Where’s Nico?

I’m opting for another song from the classic ‘Speaking in Tongues’ album to keep the Talking Heads streak going for at least one more week. But why reference flippy floppy? Well for two reasons… that you’ll learn about later on in this post. But first, for those who may be wondering where Nico is, and given you typed “wheres nico” in for the URL, I’m hoping you’re one of them, this week’s answer is:

Moab, Utah!

When I last sent out an update, we were wrapping up our stay at Escalante. We ended up staying for a few more days after that post, which gave us a chance to do the Peekaboo and Spooky slot canyon hike one more time and have an amazing dinner with Uncle Bob. About a half hour from where we set camp is a little town of Boulder, Utah. That town has a population of about 200 people, and amazingly, a restaurant that has won multiple James Beard Awards! The restaurant is called ‘Hell’s Backbone Grill’ – not exactly the name you’d expect from a Beard winner, nor the facade as you pull up to it, and it is absolutely amazing!

For those who are unfamiliar with the James Beard award, it’s not referencing James Harden’s facial hair – it’s really sort of the Oscars for restaurants.

The Beard awards just kind of sat behind the front counter, like they were no big deal.

We ended up ordering a bunch of small plates, and I have to share some food porn here. The dishes, the drinks, and the desserts were all amazing. On top of that, the wait staff was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, and the owner, who opened this restaurant 25 years ago, was a delight.

Yeah, the last two pics were both desserts. Don’t judge me.

Anyway, it was a wonderful way to finish off our wonderful visit to Escalante and our wonderful time with my wonderful uncle. Escalante was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

The next day, we packed up and scooted on to Moab. The drive to Moab was really lovely – most of the route was on state highways 12 and 24, which take you over Boulder Mountain (a gorgeous drive that goes over eleven thousand feet above sea level – it dusted snow on us in early May) and through Capitol Reef National Park. We didn’t spend any time exploring Capitol Reef on this trip, because we had some exciting reservations we needed to get to in Moab, but I do want to put a quick plug in for it. Capitol Reef is a real hidden gem in the National Park System. They have a delightful hike there to Cassidy Arch – my youngest’s name is Cassidy, which makes it even more special and I had a chance to do that hike with Uncle Bob back in 2019 and absolutely loved it.

But I digress, as I often do… I mentioned exciting reservations in Moab. For those unfamiliar, there are two national parks near Moab – Arches and Canyonlands. They are great parks, and amazingly different, despite their proximity. Arches has an area called Fiery Furnace. If you’re ever planning on coming to Arches, I recommend you try to get special passes for this area. The passes go on sale on recreation.gov seven days in advance at 7am local time, and they only sell a small number (there are two ranger led hikes in the morning which only allow 14 people each, and there are 75 passes a day to let you explore the area on your own). I’ve done the ranger-led hikes a couple of times, and they’re a blast – this was my first chance to do the self explore option and Kristen’s first time in the Furnace, period.

We actually had passes to the ranger-led hike back in 2021, but we encountered car trouble on that trip that caused us to miss the excursion. I will say, there is another hike in Arches that is one of my all-time favorites – the hike to the Double O Arch, which we did in 2021 (and I did with Uncle Bob in 2019) – you don’t need reservations for that and I highly recommend it!

But this was our chance to explore Fiery Furnace at our own pace, and here’s where the title of this post ties in in two ways.

The first flippy floppy of this day involved our Silverado. We set up camp in a boondocking area north of Moab. It’s pretty easy to get to, but there is a three mile stretch on dirt and gravel to get here. It’s not the worst road we’ve hit be a long shot, but in the morning as we left for Arches, we hit a bump a bit harder than we realized and the back passenger tire… went flippy floppy.

Luckily it was just the seal – I added air to the tire and we were able to manage for a bit until we got it into a shop. Then we headed into the park, got our passes from an enthusiastic and engaging ranger, and headed out for the Fiery Furnace. The Furnace is like a jungle gym for grown ups. It’s a blast! And as I was walking down one stretch, looking up at the amazing views, my ankle did flippy floppy number two.

I hate to even type this out. It’s not that I wasn’t able to keep hiking – my ankle did swell up a bit but it wasn’t anything damaging.

It’s killing me to confess to this slip up because I know my Uncle Bob is going to read this and mock me. While we were in Escalante, we attended a ranger presentation that he gives on his work with the Search and Rescue team. He gave all kinds of warnings about hiking with shoes that don’t protect your ankles. Honestly, if I have any shot at it, I’m hiking in flip flops or Birkenstocks, but for hikes with rougher terrain, I do use hiking shoes. Not ankle-guarding hiking books – these are tennis shoes with awesome grips on the bottom.

Anyway, despite flippy floppy two, after a minute or two, we continued on. The Fiery Furnace is a blast! And for as much fun as I’ve had on the the ranger-led hike through it in the past, being able to explore it freely is way more fun. It’s not a long hike – less than three miles – but like I said, it’s a big old jungle gym of a hike!

Arches does not allow dogs on the trails, so we had to leave Nico in the trailer. The next day, we wanted to make sure to include him, and we did in a fun way. There’s an area just south of Arches and north of Moab called the Grandstaff Canyon Wilderness Study Area. We went for a fun hike there simply called the Grandstaff Trail. It was a bit more than five miles and takes you to a nice view of an arch after a series of water crossings and a bit of rock scampering towards the turnaround point. Nico loves both the water and the scampering, so he was in heaven, and for me, it was a good chance to work out the issues with my ankle.

After that hike, we went up to one of our favorite sunset spots. I mentioned there are two national parks in the area – Canyonlands is almost criminally overlooked. The park has some areas that are very hard to get to, but the most accessible area is called Island in the Sky, and it’s just a bit north of Arches on Highway 191. Many will tell you that the best place to catch a sunset in Canyonlands is at the Green River Overlook, near the campgrounds. I’m sure it’s nice there, but you have a lot of folks in that area, between the parking lot at the overlook and the folks staying at the campground. Can I tell you a secret, just between the two of us? Don’t share this with anyone – I don’t want a bunch of folks ruining this spot.

Okay… is it just us? No one else can hear this, right? Cool. There’s a viewpoint called Candlestick Tower Overlook. Head down there a good hour or so before sunset, and bring some chairs, a blanket, and some cold beers and walk a hundred feet or so towards the canyon ledge. Then just watch as the shadows envelop the canyon below you and the sky changes. Hopefully you’ll have some clouds, and after the sunset, enjoy them as they turn pink and coral in color. Pictures never really do this kind of thing justice, but here’s some of what we got to see:

And if you happen to be in the area when it’s near a new moon, bring some extra beers, because once the sky turns black, you will see more stars than you could count in your lifetime.

We were here during a full moon, which really limits the number of stars you can see, but back in 2021 we caught this same spot on a new moon, and I’ve never seen a sky like it.

I mentioned that Canyonlands is often overlooked. Island in the Sky has some visitors, and it’s by far the most visited portion of the park. We also took time on this trip to head down to the Needles District of the park, which is about an hour and a half south of Moab. It was well worth the trip! The hikes in Needles are either very short (less than two and a half miles) or very long (eleven miles to multiple days). Given that we had Nico in the car, and he wasn’t allowed on the trails, we had to limit ourselves to the shorter hikes, but they were very nice. The two hikes we hit were Cave Springs and Slickrock Foot Trail. Both were nice short trips, and Slickrock in particular gave us a chance to see why this is called the Needles District – it’s kind of hard to see in the background, but just look at the pointy rocks sticking up on the horizon in this picture.

Anyway, it’s been another wonderful week! I look forward to talking with you all again in another week or so!

– Ken 5/26/2024