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Moab Travel Guide: 391 reviews and 991 photos
"To those who have heard it, including the author of this book, the sound is unearthly. It starts as a low growl that quickly increases in pitch and volume until ending in a shriek. It's like no animal cry ever encountered and no bird call that has ever been heard."
Tom McCourt on the Moki scream: excerpt from "The Moab Story from Cowpokes to Bike Spokes"
Mr. McCourt tells us that the Navajo believe this spooky caterwauling comes from cranky spirits (Moki) that hang around the canyons and abandoned cliff dwellings of the Southwest. My theory is a bit different, at least since the tourists (more frightening by far than any apparition) have invaded their previously lonely domains. Southeastern Utah offers a hundred different opportunities to drown, break your neck, fracture your skull, sprain an ankle, shatter your spine, expire of dehydration or saw your own arm off with a butter knife. All that hollerin' is just another slickrock biker, daredevil climber, whitewater rafter or backcountry scrambler who played loose with Mother Nature and got an *ss whuppin'.
All the more reason to love Moab. While fleets of mammoth tour buses belch their way along the roads of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, disgorging chattering hordes of humanity for the 5-minute snapshot of Overlook #17, two wheels, a kayak, tent or just a good pair of boots are all you need to find a quiet, remote corner to commune with The Great Outdoors and/or die trying.
It's a scrappy little town of folks who look like me: people who haven't been religious with the sunscreen and hat; have skinned elbows and scraped knees; who go to dinner in cargo shorts and Keens; who never quite get all the dust out of the creases. Many came for a weekend - to conquer the rivers, trails and slickrock - and never went home. They cheerfully fry up burgers, pull pints of beer, provide guide services and haul the dazed, injured and stranded out of impossible places: the busiest Search and Rescue Team in the state is based here. In a nutshell: hate the outdoors and you'll run screaming for the nearest mall. Love it and you might stay forever.
Just watch out for those Mokis, ya hear?
- Pros:Heaven for the outdoor enthusiast
- Cons:Hell for mall rats
- In a nutshell:My kind of place
Reviews (30)
The Moab Story from Cowpokes to Bike...
Shopping
(4)
Utah author Frank McCourt's entertaining stories about Moab's colorful past make for great coffee-house reading on a... more travel advice
Here's the dirt
Shopping
(4)
The best souvenir ever for anyone who has spent time getting good and filthy in southern Utah's red dust is a Dirt... more travel advice
Freshly, fairly roasted
Restaurants
(7)
Heavy rain drove us off the trails one afternoon so we took advantage of the weather to find a hot cuppa joe and catch... more travel advice
Getting Around
Transportation
(2)
A car is almost a necessity to explore the Moab region in depth BUT there are a few ways around that. Multiple shuttle... more travel advice
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Moab Travel Guide
Member Travel Pages
- "A Nucleus of Activity Close to Here"
- "Moab"
- "Red Rock, Slick Rock, Arches and Canyons"
- "Where adventure Begins"
- "Off Road Mecca"
- "3 Days in Moab"
- "Moab, UT - Nature at Its Best!"
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Hiking and WalkingLatest Moab hotel reviews
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Comments (7)
Thanks for including the link to that commercial!
I think if I went to Moab the first thing I would do would be to buy a Dirt Shirt and a copy of that book by Frank McCourt. And I would definitely also follow your advice on “What not to buy”. I never knew Utah had such confusing liquor laws, though I suppose I might have guessed. Once I saw a flash flood when I was hiking in New Mexico, but fortunately I was on high enough ground so I didn’t get in its way.
Wonderful pages, I'm looking to you for advice on how to build tips on hiking trails..whether to do each trail separately, or have one tip summarizing them all- looks like you do your separately with excellent information about the hikes...I love it!
Great page on Moab!! My wife and I were in Moab a couple of years ago and really liked it. I wish I had your hiking info then!!!
Really great tips, informative and personal and funny, if I could give six stars I would!
Kate,
You really clocked some trail time! I seems so funny when it rains in the desert. What a treat to see the washes run a bit.
I love the tone of your page and reviews here! The picture combined with your description of the pulled pork makes my mouth water! I miss that kind of food being in Japan...
I wanted to stay in Moab between Arches and Canyonlands purely for the brewpub but there was a vintage car rally happening and no hotels available. Ended up in Monticello - my only dry day in the USA ;-(