in which it is still raining in moab

Sunday morning, 7:30 a.m., 52 F, still pouring rain.  We were far too antsy to hang out in our motel room, however, so we put both MTBing and hiking gear in the truck in case the weather cleared up.  (Spoiler: it didn't.)  Since we had always wanted to see water coming down over the cliffs above the Potash Road, we did a quick cruise out there first.  It wasn't coming over the cliffs in massive floods but there were quite a few temporal waterfalls/intermittent streams that simply do not exist in drier days.

This waterfall?  Not usually there

We next drove up to Canyonlands/Island in the Sky where it was 55 F and still raining, with the clouds resting right on top of the mesa.  We drove all the way out to Grand View Point at the southern end of the mesa and then walked out - in the rain - to the overlook, wearing our knee-length L.L. Bean raincoats, which normally don't see much action in Utah.  The clouds swirled, giving us brief glimpses of the White Rim Road below but for the most part, all we were able to see was clouds.  I felt badly for the tourists who had come out on their big trips to see the spectacular Utah desert scenery; we get to see it all the time so a rainy day truly wasn't as big a deal for us.

Brief break in the weather

After a lunchtime pause at the picnic area at the White Rim Overlook/Gooseberry Trail trailhead (still raining so it was an in-the-truck picnic), we drove to Dead Horse Point State Park.  We went out to the end, to the Overlook, and when we got out of the truck, we just started laughing.  The clouds were so thick that it was just a solid wall of white at the cliff's edge - you could barely tell you were on a cliff, and there was certainly no way to know that you were on top of a 1,000 foot cliff with stunning views below.

H strides off into the mist

At this point we gave up and went back to the motel to clean up.  We went to Woody's and watched the 49ers vs. Cardinals game with a local 49ers fan, waiting out the torrential downpours - the heaviest of the weekend so far - that were passing through town.  During a break in the rain, we dashed to 98 Center and nabbed a seat right away.  The atmosphere and food there continue to be terrific but the drinks prices keep going up ($6 for a can of IPA? yikes) and the service is pretty inconsistent.

Me on the edge of Dead Horse Point Overlook

It was only sprinkling as we walked back to the motel after dinner.  We took advantage of the easing of the rain to sit for a while on the patio for beers and chats with other guests.  There also was some fretting about the weather: we had been in Moab for 2.5 days and had only ridden our MTBs once, and hiked not at all.  Yikes again.