Writing this 2 weeks later so may not be my best recollection of what we did. We drove from Bryce to Moab on Friday 7^th November. William and John had been looking forward to Moab for months. Desperate to do some ‘proper mountain biking’. We had read bout the incredible slick rock that offers mountain bikers such a unique experience.

We drove more of Scenic Highway 12 through the incredible scenery of Escalante Staircase. The scenery changed every 50 miles or so. We crossed a place called Hells Backbone road. Which was basically the vehicle equivalent of the terrifying Angels Landing. The tiniest of roads with sheer drops on either side. They called it the Million Dollar Highway, which I’ll leave you to guess the reason for. During the Great Depression it was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) a genius idea in my mind!!

We stopped for a few hours in Capitol Reef National Park (so named for the dome which resembles the Capitol building), which was completely unlike any of the other parks we’d been visiting. Here there are cliffs, canyons, domes and bridges in a Water pocket Fold, which is a “geologic monocline” (a wrinkle on the earth to you and me) extending almost 100 miles. One more incredible National Park stamped in our book!!

We arrived into the town of Moab on Friday evening. As the sun was setting the town was filling up with weekenders, bikes on top of their cars or trailers with ATV’s on the back. A lot of North Face wearing types!! We realised NOT booking a campsite may have been a mistake as we pulled up in the only one NOT full of ATV’s and loud music was full.

John suggested I knocked on the door of the guy who lived on site /ran the campsite and despite my misgivings he wasn’t annoyed and didn’t turn us away, he found us a spot in a section of the campsite they’d closed off for the season. If you don’t ask!!!

So Saturday morning we headed to Arches National Park just outside of Moab.  Another truly incredible National Park. It has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins and giant balanced rocks – all carved into the stunning glowing red rock.

We stopped by the Visitor Centre to see the obligatory introductory film and collect the kids Ranger Programme booklets. They are building up quite the collection of badges now!! We chose to hike towards the ‘classic’ Delicate Arch. A marathon in town that morning meant that it was hugely crowded with medal bearing athletes all making the most of the area. So we hiked our way up the 5-mile track over the slick rock to Delicate Arch. So completely and utterly worth fighting the crowds to see it.

Absolutely mind blowing. The height, the scale of the arch is amazing. And more than that the fact that you can walk right up and under it and it’s not fenced off, as I’m sure it would be in the UK. Arches are forming and falling all the time here so it would be totally understandable to attempt to protect them in some way. But instead the Park allows visitors to experience them up close. We loved it. Well the kids and John loved it and I love the photos. But yet again the sheer drops made me sick with worry and I was much happier once we were all away from the edge!! (Not sure how I am going to cope at the Grand Canyon!!).

Saturday night we had dinner at the Sunset Grill. This is a house set up high on a hill overlooking Moab that once belonged to Charlie Steen – The Uranium King. Fascinating story of a man who made $60 million in 1956. In the early 1950’s Moab was the scene of mining and drilling. The Atomic Energy Commission was offering a $10,000 reward for finding domestic uranium. Charlie Steen was a geologist and prospector and after 3 long years of searching in this area, with his family nearly destitute as a result of this he made one final attempt to extract ore samples 240’ down. His drill bit broke at 180’ and we headed back into town not realizing that the samples he had on the back of this truck were what he had been after all along. So this lucky man built a house on the mountainside, which was famed for wild parties with film stars, the scene for an episode of ‘I love Lucy’, and countless extravagances we can only imagine. The house is preserved completely as it was in Charlie’s day and serves (I kid you not) the best steak both John and I have ever tasted anywhere else in the world.

So on Sunday morning we finally headed out to bike in Moab. We headed to the family friendly Bar M trails. Charlie and I were not as excited as John and Will so agreed to do one ‘tame trail’ with them before lunch. Then the two of them could disappear off to do the ‘proper stuff’ and we would hang out in Frankie while they were gone. Ahem. ‘Tame’??? ‘Family Friendly’??? I think not.

I am a complete biking chicken and have always enjoyed uphill rather than downhill. I’m not sure if you describe something as ‘family friendly’ you should put that name on a trail that includes steep downhill tracks, jumps off rocks and gravel trails that are guaranteed to lose your path!!

Within 10 minutes Charlie had fallen off his bike on a steep corner downhill. Game Over I thought. But No!!! Somehow he decided he wasn’t going to be patronized by his brother and so he got all gung ho about the whole thing and determined that he would do it all. We then biked 10 miles of some of the most amazing tracks and surfaces I think we will ever encounter.

Charlie and John rode together. With John talking him down / through / over the tracks we encountered. Will and I rode up front. I followed him.   He has a. no fear and b. no consideration for his pathetic terrified mother. I had a. no choice but to follow him blindly and b. a formidable sense of pride that he is so natural a biker!! I also found that in following him I was able to negotiate terrain that I would otherwise of dismounted and run crying from!!

We all had the most incredible morning and were so very very proud of each other and ourselves when we finished. Charlie and I were completely spent. And although we almost let ourselves be persuaded into taking on more trails after lunch we knew we had done all we could. So John and Will headed off and came back with stories of tougher, higher, narrower, more treacherous trails. While Charlie and I played Battleships in the van. Cheating so and so got me to take a photo of him so he could study it for clues!!

We totally and utterly loved our time in Moab. So so so glad we headed north to see it