Utah...wow, wow, WOW!! I sometimes can't believe what my eyes are seeing in this beautiful state. Three days ago we rode 102 miles from Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT. Yesterday we had a build day with an environmentally friendly affordable housing group in Moab called Community Rebuilds. Today we had our second day off of the trip and I made a last minute decision to rent a car so I could go exploring the national parks. It's been a packed three days! So let's see if I can remember it all.
THE RIDE: Our ride immediately started on a high note as we biked by the expansive Colorado National Monument, our first of many impressive rock formations of the day. As we left the rocks behind, we reached what felt like our first real taste of the desert as we neared closer and closer to the Utah border. After nearly two weeks in Colorado we were sad to leave, but excited to enter our 15th state!
After our typical extended photo shoot at the state line sign we biked onwards towards first lunch, surrounded by desert (hilly desert at that) with new and exciting destinations on the horizon. For several miles we could see that we were approaching mountains and canyons, but it was impossible to tell if that was indeed where the road was taking us and if it was, when we'd get there. At that point the winds started picking up and we were pretty exhausted from fighting the rolling hills with the added resistance of headwinds and crosswinds, so the thought of a canyon to protect us from the wind was looking pretty good.
Lucky for us that's exactly where we were headed and for a short time at least we had reprieve from the wind, courtesy of the massive walls of rock situated around the Colorado River. From that point on the ride was incredibly scenic all the way into Moab. We stopped incredibly frequently to take pictures, climb on rocks, and just marvel at the almost simplistic geometric quality of the landscape. I was in complete awe of some of these rock formations that just seem too perfect to exist naturally.
THE BUILD: Volunteering with and learning about the Community Rebuilds program made for quite an inspiring day. The program hires interns who build two environmentally friendly houses in a five month time frame.
The houses are straw bale houses which means the walls are built out of straw bales covered in plaster. This type of design functions as a cheaper and more friendly way to insulate a house. In addition, the two houses we worked on had solar panels and other details such as strategic window placement and design to help decrease the amount of electricity needed.
Over the course of the day we ended up fully priming and painting the exterior walls of both houses which had apparently been on the to-do list for months. We were so glad we were able to help! In the evening we had the opportunity to meet the interns and talk to them about our collective experiences over pizza, beer, and s'mores. All in all a great build day with an even greater organization!
THE PARKS: Renting a car last minute with Sarah and Anna ended up being the best decision I could've made. Being able to spend all day driving around Arches and Canyonlands was just what I wanted on my day off. Both parks left me feeling tiny and curious and in awe of what can be created naturally over unfathomable amounts of time, but I have to say Canyonlands takes the cake. It was the most surreal place I've ever been. There were so many canyons within canyons that it became almost impossible to detect what was going up and what was going down. I could hardly perceive depth at some points and felt like I was looking at an optical illusion - one that goes on for miles and miles. Other parts of the park were easier to take in on a physical standpoint, but I still kept asking myself, "how is this possible?" So in lieu of trying to explain the parks any further (because I honestly don't think it's possible) I'll just share some of my favorite photos from the day and hope that it even remotely translates what I saw.