Day 20, TAT Day 4, Moab, Utah

Moab and its famous slick rock trails have been on my to do list for as long as I can remember. The rock is anything but slick and in fact is as grippy as anything. The preferred tool here (as far as I am concerned and please don't tell Dave) is the mountain bike. If not that perhaps a small capacity dirt bike.
Never mind, we will have good times on the 990 as well. Tomorrow we will be doing an oil change and a premature back tyre change( ongoing ripples from the UPS debacle).
In the evening we will ride up to arches national park. For those at work in radiotherapy, and this is not to piss you off, the rock arch images on the Varian computers is where we are going.
Next day will be doing the 120mile white rim trail.
Given that it's still 35 degrees Celsius at 6 pm I think an early start will be required. Yeah right say the McMillan clan.
We arrived here after 5 having had a pretty big day(250miles). In the evening light this place is spectacular, surrounded by amazing red and orange rock formations. I'm looking forward to exploring them.
Today was a day of contrasts. We left the Rockies via Ophir pass, again stunning scenery. Interesting how you can become desensitised to beauty. We barely stopped at the top. The highlight of the day was a long section of rutted jeep track through the western foothills set in some virgin forest. Just fun riding. Then out onto he plains through desperate agricultural lands. Very dry and with very high crop failure rates due to the drought they were ploughing failed crops under. Pretty sad.
We had a lovely interlude at a place called Dove Creek where we stopped for a well overdue coffee and a bite to eat. The proprietor was an Auzzie who had married a local lass. Both very nice to talk to and the best coffee we have yet had in the States. Good coffee is clearly an antipodean thing. I didn't catch his name and Dave is having a quick power nap with the TV on full volume so I can't ask him.
He lived in midrand in South Africa for several years, just up the road from where I grew up. I think that's why he was nice ( can't be the Auzzie connection).
Anyway, after that we rode some sections of dead straight gravel roads before ending up, rather surprisingly to me, riding high mountain forest just before getting to Moab. Long descent from cool forests to baking desert.
Not many pictures today and mostly taken to show the contrasting country.
Hopefully I get to show some good desert pics over the next few days.
Till then