For the week following the Indian creek workshop, I stayed on in Moab to see the local sights, more national parks and to rest as I was feeling a bit run down by this point (no doubt brought on by sleep lacking bus adventures the previous week).
I stayed in a local hostel, that was a bit of a walk from the main part of town, but beds were dirt cheap so I was happy.
One of the first places to go of course, was Arches national park, perhaps the most well known in Utah thanks to that iconic arch seen on their number plates. I was lucky enough to find a girl from my hostel wanted to go, and she had a car (and an annual national parks pass) so we were set!
There are arches, but mainly the park is just full of stunning rock monuments, many defying gravity and mystifying to think of how they came to be.
In the near distance, from the park you can see the La Sal mountain range, and even in October their snow capped peaks, just a stones throw from the desert!
To get to most of the prettiest arches, you had to do some walking/hiking. We had arrived late in the day, so did most of the short walks but only had time for one off the long ones. We choose to skip the Delicate arch (the famous one) due to the hike style and popularity and instead went to devils garden. This was also really long, so I didn't see the end, (which I knew) but was soooooo sore today from all the previous days climbing, that I was happy to look after my body and miss a little. Next time I'll be ready for a full day or two of hiking!
Chased this guy for a while before stealing this shot :)
The next day I donned the hiking boots and grabbed a lift out to Kanes Creek road where I though I would find a good hiking trail. In days following, I realised I was right, but despite looking I had failed to find the trail head!! None the less, I was happy to walk through the canyon, by the roadside and along the river, admiring the red walls rising all around. And petroglyphs in the funniest of places...
The next day I just spend in town lounging around, shopping, relaxing etc. I was pretty limited not having any transport, and there being no public transport for hundreds of km's! The day after I decided to wing it anyway, and prepared for a day hiking, wherever I could find! I saw some rock hill things in one direction and decided to head that way, after weaving my way out through the back streets of the town.
I chanced on a good one! Mill creek canyon, which I have since read a bit about. Lucky find! A gorgeous canyon walk, with lots of shady bits and small river crossings. Just the way to spend a hot desert day :)
The first challenge was trying to cross this river to hike up the peak on the opposite side.
Nice view from the top! And could from there plan where to start hiking (well continue, had been an hour or two walking to here)
Heading for that canyon!
There were some great swimming holes in the canyon, and some prime climbing spots aswell!
Come the end of the week, I met up with a climbing guide that I had planned to meet, through a mutual climbing friend in Aus. He picked me up one evening and we headed out to camp in the Castle valley. I was pretty excited, knowing what I was to see when I woke up. And luckily enough, we couldn't have got a better spot, at the base of Castleton tower, which I could recognise from the silhouette touring above me, cutting through the nights stars. Wish I could've captured that view at night - try to imagine the shot below as a towering black pillar!
Where I had camped for the night and my waking view (in the other direction to the tower)
We were not actually climbing that tower today, but one off to the left of it, the Priest. It was one of the hardest slogs ever getting up there! First we scaled up to the base of the Castleton, then had to traverse and climb higher to reach the base of the climb.
Here is a view of Castleton after I have traversed the ridge heading to the Priest and Nuns.
And turning around this is where I'm heading (I'm heading to the very distant tower in the block, the one that's top half juts forward just a tad).
And the views all around
The climb itself was a bit of a disaster. Me and the other climber had a huge "misunderstanding" which left me feeling pretty low and we decided to cancel our climbing plans for the rest of the day and weekend. This was for the best, as I had already felt the company pretty strenuous over the past day.
And on the way back down.
The problem from there was how could I get back to town to continue on my trip/change plans? With the resonant hostility, it wouldn't have been very nice to stay there and there was no assistance from the other party to enable me to get anywhere... But then a miracle happened!!!
Just as I was about to go on a walk to the nearby town (yes there was one!) to find internet and make a plan, I see a girl that I knew from the climbing course drive in to the campsite where we were!! Turned out she had a couple of days to kill, after her climbing buddy had to leave early (I had actually met them for dinner just a few days earlier) and she was driving around looking for something to do. She had apparently called me that morning aswell! (not that I had any phone network). She had no idea I was there, so it surprised her as much as it did me, but It quickly fixed both of our plans! I quickly packed up and left with her. We found this awesome place to camp for the next few days!
The next day we went for another scenic drive - part of our plan to finish our moab "check list" before we leave town in a few days. We headed to a place where there was a classic climbing route that we wanted to check out, the Tombstone.
And saw more nice canyons along the way :)
And more browsin the shops (and frantically rescheduling plans on the internet)
When we woke this morning, we realised how close we were to the local airport. And from nowhere we decided to enquire about the skydiving there.... We called them back after a couple of hours in town and booked in a jump for that afternoon. Impulse decisions again!!!
Me rigging up with my jumper Jimmy
Ready to go!
I was pretty pumped and was surprisingly not too scared, getting better as each minute went by. Julia unfortunately was going the opposite way, nerves growing all along...
But we did it! (On the cheap so no photos nor videos) and it was one of the best things I've ever done. I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling for days!! Great way to turn around the hostility of the past few days. The plane was so tiny that we hardly fit in, but the squishy views were priceless. So so so awesome, and I was only scared for those 5 seconds before you jump (when the plane door is open and you step out of the ledge) the rest was amazing.... So watch this space... New hobby?
I stoke this pic online, pretty much shows what I saw. The whole whole way down all I could see was endless gorges, canyons, rivers, rock formations and mountains. Not a town or farm insight. So so beautiful. I'm convinced this is the most beautiful drop zone in the world!!
And early the next morning we were off - I had a bus to catch, got to catch the sunrise on the way :)
See ya later Moab! Been a blast!
