Driving across southern Utah, you have two main options: Race along I-70 and get somewhere else in a hurry, or slow down and search out the truly unforgettable scenery the state has to offer. One of the best places to base yourself for an exploration of the region is Moab (pop. 4,779), an old uranium mining town that’s located 30 miles south of the freeway, surrounded by two national parks (Arches and Canyonlands) and hundreds of thousands of acres of desert wilderness.
Thanks to Outside magazine and the recent mania for outdoor athleticism, Moab has experienced a massive tourist boom in the past decade—Edward Abbey, cantankerous poet of the Southwest who wrote his first book, Desert Solitaire, about a season he spent at nearby Arches National Park, would probably turn in his grave if he saw the gangs of Lycra-clad mountain bikers milling around Moab’s Main Street T-shirt stores and brewpubs. But despite the addition of fast-food franchises and hundreds of new motel rooms, Moab is still a dusty little back-of-beyond hamlet, albeit one that gives easy access to the wilds nearby.
If you’re not prepared to camp out in the backcountry (if you are, the nearby state and national parks have a full range of possibilities), Moab has the usual national motels plus local ones like the Apache ($50 and up; 435/259-5727 or 800/228-6882), at 166 South 400 E, where John Wayne slept while filming Rio Bravo here in 1950.
For breakfast, try the Jailhouse Café (435/259-3900) at 101 N. Main Street. After a day on the trails, treat yourself to a gourmet dinner at the Center Cafe at 60 N. 100 West Street (435/259-4295).
For more information on visiting the Moab area, including all the surrounding parks, contact the very helpful Moab Information Center (daily; 435/259-8825 or 800/635-6622) at Main and Center in the middle of town.
The prettiest route east from Moab, Hwy-128, winds along the broad and brown Colorado River past 25 miles of swimming, kayaking, and camping spots. Hwy-128 links up with I-70 23 miles west of the Colorado border at junction 212, near the former sheep-ranching center of Cisco, a ghostly old US-50 crossroads abandoned after completion of the interstate, where old gas station buildings are slowly decaying into a post-apocalyptic art installation.
Fifteen miles south of Moab along US-191, one of Utah’s oddest attractions is the Hole ’n The Rock (daily; $5; 435/686-2250) a 5,000-square-foot home carved out of a sandstone cliff over a 20-year period, beginning in the 1940s, by Albert and Gladys Christensen. Now open to tourists, the site also includes a large carving of FDR’s face.
