivers had tons of good info that they shared. Definitely recommend the Queensland - Peekaboo - Wall Street "loop" trail to get up close with a big portion of the Bryce Amphitheater.

We wrapped up our red rocks adventures (for now - still have Zion, Grand Canyon, etc to hit!), and headed to Vegas to do laundry and catch a plane back east for Trav and Jess' wedding.