I managed to sneak out of Salt Lake City yesterday afternoon. The snow in the valley had melted off by early afternoon and I took the run through Spanish Fork Canyon to cross over the Wasatch Range into the valley. The road was clear of snow but wet in a few spots and the temperature was hovering in the mid 30′s. I was in a hurry to get through before the sun went down and that water on the road started to freeze, definitely a cold ride. After clearing Soldier Summit and diving down the quick drop to Price and the valleys beyond the it seemed much warmer, although the thermometer didn’t move.

Utah is made of such strange colors. Besides the red and tan rocks interspersed with tufts of gold grasses and shrubs the sky seems to be a more subtle shade of blue. The terrain seems to go on forever with distant mountain ranges always looming on the horizon, until actually finding those mountains at which point it turns into a never-ending maze of twisting canyons.

The sun finally went down on the approach to I-70 and the final run down to Moab. A quick run down a dirt trail that branched off from the main highway provided for a photo opportunity and a taste of what’s to come. I have no idea where this road leads to; a quick check of Google Maps shows it disappearing into a network of other dirt tracks just like it, none of which appear to lead to anything other than empty desert. I suppose that’s the interesting thing about the desert, you can drive for hours and and up somewhere superficially identical to but also completely different from the place you left.

After a quick dinner in Moab I set out to find a spot to camp and ended up in Kings Bottom about 2 miles west of town on the banks of the Colorado River. I should point out that this name is (I’m assuming unintentionally) humorous if you speak British.

Today brought a warmer but cloudy morning with a forecast for rain and snow tomorrow so I will try to get my Moab are explorations done today and set aside tomorrow to hunker down and plan my next move.

Tags: Red Roamer, Colorado Plateau