Moab Trip Part One: The One With Aliens
I arrived at Goose Island Campground, the same campground I camped at in my post about Moab. Instead of arriving at 5 pm, I arrived at the site at 9 am. I thought I was being smart to get there early to get a spot, but then I remembered it's Memorial Day weekend, and of course, every site is already filled since it’s first come, first serve. I started hunting for a camping spot, thinking I could snag someone's spot; I drove around this entire loop of different campsites for an hour. Around the Goose Island Campground are at least 10 campsites along the Colorado River. I thought I got lucky with one group and offered to help them pack up, only to find out someone else had already reserved the spot after them. The problem with this is; that, apparently, someone put a tag on the site the night prior, which isn't allowed, but I was S.O.L.
Then I spotted these guys packing up. I pulled over and asked if they were leaving. The guy wasn't sure, so he went to talk to his brothers. He told me that they were leaving tomorrow. I boldly asked if I could pull my SUV next to theirs and sleep for the night (mind you, this was like 11 am in the morning!) I told him that I would bring beer or firewood back. I had some interesting stares, but they ultimately said yes to me, crashing their spot. They declined the beer offer since they already had a cooler full of it. They were gearing up to go riding in the desert. I told them I would be back in a bit. I wanted to run to get supplies. I'm sure they thought, "What the hell are we in for tonight?" I didn't care; I was determined to get a spot! Especially because one of my friends was coming to Moab to celebrate my birthday two days later.
I went into town to pick up some supplies, and when I returned, they were gone. At this point, I decided to go to the river to cool off. Not my brightest idea since there wasn't a good way to go down into the river, and my river shoes kept getting stuck in the mud. I aborted that mission fast! I did a quick rinse-over. I then headed to go Grand Staff Canyon Trail. The trailhead is three miles east of Highway 191 on Utah Scenic Byway 128. Or, for me, it was right across from where I was camping. It's about a 5-mile hike, round trip. I was one excited girl on this hike that, within 5, I bit it hard and scraped the shit out of my arm, which posed some challenges at the end of the hike, which I will get into later. I got up, brushed myself off, and got going again! The guy behind me asked if I was okay, and I said yes. Throughout this hike, we kept running into each other on this hike.
This hike had everything to it; you hiked through a valley and then were off hiking in the water, which was amazing because it was hot! You had to climb on rocks to get stunning views of the red rocks. After 1.5 miles, the trail crosses the stream and leads up a short climb into the second side canyon of Grand Staff's; about a half-mile from where you crossed the stream, you will see the bridge. The bridge's 243-foot span is set close against this rocky amphitheater, and you will get the best view of the bridge by going underneath it.
Once I finished getting all the arch pictures, I asked my friend (who saw me bite it early on the trail) to get a video of me doing a headstand. The quick back story about why I wanted to do a headstand. My dear friend, Rachel, convinced me to do an inversion class in Jan 2021. At first, I said no, but I did and continued, and within months I was doing a headstand by the wall. I asked her if she could help me with the goal of doing a headstand in each of the states I planned to visit for my birthday (WY, CO, and UT). I did my first Utah headstand right there at Grandstaff. It was very challenging since I scraped up my arm badly. I didn't have much to cover my arm and kept falling over because of the pain, not to mention hiking boots made this a little more difficult. I took a break and finally got up and made my leg shapes.
After my hike, I went into town to celebrate my first successful morning/ afternoon in Moab with some food and a margarita. As I was heading back to my car from lunch, there was a guy who was trying to get his cockatoo ( at least I think it’s a cockatoo?) down from an electric wire. Not sure, how he got up there. Not sure how this situation even started, but it was kinda entertaining. The bird was finally saved by one of his friends climbing the poll-free style.
After saving the bird, I went to the Arches and hiked the Double Arch. I followed this up by heading to the Windows Arch to watch the sunset." After my exciting show of reds, oranges, blues, and yellows of the sun reflecting on the red rock of Arches from Mother Nature, I returned to camp. Not going to lie. I was nervous about returning, not because I would be hanging out with random guys, but because I wasn't sure if they still wanted me to return. I shyly appeared with firewood; they all looked up and greeted me. They told me I didn't need to bring it since they had so much. But I couldn't show up empty-handed, though my charm would be enough! They invited me around the fire and even offered me a beer.
We sat around the fire, and they started to ask me what I was up to today. I told them about my adventures that day, and they were shocked. They asked what I was doing in town, and I told them about the 16-day road trip I had planned for my birthday. They asked if I was solo, and I said "yes." As we kept talking, I learned they were on a guy's family trip, and they were all from Tennessee. Their dad, probably in his 60's, got fascinated with my travels in Grant Teton and Yellowstone. "I told them my stories and showed them photos from my trip. He was simply in "awe" with how much I saw and impressed with how I did this all solo." They asked me if I was ever nervous traveling alone, and I told them, "No, I feel safe when I travel, and I am mindful."
We kept shooting the shit as we kept drinking beer around the fire. Words can’t describe how excited I get when I have an opportunity to talk to random strangers, especially about travel or life. Granted, I knew off the bat we had different opinions about politics. I live right outside of DC, and they are from Tennessee (and expressed their dislikes of DC), but they were highly respectful towards me. As I mentioned in my previous posts, we humans have stories to tell, and I love hearing other people’s stories.
Then that's when we started to talk about aliens. A natural progression, right? The guy told me he saw something in the sky the other night. He was trying to describe this object, and it sounded like a satellite to me, but he said it was multiple of them in a line going very slow. To be honest, I thought he was drunk and making shit up. I really doubt it was aliens. Then, about 20 minutes later, he yelled, "They're back!" I looked up and had never seen this thing in the sky before. It looked like a tail of a shooting star mixed with a satellite. But I knew it wasn't both because it was moving so slowly. It was a string of something; that's all I know. I may have been buzzed, but I questioned what was happening.
A little bit later, we all called it quits for the night. As I was walking to my car, I suddenly got service. I got texts, Snapchat, emails, etc. I know for SURE that I can't get service while camping. None. Zip. For about 5 minutes, I got all the service in the world, which freaked me out…so..maybe it was the aliens after all?!?
The next morning I helped the guys pack up; we said our goodbyes and wished each other well travels. I set up camp and then went to the Needles District of Canyonlands. A day or two later, I was at a restaurant killing time and asked the locals about what I had experienced the other night. He informed me it was Elon Musk's satellite program, and he is trying to bring service to rural parts of America. I laughed and contacted the guys since we exchanged IG accounts and told them it was, in fact, not aliens, at least not this time!
*I tried to capture the “aliens” The white line is satellites*