Beautiful Moab

(Moab, UT) Today I (Mike) took Sparkie, Wazzu and Boogie to a hiking trail called Fisher Towers, about 25 miles outside Moab along the Colorado River. I thought it would not be busy out there so I would be able to have the dogs off leash, but the parking lot was overflowing. Well, we decided everybody would probably enjoy dogs running around on the trail so we started the hike anyway.

We could see right away why the place was so popular. The trail wound through little canyons right underneath amazing rock formations, fins and towers with absolute vertical wall and hundreds of feet tall.































And there was a beautiful view across the valley toward the river and rock formations miles away.



The dogs had a good time running around on the rocks and through the brush, looking for lizards and just sniffing around. Even the puppy was a good boy and stayed around us without much prompting. It was sunny and a little warm but we found a few shady rock overhangs to stop and have a drink. The total trail was a little over two miles long but we had to turn around after about a mile and a half because continuing required climbing down a six foot ladder to get across a small ravine. Sparkie could have just jumped across but I wasn’t sure about getting the other two across safely so we just turned back.



Coming back we could see something even more amazing than the huge rock formations – there were some fools climbing those rocks! Well, I guess there weren’t really fools, because they seemed to know what they were doing. Here are some pictures of the climbers – notice how tiny they look on these huge rock walls. (Click on the picture to see it bigger on your screen. Look where the arrow is pointing and you'll see a person. This will give you an idea of the real height of this rock wall.)



Notice the two people on top of the rocks...second peak from the left.




After finishing the hike at the towers we took the long way back to Moab, though a beautiful area called Castle Valley and up and over the Lasal Mountains. From the mountain road we could look down on the rock formations we had seen from a distance on the Fisher Towers trail.



A little farther up the mountain there was snow, so we stopped and took a little hike. Boogie thought the snow felt funny on his feet at first, but when he realized it was just ice, which he loves, he started playing in it and having a good time.





Wazzu and Boogie are always hot so even when they just saw a small patch of snow they were both drawn to it immediately.



The mountain loop road came down just south of Moab, where we stopped at a little recreation area with a creek and waterfall among the red rocks.



The dogs enjoyed splashing in the water, and even better they all got to chase a rabbit a through the desert. Boogie was right along with the girls, giving little yips of excitement as he ran. He ran as far as Sparkie did, but was a good boy and came right back after the chase was over.




Mike
4/22/08