SATURDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2024

(Moab, UT)

I woke when the alarm would have gone off if we’d actually set it. I didn’t sleep as well last night. A strange dream about a mountain lion… can’t imagine why. We eventually got ourselves up and organised and went to Gloria’s for brunch again, because when you’re having just two meals  a day with hiking in between, they had better be good. Presumably because it is a weekend, and generally busier in town, the restaurant had a music duo playing this morning, a selection of ‘Light jazz’ (think tunes from old movies, such as The Girl from Ipanema, Blue Moon, Moon River etc). 

After breakfast we drove to Dead Horse Point, which wasn’t too busy. We set off to walk the Rim Trail, heading along the West Rim to begin. The hikes we’ve done so far have either been UP then DOWN, or up-down-up-down-up-down. This route is one of the latter. There’s no great elevation change, but you’re constantly stepping up and down over rocks, making it much harder work than seems reasonable. I spotted some more animal tracks, but I think these are from some type of deer, most probably mule deer.

The west rim, including a couple of detours to scenic overlooks, was around 3 miles. We decided, on the basis that we wanted to enjoy rather than endure the walk, to cut short the rim trail and skip the end loop by cutting across ‘the neck’, and then following the east rim back to the visitor centre. Whereas the west rim offers views down a canyon, including a look at the meandering Colorado River, the east side looks across a wider canyon and the river, to the La Sal mountains. In the foreground are the potash ponds, of varying shades of blue.

The weather has been cool, but intermittently sunny when we set off, but by the time we were finishing the hike there was full cloud cover, and a freshening breeze. In other words, it had got quite chilly. Back at the car we drank some tea, and then drove to the far end of the loop to look at the views we’d missed by short cutting. 

[Editor’s note: The video is ready! https://vimeo.com/1025798291.]

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, where we had reasonably speedy showers so that we could get to dinner before it got too busy. We went to Pasta Jay’s, and despite being relatively early, we did have to wait to be seated, but only for 10 minutes or so, and it was quite nice sitting outside and just relaxing. After a tasty and filling dinner, we returned to our room for beer, blogging, and a spot of TV. The clocks go back tonight here, so we get an extra hour in bed.