Murphy Range

Ticking off #4 of the 'Mighty 5' of Utah's National Parks, we hit up Canyonlands. All the parks are significantly different and you enter this one via a narrow neck with drop offs of several thousand feet on each side. We explored the mesa top, or more accurately the edges of the mesa, with the Colorado and Green Rivers gouging the surrounding earth in the most amazing ways. At times the loops of the river only leaves high walls a few feet thick whilst it loops around a mile or so, and eventually leaves long stagnant trenches behind.

We camped just outside the park looking over miles and miles of dissected dirt, and in the morning rolled down the hill to Dead Horse State Park. It's got exactly the same views, albeit from the opposite vantage point, and in many ways was more impressive. The best thing was the miles of mountain bikes trails, which would never be allowed in a NP. Despite only having a crappy old hybrid I couldn't resist, and I battered the hell out of myself and my bike! Jo faired much better on her full suspension mountain bike, but despite the bruised and blistered hands/arse I couldn't resist going and hitting the hardest tracks in the afternoon. I managed to mangle my back wheel pretty badly and had to walk the last couple of miles back.

In desperate need of a hot shower we headed into Moab and found it was only a few more bucks to park up at the hostel which was in walking distance to the local brewery, so it was a bit of a no brainer!

The next day we took it very easy and enjoyed the rare wifi to catch up on long overdue admin and running errands around town. We headed to a free camp spot just out of town, which was fine except for the fact it was so sandy and dusty we couldn't even open the top vent of the van.Read more