Moab

            I was sitting at the counter of the Love Muffin Café in Moab when I overheard another customer say to the cashier, “Ugh, I can’t stand the tourists. And it’s only going to get worse as we get closer to summer.” Instantly bristling, I wanted to shoot back with, “We tourists are the reason this town even exists,” but I held my tongue and avoided starting a local-vs.-tourist war. The café was undoubtedly full of both sides and it would have been a bloody mess. Plus, it was a café, not a saloon.

I get the resident’s frustration, though. I understand how annoying confused, oblivious, wide-eyed visitors can be. But seriously, don’t live near two National Parks and countless other natural marvels full of bike trails and waterways and expect people to stay away. That mentality is so French: build a whole bunch of cool buildings and then complain when they attract people who want to see them (by the way, deep down I love ze French).

Moab is like one big, huge, 3.6-square-mile hostel. As each day winds down, all the bikers, RVs, hikers, kayakers, tour buses, and horseback riders reconvene within the city’s limits and everyone has dinner and drinks together. Then they all go to sleep, wake up the next day and spread back out across the open landscape in search of more adventure and discovery. Moab offers a fragment of what an old Western town was: a meeting place for anyone who happened to be passing by.

Despite its subtle creepiness and backwater status, I like Moab. More so in the winter than the summer, but either way it’s an exciting place. I love that you only have to drive a few miles away from the town and have plenty of things to see and do, in any direction. My favorite thing in the world is to hike and the area surrounding Moab is full of cool hikes, like the Fisher Towers or the Corona Arch trails. It’s nice to be able to find a secluded area and observe the striking colors and supernatural rock formations of the desert.

If I could I would move to Moab and go on adventures every day. I actually envy the customer in the Love Muffin who was lamenting tourist season. How would it be to wake up every morning and think, “Should I embark on a three-day backpacking trip or kayak the Colorado?” I would never get tired of finding new areas to explore. Perhaps I would take up amateur photography or sketching in addition to keeping a field book full of all of my thoughts and notes about the places I visit.

Unfortunately, we can’t all live in Moab; mainly because there aren’t enough houses. But we can visit it as tourists and enjoy it for a few days at a time. I’m planning a couple of hikes into Canyonlands for my next visit to Moab. I’ll probably pick up some pre-made sandwiches from one of the restaurants in town, go on my hike, return to Moab, eat dinner at a steakhouse, walk the busy main street as the desert night cools everything off, and then fall asleep to thoughts of the next day’s hike. It will be hard to wait.