Take Care Out There

Respect is how you belong here.

Moab sits in the middle of country that belongs to everybody. Two national parks, two state parks, and public land in every direction. A lot of people come to see it, and that’s what keeps a town this size as diverse and culturally rich as it is. The desert is older and more fragile than it looks. It rewards people who pay attention, and it’s slow to recover when nobody does. Almost everything that protects this place also makes your trip better — you’ll be more comfortable and you’ll see more of what you came for. Here’s what that looks like. Five ways to take care of the place, and five ways to take care of yourself.

FIVE WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF THE PLACE

01  ·  Stay on rock, sand, or trail  

That dark, knobby crust between the trails is alive, and it holds this desert together. Decades to grow, seconds to undo. Stick to slickrock, sandy washes, or the trail and you’re covered.

02  ·  Everything you carry in comes back out  

Orange peels, pistachio shells, toilet paper. None of it breaks down here. Same goes for human waste — you’ll be handed a wag bag on the river and in most canyons. Use it, pack it out, trashcans in town.

03  ·  Ride and drive the routes that already exist   

Moab has thousands of miles of legal trail and route, so there’s no shortage of choice. Staying on what’s mapped is why it stays open. Closures for mud or nesting season are short and specific.

04  ·  Look but don’t touch  

Skin oils permanently damage petroglyphs, and this country is full of dinosaur tracks, and places sacred to the tribes who’ve been here longest. Leave rocks and ancient artifacts where they lie. Don’t build cairns — those stacked rock piles are built by guides to mark real routes.

05  ·  Moab is somebody’s hometown 

Drive slow and easy through town and the neighborhoods — people live, walk, and bike here. Buy your food, gear, and beer in town instead of hauling it in, keep it down after dark, and tip your local guide  

FIVE WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

01  ·  Bring more water than seems reasonable   

A gallon per person per day is what your body needs, and that’s not a cautious number. Running short is the most common way a good day here goes wrong.

02  ·  Work around the middle of the day  

May through September, exposed rock in the afternoon can be genuinely dangerous. Start at first light, take the middle of the day off, head back out around five. That’s how locals do it.

03  ·  Assume you’ll have no service  

Service disappears about as soon as you leave town. Download the map first, tell someone where you’re headed and when you’ll be back, and don’t count on your phone.

04  ·  Go with a guide the first time

First rappel, first whitewater, first technical line — going with someone who does it every day gets you further and keeps the day fun. Moab has more of them than almost anywhere.

05  ·  Watch weather you can’t see  

A storm thirty miles off can put water in the canyon you’re standing in, so check the regional forecast, not just town’s. And layer — mornings start cold, afternoons run hot, and it drops fast once the sun goes behind the rock.

Biological soil crust, and why it decides where you walk.

Look down. That dark, bumpy, almost blackened surface between the trails isn’t dirt. It’s alive — a colony of cyanobacteria, lichen, and moss called biological soil crust, and it does for this desert what a coral reef does for an ocean.

It holds the sand in place so the wind can’t take it. It pulls nitrogen out of the air and feeds it to everything growing here. It soaks up rain that would otherwise run straight off the ground. Nearly every plant in this landscape depends on it.

It’s also about as fragile as a reef. One footstep crushes a colony that took decades to build, and the scar can outlast you. Tires do the same. There’s no repairing it. It just has to start over.

Avoiding it is easy. Walk on slickrock, in sandy washes, or on the trail. If you’ve ever wondered why Moab is so particular about staying on trail, this is the whole answer.