We left Carbondale, Colorado on a cold winter morning, arriving near Moab four hours later in warm mid-afternoon sunshine.  We stayed at the Fisher Towers campground, which is accessed on a dirt road 2.2 miles off the 128 (the turn-off is very well marked).   From Main Street Moab (Hwy 191) you drive 21 miles northeast on the 128. From the I-70 you drive southwest about 30 miles on the 128, much of which meanders through a stunning red rock canyon bordering the Colorado River. The campground has five campsites, a small parking lot and a pit toilet and costs 10 dollars per night. It is run by the National Forest Service.

The sites are on a little hill, which gives you a wonderful view of an open desert valley to the west and stunning red sandstone towers immediately behind you to the east.   It is desert camping at its best: clean with large open spaces; extremely quiet and flanked with desert grasses, diminutive desert plants and cacti, picturesque dry washes, and the traditional Parks Service concrete picnic tables.  Each site allows for two flat spots for tents.

It was wonderful to camp with that group of students.  Cora and I did not know any of the students on the trip, but they were all extremely comfortable in the outdoors and with playing with Cora. It is so much easier to set up camp when others are entertaining your children!

We had a satisfying dinner of Macaroni, cheese and chicken, cooked by my husband and the students while we hiked the Fisher Tower Trail - 4.4 miles of stunning desert hiking. You hike up and down rocks, small canyons and around the towers. Cora recognized juniper berries and started her annual juniper berry collection. She was also very eager to find a few cacti. There were only a few prickly pears with a tinge of red on them, which fascinated her endlessly because she remembered them only being green.

The next day we hiked around the “Bar M,” which is a mountain biking loop (8 miles).  The students went mountain biking, which is not a great activity for a pregnant mother and a toddler.  This is not the best place to hike around since it has very little cover from the great winds that blew us around, but if you hike west, you get to a ledge with amazing faraway views of the Arches. This mountain biking area is accessible off of Hwy 191 about three miles north of town.

Gear reviewed on this trip:

On this trip, I started out testing out my spring gear and was very happy with the Deuter child Carrier I was using.  The other gear I brought along on this trip was the Yellow Evo Grip Wenger Knife.  I like to always bring a knife along any hike I do. The have so many uses I can’t start to list them all.  Wenger came up with an ergonomic design and the surface keeps your fingers in place unlike the smooth finish of previous knives.   This knife came in handy when we needed to cut string, open a package, and cut sausage.  It also has enough screwdriver capacity to do basic repair on broken gear.  As a big advocate and lover of desert hiking I would recommend buying a knife with some pliers.  Not only are they useful for cooking purposes, but they are essential to take out cactus quills from the skin.  The tinny tweezers won’t cut it for a bigger job.  I personally like the yellow color of the knife.

Link to Evo Grip Wenger Knife

Heidi