november long weekend in moab pt. 1

Winter is taking its time in getting to northern Utah so we thought we'd take advantage of the continuing nice weather by going to Moab for a long weekend.  It was a good time to go: despite the Moab Trail Marathon and the Folk Festival both being in town, it generally seemed less busy than our previous visits in September, October and May.  The woman who owns the Kokopelli properties said that this weekend is really the end of the season - things will really be slow until March now.

Cool temperatures, great trails

It was cloudy and sprinkling lightly when we got to Dead Horse Point State Park late Saturday morning.  There were a fair number of cars in the parking lot but we only saw six other MTBers when we were out on the Intrepid trails - delightful!  The trails were in good shape too, not nearly as sandy as we have found them on prior visits.  We did the Big Chief loop on the east side, then went across to the west side for Whiptail and Twisted Tree.

Looking west-ish from Whiptail Trail

After our ride (16.5 miles, 2 hours with standing around gawking at scenery), we chatted for a while with a friendly Kiwi (New Zealand) who was dirt-bagging around the American west, then headed in town to check in at our motel.  The cooler temperatures were allowing tourists to bring their dogs with them to Moab; we met Sophie (6 mo. old mastiff) and Felix (5 yr. old border collie mix) as we sat in front of our room, enjoying a beer as the sun set.

Post-ride refreshments

As we often do on our first night in Moab, we walked to the Moab Brewery for dinner.  It was super-busy (lots of runners who had done the Saturday trail run) but we managed to score seats at the bar without waiting too long.  A chile verde burrito, gyro wrap and a couple of Johnny's IPAs later, we headed back to our room and called it a night.