Bidding Farewell to Moab

On my last day of adventuring in Moab, I decided to go back to the Hidden Valley trail and take it all the way to the Moab Rim trail.  The first stretch of the trail goes straight up.  Then, it levels off and opens up to a “valley”.  At the far end of the valley part, the trail opens up to a fantastic view of mesas on three sides of you!  It was a particularly gorgeous day, so I found a perfect ledge and sprawled out to enjoy the view for a while.    

After my rest hour, I continued on the trail to the rim of the valley.  The view was amazing!  I was surprised by how populated Moab appeared from above!  While a population of 5,000 doesn’t sound or feel like a lot of people, when you get a bird’s eye view of the evidence of 5,000 humans all crowded together in a relatively close space, it suddenly seems like a huge population.   This is especially true when the majority of the rest of the landscape around you is almost entirely devoid of human inhabitants!  After getting over the shock of just how bustling this lovely little town is, I took quite a while to relax and gaze at the town and the astonishingly magnificent vistas surrounding it.  It was the perfect way to say farewell to Moab.

When I was finished hiking, I had some extra time before I needed to be back on the farm, so I decided to drive on the road that follows the Colorado River.  I had been down a portion of the road before to get to a trail head, but this time, the drive was the whole event, so I was able to truly enjoy just how amazingly beautiful the sights were!  I continued to drive up into the mountains for a while (until I was passed by five enormous snow moving machines, which I took as an indication that my little car probably would fair too well, if I continued too much further).  There is just something about the combination of mountains, rivers, and strikingly strange rock formations that is totally magical to me!  As I worked my way back towards town, I stopped to stroll next to the Colorado River, which really is a remarkably beautiful and powerful river!  I took a moment to wade the frigid water for a bit, and then I headed back to the farm to prepare for my next adventures.