Sand Flats Camping and Slickrock Trail

On the second day of our fall break trip, 28 October 2013, we got a not-too-early start and drove west to Moab. We had decided to try camping for a few days at the Sand Flats Campground in the Sand Flats Recreation area, a BLM property that is just up the hill from Moab. The famous Slickrock Trail starts from the Sand Flats Recreation Area, and we thought that the wide-open nature of the campground might be nicer than a canyon for late-season camping when the days were short and the nights cold.

So there's a reason it's called "Sand Flats." There's a lot of sand. Who'd have guessed? The road to our campsite even had sign recommending four wheel drive due to the soft deep sand. Our truck floated through just fine, and the campsite was actually pretty nice. But it was sandy.

Sand alone would have been OK, but it was also insanely windy. Like 40 mph windy. We pulled the truck into the site and ate lunch at the picnic table. We literally had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Or were they sand and peanut butter jellywiches? It was a mess, so we decided to do a short section of the slickrock trail, hoping the wind would calm down before set up the tents. We knew that if we could even get the tents setup in such a windstorm, they'd be completely filled with the blowing sand.

We'd left the bikes on top of the truck hoping they'd be above the worst of the sandblasting, and just drove back across the sandy path to the main road; the trailhead parking was just across the road from our campsite. I managed to get the bikes down in the windstorm and we set off on a ride.

Click here to see the Garmin log.

Nothing like steep cliffs and strong winds! A cattle grate?

Just like driving on a highway. Follow the painted white line. It might seem silly, but there's no dirt to sink a post to hold a sign, and if you don't follow the trail, you can find yourself falling off a cliff or completely lost and surrounded by cliffs and canyons. That's Quinn out there.

Abbey intense.

Don't turn right.

The picture above looks cliffy on the approach, but it actually wasn't. And we made it back, despite the wind blowing all but the largest of us (me) off our bikes at times.

The wind did not calm down and in fact it blew strongly all night. For a while, we sat in truck wondering if we should just pack up and find a motel. But we decided to stick it out. The wind blew sand in through the mesh windows of the tents; and the girls' tent especially since it doesn't have covers over the mesh windows and doors. They awoke the next day with at least a quarter inch of sand covering them and everything in their tent!