Venturing the Southwest United States

The southwest USA is full of unique and varying landscapes in a vast expanse of open country that stretches like an endless canvas of vibrant colors. Here nature enchants with magnificent waterfalls and arid wind-carved wastelands so majestic as to have been designated national parks nearly a century ago. The scope of this land’s size and beauty is a challenge for any traveler’s best laid out plans. One of my favorite places to adventure in the southwest is Moab.

Moab is an adventure junkie’s dream. The landscape is beautiful and offers endless opportunities for exploring—from off road two- and four-wheel treks to amazing hikes and climbs up sandstone arches and freestanding monoliths.

While there, I met up with some friends who worked as rafting guides in the area. Since the rafting season was coming to a close, they had spare time to show me around. I’ve always wanted to climb a sandstone tower, freestanding in the desert like a giant skyscraper, but since I was limited on time that would have to wait for another trip. We instead headed out early along the Colorado River to a rock climbing spot called Wall Street, a 500-foot high sandstone cliff, easily accessible along Potash Road. The red rock wall mirrored the winding river to its south and road below. We took turns climbing a few different routes—there are over a hundred along Wall Street. As we progressed farther down the road, I noticed dark patterns on the cliff wall, which upon closer inspection turned out to be Native American petroglyphs dating back thousands of years. These rock drawings were made by the Paleo-Indians to late Anasazi people who once lived in this region now called the Four Corners.

Afterwards, we ventured farther down the road to where the riverbank once stood millions of years ago. There we saw fossilized dinosaur footprints made by three-toed allosauruses that once roamed the ancient muddy riverbed during the Late Jurassic Period. With the sun sinking in the west, we headed back to town for an evening meal before calling it an early night.

The next morning we set off to climb a scenic rock formation called Looking Glass Arch, a giant sandstone amphitheater. We donned our harness and laced up our shoes, then started up the multi-pitch climb with relative ease and speed. The climb itself wasn’t the main objective. What waited for us at the top was the reward of a free hanging rappel down through the arch’s keyhole. Before slipping through the skylight, we stopped to photograph the spectacular view that offered us a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding desert.