Moab, Utah, USA
We stopped at the town of Moab between visiting Monument Valley and Arches national parks. Canyonlands National Park is also nearby so it’s a good place to stop between visiting these parks. We were only there one night but I really liked the place, primarily because of the shopping opportunities! However, it also seems to be a bit of a Mecca for outdoor activities – especially mountain biking and river rafting / kayaking. Hence it’s ‘tag’ as Utah’s adventure capital. The world renowned 9 mile Slickrock trail attracts some 110,000 mountain bikers per year.
It’s a small town with a population of around 5,000 that has a lovely community feel. Whilst many of the shops are undoubtedly aimed at tourists the quality of the goods is high and they quite a ‘hippy’ / crafty edge’ – with lots of unusual jewellery, clothes, painting and sculpture in addition to lots of sporty out-door gear. My favorite shop was the Hogan Trading Company who profess to be the largest Southwest art gallery in Utah. They have a huge stock of sculpture, furniture and lighting. I have promised myself that one day I will go back and get one of Greg Gowen’s fabulous copper ceremonial masks (http://hogantrading.com/). Moab also seemed to have just the right number of coffee / cake shops and places to mooch around for a day or two!
One of the more unusual things to do in Moab is to visit Canyonlands by night. It’s a boat trip on the Colorado River where lighting creates shadows and a different perspective of the landscape accompanied by mellow music and some narrative on the history. Another great thing to do is to head up to ‘Dead Horse Point’ which provides amazing views 2,000 feet above the Colorado River so don’t forget your camera.
The area around Moab boasts some of the darkest skies in the United States and is therefore a great place to see the milky way and look for shooting stars – I saw 2 about 30 minutes apart. It is definitely somewhere I want to go back to.
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