Got up, worked on blog, had some oatmeal. Today saw a lot of terrain changes as well. I rode through more of the same fields outside of Dove Creek. Many of them were planted with what looked to be sunflowers, which was strange. At some point, I crossed into Utah, although as usual there wasn’t a sign. As I started heading west, there was a huge mountain right in front of me that I figured I would be going around, but I was wrong. It reminded me of Big Bend National Park somewhat, a flat plain with a large mountain formation in the middle, and much different plant life at elevation. I wouldn’t have guessed it, but I ended up riding back up over 10,000ft, and found beautiful forests up on the mountain. I came back down the other side, and forests went away but instead of returning to plains, it turned into the rocky formations and canyons I’d heard about I Moab. I wound my way down to around 5000ft and into the town of Moab where I stopped at had lunch/dinner (linner?) at the Moab Diner. I decided I’d try to make it over to Green River since that was only another 70 miles. The trail took me out of Moab and to an area known as Gemini Bridges. I had no idea what this was, but it was a somewhat tricky 4×4 road getting there. Turns out the Gemini Bridges were an awesome, huge rock formation. It was kind of a consolation since I had to ride right by Arches National Park and didn’t stop, so I think this was a good substitute. It was getting late in the day, and I was still a good 50 miles from Green River, but luckily, the roads improved and I was able to pick up the pace. The last 20 miles were pretty rough because I was riding directly into the sunset and could barely see, so I held one hand up to block the sun and hoped I didn’t hit any sand to wash out the front end. I made it to Green River about 8pm as it was getting dark, and thought about camping on a vacant lot beside the river, but there was a creepy shanty house nearby and a weird truck with a guy in it by the river bank, so I decided to just go to Green River State Park (http://stateparks.utah.gov/park/green-river-state-park) and have a nice spot with a shower.
