In 2016 my girlfriend, Lee, and I drove to Moab, Utah to take part in a Road Scholar bicycle tour. On the way out we got a chance to see my kids and grandkids in Colorado and on the way back we drove through the Four Corners area and stood on the spot where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet. We also made the obligatory stop at the Grand Canyon and walked on the Skywalk (a ten-foot wide horseshoe bridge that extends 70 feet out over the rim and with a glass walking service so you can look down at the canyon floor 4,000 feet below)—a somewhat dizzying experience.
In Moab we met our friends, Joe and Carolyn, who we had met and whose company we had vastly enjoyed, on previous bike tours (Door County, WI in 2013 and Idaho in 2015). The four of us went to dinner and had a nice reunion.
The Road Scholar group stayed at a nice hotel in Moab for the week and was shuttled each day to and from the various biking destinations, which is nice as you don’t have to spend time riding to the most spectacular areas and have more time to ride through them. On the first day, however, Road Scholar guides made a mistake. They fit us all for our bicycles but then told us just to ride around town for a half-hour or so to get the feel of the bikes. Unfortunately, the area around the motel was a busy area with heavy traffic. The four of us are experienced riders and can handle the traffic (although it made us nervous) but often on these trips there are a good number of inexperienced riders who should not have to ride in traffic, especially when it is their first time on a bike since childhood. It was a mistake—something Road Scholar seldom makes.
The riding mileage for the four days was only 110-120 miles but, as I mentioned before, we covered a lot of the parks in the shuttle van, from which we could see a good deal of the park and which saved us a lot of riding between sites. We also did some hiking to and around the formations.
We ate breakfast at the same diner each day and bought sandwiches for our lunch. Monday we were shuttled to the Needles District of Canyonlands N. P.
The day’s ride started at Newspaper Rock, which contained numerous petroglyphs (thus the name), then spent the day riding through the beautiful Needles District rock formations. At various spots we were able to leave the bikes and explore the formations on foot, getting close-up views, once even walking through a narrow “alleyway” between two huge wall
On Tuesday we were taken to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands and, again spent the day riding around and site-seeing. At the beginning of the ride there was a long, steep climb, that some of the group decided not to do, that really got our hearts pumping. We all met at Mesa Arch for lunch and continued riding the area for the afternoon.
Wednesday we were shuttled to the La Sal Mountains and started our ride a good ways up the mountain. It was quite chilly that far up (we had been warned to bring warm clothing on this day’s ride). We rode down the mountain on a long downhill slope, somewhere between 6-8 miles (which didn’t make things any warmer), and had lunch at a state park at the bottom. We did more site-seeing and the rest of the group was shuttled back to the hotel, but the four of us opted to bike back to Moab (with one of the guides) as the downhill ride had not caused us to use much energy. We had a pretty stiff tailwind so the ride back didn’t take a lot of energy, either.
Thursday we were shuttled to Arches National Park and started our ride in the Delicate Arch area. Delicate Arch (top photo) is the signature arch of the park and is the image on the Utah state license plate. It was a several mile hike to the arch and back but the view was well worth the trek. We then toured the rest of the area by van and bicycle and rode the bikes back to Moab.
That evening, the last of the trip, we had dinner at a very nice restaurant with a gorgeous view overlooking the entire Moab area—a special treat. The restaurant, whose name, unfortunately, escapes me, was the former home of a uranium miner who had struck it rich. Road Scholar always includes a celebratory dinner at a nice restaurant on the last evening and, as usual, they had chosen well.
Friday morning we packed up and headed home with new memories of a great trip, great new friends, and yet another beautiful area of America (God Bless Her).
