Good-bye to Moab and the Colorado River

We have been spending a lot of time on the phone and the computer, trying to figure out the best options for our changing situation.  Mark's Father is in the hospital in Oklahoma City, so we are trying to find the best airport for Mark to fly there.  The Moab airport no longer has commercial flights, so we will be moving soon (if we can find a place for the motorhome).

In the meantime, we have been looking longingly at the Colorado River that flows right into Moab.  Denisa is standing on the bridge over the river, and also right over the spot that makes a good take-out for a rafting trip down the Colorado.


The only problem with having just one vehicle now is that it is impossible to get yourself to a put-in spot up the river, as well as to pick yourself up at the take-out spot.  We had asked questions and determined where these spots were.  We had contacted rafting companies, but they would only shuttle us if we rented their equipment.  We called shuttle options, but they didn't call us back.  There are bike paths that we could pedal ourselves along the river, but they end just two miles down the road. So we stood at this spot trying to think outside of the box for ways to get on that river for a float.

We saw another guy was standing beside the highway with his life jacket on.  We talked to him, and he was trying to hitch-hike up the road to a put-in spot thirty miles up river where he had left his boat and wife.  That's an interesting idea.  We didn't even talk about it, but Denisa just walked up to a nice young couple heading to their car and asked them for a ride.  We're not sure why, but they instantly agreed.  They were our angels of the day, shuttling us up the river!  Thanks for that random act of kindness!  We hope you had a great vacation in Moab!  

They dropped us off right on the boat ramp, and we started pumping up our kayak.  We were sure hoping that we didn't forget to grab anything necessary out of our car, which is now ten miles away.  Since this was such a spur of the moment happening, wouldn't it have been terrible to get dropped off without our pump or our paddles?


 



We can usually get everything assembled and pumped up in around ten minutes, and were ready for launch under those beautiful red walls that line the Colorado River.

This was a ten-mile float, and we had those red walls lining both sides of the river most of the way.  We also had the blue skies and sunshine with us.  That's when we realized that when we quickly grabbed everything out of our car, we forgot the sun screen.  We had sun screened arms and heads earlier, but our legs would be exposed in this float down river. 

When we had asked questions about this section of the river, we had found that it was wide and very calm.  Rafters rate stretches of rivers in a class system that uses Roman numerals and goes from I to VI.  We were told that this section would be rated as a class I or II.  When the river is so calm that it mirrors the cliffs around it we think it might actually be a class 0.

We did more paddling than we had thought since we were floating down stream.  We had some splashy sections that were fun and sent us down the river more quickly, but usually we were paddling to help the slow current move the kayak.  The rock walls turned to tan as we floated closer to Moab.  We could see the natural varnish finish on the steep rock cliffs that were straight ahead.  We joked that God was a little messy when He did the painting in that section.

After three hours, we rounded the corner to see the bridge that Denisa was walking on earlier this morning.  Our take-out spot is now visible.  More importantly, our car is waiting for us thanks to our gracious shuttle ride this morning.

Even though we had not planned a stop in Moab, we ended up staying here a week!  Such is the life of wanderers. We'll be on the road again, now towards Salt Lake City because it is closer to an airport.  But we'll be missing these beautiful red rocks of Moab.