Moab, Utah is one of our favorite places to visit. It is close to two national parks: Arches and Canyonlands. It also provides an abundance of hiking and touring opportunities outside the parks as well as a small town with many interesting little shops, the City Market with its wonderful deli, and services such as barbershops and dentists. Its many campgrounds vary considerable in quality and atmosphere ranging from many tent sites crammed together with ATVs roaring around to reasonably sized sites for RVs and more peace and quiet. We chose the latter at Portal RV Park on the north edge of town.

Our first hike in Moab this year was to Carona Arch which is situated beside the Colorado River on BLM-administered land. Hiking up hill from the parking lot, the first obstacle was the single-line railroad track that runs from Moab to a potash processing plant near Shafer Canyon. I’m not sure how many trains actually use this line today but we heeded the signs and stopped, looked and listened, then crossed the track and started up the dirt path and slick rock trail.

The trail soon presented us with some challenging sections that included a ladder and two cables to assist with otherwise impassable situations. Most of the path to the arch was on slick rock, defined by cairns with no discernible trail or footprints left by others.

The reward at the end of the hike was beautiful Carona Arch. The opening is 140 feet high and 105 feet wide at the base. It is popular with the younger testosterone-filled crowd who enjoy swinging from the top, through the opening, using long ropes. We didn’t see any such activity on our hike but did pass a party of about six twenty-somethings headed up as we descended. The were heavily laden with ropes, sections of firehose to protect the arch where their ropes chafed, and other gear. We were tempted to turn around and hike back up to watch the fun but decided to continue on down to a picnic area along the Colorado River for a staid lunch instead.