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It’s windy in Moab… I mean REALLY windy. Yesterday we had gusts up to 40 mph plus all day (and all night). Today it is a bit better, but still really windy.

When you live in a house, it is easy to take the weather for granted. Unless it is extreme, the elements just don’t really make much difference when you have four solid walls. But when you live in a trailer, even the slightest weather can make you sit up and take notice. Or, as in our case for the last few days, sit up in bed all night unable to sleep because of all of the wind noise.

Darryl is a very light sleeper – so of course this wind storm we’ve been having has made the last few nights quite sleepless for him. But this wind has even kept ME up at night – and this is the girl who has not only slept through bears in camp but has even slept through ELEPHANTS walking through our campsite (yes, Elephants… long story).

It’s just another thing to get used to during this trip – and since this is the first “bad” weather we’ve had in our five months on the road I can’t complain. That said, I’m hoping the weatherman is right that the winds will die down later today and we’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight!

The first time we came to Moab together was about 10 years ago – it was one of the first “big” national parks I had ever been to and the first out West. Having lived in Colorado for many years, Darryl has been here a bunch of times – but this is still his favorite national park.

The last time we were here was in the Spring – and while I don’t remember nearly as many tourists that last time (and not as much road construction in the park) this place is still magical.

The thought occurred to me yesterday that this is a long way to come to see some holes in the rocks… but they are pretty impressive, don’t you think?

I definitely see a Baja Bunch reunion in this area sometime soon – tons of off-road riding, hiking, rafting… and a brew pub! What more do you need?

We’re enjoying it so much we are staying for another week!

Sometimes it isn’t easy to make a decision when you have too many options to consider.  I know… first world problem for sure… but trying to figure out what to do next on this trip has been really difficult.

Originally the plan was to head through Idaho and spend a good bit of time in Oregon.  But the wildfires had other plans for us.  On the one hand, we could just stick with the plan and make the best of it – but on the other hand there isn’t much point to going places where you can’t see anything more than about 500 yards away and the air quality is SO bad that physical activity just isn’t recommended.

We had contemplated flying back east and grabbing the big bikes and riding across the US (basically to get the bikes somewhere on this side of the country).  But we finally decided that it would be too costly and too logistically-challenging to make it work right now.

So what to do?

We knew we wanted to go back to Moab at some point on the trip, but we thought that would be late in the Spring of 2018.  But Darryl realized while looking at the map that Moab just isn’t that far away – and after a weather check we realized that the summer heat is starting to die down a bit.  So to Moab we will go!

The plan is to be in Moab for about a week for now – and hopefully by then the wildfires will have died down a bit and we can return to the original plan.  We’ll see!

So off we go to the land of Arches, Eddie McStiff’s beer (yum!), Dead Horse Point… and more!  And we can’t wait!

I’m from the east coast, so I’ve never really had to even think about wildfires. Sure – every once in a while there would be a small forest fire in the Shenandoah but I never really had to think about it that much.

2017 has been one of the worst years on record for wildfires – from Western Montana to the Pacific Coast, and all the way up to the tip of BC and Alberta. The west is on fire – smoke is literally covering the entire upper western quadrant of the country.

As we sit here in Columbia Falls, MT the smoke is thick in the sky. There are mountains around here – but you can’t see them. It’s like the worst fog you’ve experienced combined with being in the perpetual smoke stream of a large campfire.

It is uncomfortable – my eyes and throat are scratchy, and the authorities are advising against really being outside any more than necessary.

There is a mountain up there somewhere…

It’s kind of frightening actually – being the planner that I am, I’m just not sure how to deal with this.  We aren’t in immediate fire danger – there is one fire fairly close by but not close enough to worry about.  But with the smoke being so bad – it just isn’t much fun here right now.

Probably the main reason why we chose to re-enter the US in Montana was to see Glacier National Park. Columbia Falls is about 15 miles from the western park entrance. Right now, the entire western section of the park is closed with a mandatory evacuation in place because of the wildfires.  We had hoped to spend quite a bit of time this week hiking and checking out the park.

It’s disappointing – of course, it could be worse – we could be in Southern Texas or South Florida right now. But it does present us with a quandary – our plan was to head down into Idaho, then over to Oregon and gradually make our way to Northern California. But the entire area is covered in fire and smoke right now – I’m not even sure we’ll be allowed in to some of the areas we were hoping to visit, and even if we are, will we be able to see anything?

So we sit, and look at maps, and try to figure out a Plan B. Stay tuned!