SUNDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2025

(Moab, UT)

We were awake a bit early. No particular reason. I opened the curtains so I could see the light change on the cliffs, and made coffee to sip in bed whilst watching.

We had breakfast in the hotel today. Sometimes the complimentary breakfasts can be a little ‘thin’, but it turns out that this hotel offers a great selection. As much, and any combination you want, of scrambled eggs, mini omelettes, sausages, potatoes, cereal (4 options), toast, muffins, pancakes, fresh melon, hard boiled eggs, oatmeal… I may have missed something! Oh. And juice or coffee. 

Sufficiently full, I did some laundry and then we got ready for hiking. It was clean sun shirt day, along with new sun trousers (if that’s a thing) and – the joy – clean socks day! Ah, the simple pleasure of putting on clean hiking socks that don’t already have sand and grit in them. Anyway, as soon as we were ready we sat back down again.  We decided to watch the first lap of the São Paulo GP, as it was just about to start. Having established that things were looking promising for Lando, we headed out, back up to Canyonlands.

We stopped briefly at the visitor centre for toilets, and the parking there was almost full, and there were lots of people about. We left there and parked at the trailhead for the Lathrop Trail. Just three cars there. It’s not a trail that looks particularly promising from the  lay by, as all you can see for a long way is meadow. Fortunately, that means far fewer people try it.

We met a couple from one of the cars after just half a mile, heading back to the trailhead.  After that, all was quiet. We had the magic combination to begin with – cool air, sunshine and peace and quiet. In fact, it was so cool, we even out an extra layer on. But the time we had crossed the meadow, however, the midday sun was strong enough to make us take that off and we were back to our sun shirts. 

After crossing the meadow the trail crests some sand dunes, and then meanders across sandstone rocks and amongst ‘rock gardens’ where juniper and cactus grow. 

After crossing a gravel plateau, the trail descends towards the cliff edge, providing stunning views of the canyons. We usually stop around there, but today we went a bit further and were rewarded with great views of the white rim, the Colorado, the Needles district and even the Potash evaporation ponds. Fire on the horizon is, I think, the North Elk Ridge prescribed fire, 40 miles away as the crow flies.

After eating lunch we slowly started back up. We only saw one other person in passing and one at a distance, so we enjoyed the quiet trail. Luckily the scenery is just as good in the return direction, or at least it is if you stop and pause every so often! We also conducted a scientific experiment by pouring a little bit of water on one of the many blackbush plants, and confirmed it does instantly change colour, which is quite fascinating.

Other nature reports today are the usual lizards, some little birds, which I think are dark-eyed juncos, and the tracks of (we think) a deer. 

We drove to Green River Overlook after our hike, just for the view, before then driving back to Moab. 

We showered and then headed up to Arches after dark. We could see the Milky Way and so many stars. I tried a couple of things with my phone. Probably not as good as my DSLR, but not bad for a phone. While we were out we also saw a really bright and long streak of a shooting star, which was beautiful.

We got back into Moab at around 8.20pm. It turned out that most places were shut possibly not helped by it being a Sunday). Luckily Pasta Jay’s was open, and there was no queue at that time! We enjoyed a nice meal and then shuffled back to the hotel. The legs are quite tired, so an easier day tomorrow. 

[Editor’s note: there will be a video, but it’s late and I’m tired…].