Moab is quite simply north eastern Utah’s adventure town!

For a long time Moab has been synonymous with mountain biking and other outdoor adventure activities. For some it’s nestled in the middle of nowhere. But it’s not, it’s nested between two of North America’s most famous national parks and among Utah’s amazing canyon terrain. A hub for mountain biking tours, Hummer tours, Jeep tours, white water rafting tours, rock climbing tours and more.

If you’re in Moab, make sure you’re there to visit Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park, they’re both great. Plus I would also consider doing a Jeep or Hummer tour and if you’re into rock climbing I hear that’s great too!

If you’re in town and looking for a coffee shop; somewhere to chill out, use the free wi-fi and perhaps grab an ice cream then you should visit Moab Coffee Roasters. The owner buys his own beans, roasts them, mixes them and hand makes the packaging for customers just wanting to buy beans. He’s also a bit of a character. Go say ‘hi’.

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Roasting Coffee Beans

Searching for Imperfections in the Coffee

All Bag Design Done by Hand

Hand Made Coffee Bags Waiting to be Filled

Finished Coffee Bags for Sale

The Off-Road Adventure

We were in Moab for America’s Fourth of July celebrations. We’d never been in America for Independence Day before so were rather looking forward to seeing how crazy it could get. We ended up having a great time with laid back couchsurfers who loved all the adventure opportunities Moab offered without being ‘in your face’ patriotic or in any way naive (The two qualities certain American’s possess which drives me the most mental). With our couchsurfing hosts and their friends we piled into an ex army ‘Blazer’, and with a Moab Hummer tour driver at the wheel we set off into the back country.

View of Blazer and Over Moab Valley

I’d never really imagined 4WD adventures to be particularly my kind of thing but I was pleasantly thrilled by the stuff we did. We drove up a hill and reached a car park where our driver jumped out to lock the wheels into 4WD mode, after which we could literally climb up walls! We would approach something and I’d just be thinking “no way”, but slowly the front wheels would climb up and then the back wheels would connect and we’d be slowly making our way up a rock face I’d never have thought possible.

During our backcountry four-wheel drive adventure we also saw some of the stupidly dangerous routes some individuals try for plus some scratch marks and broken trees evidencing some of the failures. Our Blazer didn’t have that high ground clearance so we’d often scrape a little on angle transitions but we had a skilled driver who often put the drivers of ‘trailer queen’ jeeps to shame. A ‘trailer queen’ being a vehicle owned purely for off-road use (not road licensed), characterised by huge wheels and massive ground clearance – they are driven on trailers to the start of trails. A rich man’s toy. While in the old Blazer we just drove to the start, locked the wheels into four-wheel-drive and were off. For some cool photos of someone else’s four-wheel-drive adventure check out this page from the Mid-Sussex Land Rover Club.

Trailer Queen Jeep Example

If you’re visiting Moab and want a real adventure you could consider camping for free nearby, options explained in my Camping for Free in Utah post here.

As an aside I did do a couple of mountain biking trails in Moab including the famous Moab Slick Rock trail which was utterly exhausting, so much so that I failed to take a single photograph, sorry.

Have you ever been off-road four-wheel-driving?

Want to see more of our Great North American Road Trip?
– The Plan
– Map showing Posts by Location