Washington → Oregon → Idaho → Utah → Colorado → New Mexico → Texas
Moving out sucked, but seeing new places… is pretty great and so far is making it worth the trouble. We traveled across the states in the beginning of our adventure with a deadline to pick up our friend Reed in Mexico on February 15th. This left us little time to dilly dally unfortunately, but also keeps the budget from skyrocketing as the US isn’t the cheapest. We wanted to make the best of our time traveling the first stretch, so naturally we had some long days.
We won’t bore you with the mundane details of long hours of driving but here’s the short. First day was about 9 hours in the car from Washington to Twin Falls Idaho. The following day we pushed on to Salt Lake City where we met up with our friend James for lunch, attempted to take a shower at his place, broke the shower handle, and I proceeded to have a meltdown due to too much time in the car. We kept rolling up towards Soldier pass where it started dumping snow. We stopped at the nicest rest stop I’ve been to near the summit and fell asleep to Lord of the Rings. The end of this day I gave a great sigh of relief.
Moab, Utah – Stephanie
The following day, traveling day 3, we arrived at our first location in which we could stop and smell the roses. Moab, Utah. This place is legit. Outstanding red rock formations creating huge arches and some sandy but friction heavy climbing.
When we arrived in town, we went for a short hike to Corona and Bow Tie Arch. Let me tell you, mid-week in the winter in Moab… is a dream. There are no crowds, which means we saw 2 beautiful arches on a short, easy hike all by our lonesome. Clambering around on those big bulgy walls of red is like an adult playground, especially for us outdoor nerds. So much texture and colors in the rock, it’s gorgeous!
We took a drive down Longs Canyon that evening and we spotted a pull off with a pit toilet and decided to post up and make some dinner. As we were taking some needed down time, we were approached by some visitors, one massive dog and a leathery older dude putting around. I noticed the duo up the canyon earlier in the day, and could have sworn this dog was actually a wolf. Turns out it was 96% wolf– according to Stanley. Stanley was obviously a desert nomad himself and had seen some adventure in his day. This was the first of a few friendly faces we met on our trip so far.
Morning rolled in with the sun and we soaked it in with some coffee and a breakfast sandwich you all should be jealous of. A short drive later and a non-existent approach we started our first day of climbing at Wall Street. A full day of climbing called for some much needed showering, so we hit the hostel in town and reveled in the hot water, made some pasta, hit the brewery for some chill out beers, and finally slept like the dead.
Our last full day in Moab started with a hike up Hunter Canyon. We got our first taste of some steep gravel roads which Beatrix totally rocked. The hike was fantastic with huge walls towering above us on either side, ups and downs through a stream bed and a choose-your-own-adventure feel, as the trail was not always easy to follow. We came across an unexpected arch high on the side of the canyon so of course, we had to hike up there. So we meandered up the slopes on some questionable rock and got right up under the thing. While picking our way down another (nonexistent) trail we met another new friend.
Brandon happened to notice our approach to the arch which was different from what he’d done before so he followed us up there. On the way back to the trail he caught up with us and we ended up hiking the remainder of the canyon with him. Turns out he’s only been in Moab about 8 months, and has already been to 75 arches. That’s nearly 10 arches every month. Shows how easy it is to get outside living in a place like Moab.
We hit the brewery again that evening, and it was much busier than the night before due to $5 burger night… instant regret that we already made dinner…. Our only seat option in the bar was an 8 person table, so we sat on the end and were later joined by a group of local mountain bikers- these people shred. Nick names like Rat Bait and Spine Slayer, these people knew how to have a good time, so we drank way more beer than anticipated and ended up at a karaoke bar. Very bad dance moves were had.
A bit of hung-over Friday morning climbing, and we feel we did Moab well for the first stop on our journey. Moab and its community of adventure seekers are rad and we hope to be back- hopefully for longer next time. On to Durango!
Durango, Colorado – James
Durango had been calling to us as two of our favorite people in the world, Colt and Hannah, just moved there last month. So we high-tailed it through SE Utah and a few hours later coasted into this ridiculously idyllic mountain town. If Moab is the rowdy teenager of playground towns, Durango is its mature older brother. Bigger, more established, but with the same heart of adventure. We dig it.
After a relaxing evening catching up with Colt and Hannah, it was time to see what this place was all about. They set us up with a couple of mountain bikes and we headed out toward Horse Gulch. The ride started with a long climb that carried us up into the foothills, putting our legs to the test, but eventually we reached the downhill portion which started with a steep section of trail with a couple roots to navigate. Now, I’ve spent a lot of time on bikes but Steph, not so much. She immediately went over her handlebars and straight into a tree, which was kind enough to drop a huge branch on her head. Not the best way to start the ride.
She was a bit shaken up but after a short break and some reassurance that it’s okay to walk her bike through the sketchy parts she was back on two wheels and the rest of the ride went much better. Needless to say I had a blast and might seriously have to consider buying a mountain bike sometime in the future.
We were feeling pretty worked after mountain biking so we decided to take it easy the next day and hike to some hot springs. Unfortunately the government didn’t get the memo that winter never came this year and the road to the springs was closed for the season. We re-calibrated and headed for Chimney Rock National Monument. Also closed, despite the sunny weather and dry ground.
Feeling annoyed, we decided to hoof it up the closed road to see the awesome Pueblan and Chacoan ruins. Their location on top of a steep hill provided awesome views of the San Juan Mountains to the north and the southern Colorado scrub lands to the south. Fully worth the walk up the 3-point-something mile gravel road.
Sadly we had a schedule to keep to so we had to keep moving, but not before Durango was hit with a much needed snow storm. We said goodbye to Colt and Hannah, promising to join them in Durango for good someday. We picked our way through the snowy streets and pointed our wheels south for Mexico and the promise of sunshine, towering limestone, and the official start of our Latin American adventure…