Planning Forum, Password entry only Options

[Gint]

You guys can plan all you want in here. I've PM'd Brant, Joe, Eric and Ben with the password. Don't go giving it out to everyone. This forum is for you guys to communicate with each other, post test web sites, graphics, pics plans whatever all of which is outside the main forum and the rest of the user community.

[Eric_Shea]

Thanks Brant!

Got this from my Boxster buddy... long:

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Eric:

We had a great weekend with some spectacular drives. We discovered some new roads that will be a lot of fun to caravan as well.

Here are some highlights, you can find the itinerary details on the trip website:
http://home.business.utah.edu/~mgtjwb/Tour...ab05/moab05.htm

1) Needles Overlook: Something like 18 miles south of Moab, the road out to this overlook is 22 miles of nothing. No cars, some signs indicating cows, but we did not see any. Long straights where we were hitting 90 going out and 120 coming back. Slightly irresponsible, but a real highlight of the trip. The Overlook itself is spectacular. This is the highest point in Canyonlands, and you can see the Green-Colorado confluence and all three districts of the park. This is a very large overlook with lots of places to climb around and take pictures. The vista here is easily 270 degrees. It was a great afternoon drive. I will include this on every Moab drive I ever do.

2) Upper Colorado-Delores River Canyon Drive. We devoted all day Friday to this drive, and it was definitely worth doing. The morning light along the Colorado River was great for taking pictures of the cars, and there are some campgrounds and recreation areas where there is plenty of parking. Hittle Bottom, for instance is good. A quick stop at the Dewey Bridge was also worthwhile. We drove directly to Grand Junction, but one of the guys on the drive suggested we next time take the road through the Colorado National Monument. We definitely had the time to do this. The Delores River Canyon is just a great drive. The road is right next to the river bed, and it is just miles and miles of twisting turns with beautiful red rock scenery. At the south end of the Delores River Canyon, we picked up CO-90 which becomes UT-46. This is a great mountain road that comes into Moab on the south side of the La Sal Mountains. Great road, great driving, no traffic, and the alpine meadows in Utah are a great opportunity to burn off some carbon. We did not see a single police officer except when we were driving I-70.

3) La Sal Mountains Loop. This drive is about 50 miles. We started in Castle Valley, but I would run it the opposite way, which means starting out just south of Moab. My large format map indicates this road is not paved the whole way, but it actually is paved. The surface is not pristine, but it is much better than many county roads. The road climbs up to the base of the La Sal peaks with vistas overlooking Moab and Castle Valley. Mountain terrain, including aspen forest, this is a great short drive and the roads are wonderful 20 mph twisting, undulating surfaces. This is definitely a second gear all the way, so be prepared to burn a fair amount of gas.

We also enjoyed our morning in Canyonlands. Most of our party had never been to Dead Horse Point, so they really wanted to go. It is spectacular, but once you have seen it, you have seen it. We hiked out to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands, and this was worthwhile. It is very interesting because it is only about 8 feet tall at the canyon rim, but it extends downward a couple hundred feet. The Grand View lookout was also a good place to stop, plus we did the Green River overlook. We spent a couple of hours in Canyonlands, and it was plenty. We did not do Arches this trip. You need about 4 hours to just do a cursory visit to Arches, and we were more interested in doing some drives.

We have typically stayed at the Best Western in the middle of town -- Canyonlands, not Greenwell -- which runs about $120 a night. This is on the expensive end, but you can walk to a lot of restaurants and bars. It is right across the street from the Slickrock Cafe, which is a good lunch place. We had good luck with the Holiday Inn Express on a drive last year, which is on the far north end of town. It is new, they have a large parking lot with some good places to line up, and there is also a frontage road so you can potentially stage drives out front. They include a breakfast buffet, which is boring, but the people I am driving with typically like something quick and boring over a full breakfast. This would generally be my first choice. It is definitely large enough to handle your group, but you will need to get reservations early because this is a place that fills up. They have on-line reservations, which is another plus. Other than these places, Moab has all the chains. The Miata group was in town last weekend, and they filled up the Best Western, so we got bumped into some secondary places. I ended up at Motel 6, which was cheap, but everything was nailed down and they did not provide toiletries. Since it was just me, I bought some shampoo and was glad to have a cheap place to stay.

I should add that I never am in charge of hotel reservations. I decide where I want to stay, make my reservation, and then advise everyone who is attending where I plan to stay and a set of options. I am very clear I am not running a travel agency and I provide no services for those attending. Everyone is on their own.

We had a great meal at the Red Cliffs Lodge, which has a deck overlooking the Colorado River. It is about 14 miles out from Moab. We had a 6:00 reservation so we could beat the rush and have plenty of light for enjoying the view. It was great, and we actually were driving back into town with the lingering light just before dusk (about 8:30). Surprisingly, the prices are very moderate at this restaurant. Here is a link to the restaurant site:
http://redcliffslodge.com/restaurant/indiv...dual-dining.htm

We also had a great meal at the Desert Bistro. I think they have a large room in the basement that can handle big parties. It is relatively expensive. I think we ended up at around $60 a head for this particular dinner. It is a really nice place, however, and the food was wonderful. Here is their website:
http://www.desertbistro.com/

We also had a dinner at the Sunset Grill. It has a great view of the valley. Food is acceptable, the service is fine. Generally a good place, nothing remarkable about it and their parking lot is a nightmare.

You can find a good listing of restaurants on the Moab Travel Council site, which is on the links page of my website:
http://home.business.utah.edu/~mgtjwb/Tour...ab05/moab05.htm

We did the trip in a slightly different way in 2003, and also had a good time. Here is the link to that drive site:
http://home.business.utah.edu/~mgtjwb/Tour...moab/Moab03.htm

Hope this helps. You should definitely do the Needles Overlook and La Sal Loop. The drive to Colorado is a full day, but we were back in Moab by 4:30 for a 6:00 dinner reservation, so everyone had time to shower and get ready for dinner. It was a great day, but I know not all groups are into the extended driving.

Have a great time.