Moab during Muscle Car Weekend?

[brettyb]

Anybody have any first hand experience with the car show the final weekend in April? It's listed on the discovermoab website as being one of the biggest events of the year. How disruptive is it for a mountain biking visit? We're not sure whether we'll be camping or trying to get a room, yet.

Other Moab questions:

-Has anybody camped at Up The Creek, a private campground in town?

-Camping out Sand Flats road--does it attract a large contigent of Jeepers/ATV ers and/or huge RVs?

-Any of the various campgrounds along the Colorado River--are they buggy in late April?

[mroy]

I don't have any answers to your questions, but this is where I usually camp when I'm doing stuff around Moab: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=moab,+ut&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=18&ll=38.401503,-109.400707&spn=0.002943,0.004447&t=k&iwloc=addr

It's very rare that another car even drives by. It is primitive camping. It's on top of a small canyon with a nice view of the La Sals. The side road is just after an area with a steel entrance called Camp BFE. That looks like the starting area for some jeeping so I wouldn't be surprised to find people there this weekend, but any other time I expect to find no one up there.

[KillEmAll]

-Camping out Sand Flats road--does it attract a large contigent of Jeepers/ATV ers and/or huge RVs?

Actually, I usually see quite a few mt. bikers camped up there. Closer to slick rock and porcupine I guess. A lot of the sites aren't suitable for RVs or atv trailers. We've always stayed there if camping and it always seemed to work out nice.

I was down there last weekend and the spots along the river all seemed to be taken, but it was purdy packed that weekend because of a marathon. But then it seems every weekend has something going on.

[Cirrus2000]

I'll be there with my son that weekend. We've made a reservation at Canyonlands Campground (http://www.canyonlandsrv.com/), for a tent site, right downtown. (Stayed there last spring, it was fine.) My boy can sleep through anything, and I have a good supply of earplugs. I can camp primitive, but when I'm near town, I'd rather avail myself of the amenities...

I made my reservation about a week and a half ago, and was told there are special cancellation requirements (which I ignored, not considering canceling) due to the busy weekend. Never been in Moab during the car show, so I'm looking forward to seeing the insanity...

Up The Creek (http://www.moabupthecreek.com/) looks nice, but a little more expensive. I may consider it next time I'm solo in town. (The jump from $15 to $25 for 1 extra person? Silly.)

[Iceaxe]

I don't know how crowded Moab will be..... but one thing I can promise you is the car show crowd doesn't camp. :haha:

[denaliguide]

I don't know how crowded Moab will be..... but one thing I can promise you is the car show crowd doesn't camp. :haha:

ditto!!

love the car show. and the rock crawlers. now, if we could just those pesky mountain bikers off the trails.
:roflol: :roflol:

[fourtycal]

I have been for the car show a couple of times. Town is every bit as busy as it ever is but the trails are not bad.
last time I stayed in a motel, reserved the room 5 weeks in advance and It was hard to get, it may have been the last room in town. I bet any of the private campgrounds will have room and sand flats depending on how early you get there. The mountain biking trails will be normal to smaller crowds.
Definately worth spending some time on main street watching the hotrods on Friday night and the car show is worth walking through.

[marc olivares]

kinda along the lines of what Shane and 40cal are saying,
i've been to moab during the car show a few times, and though hotels book up along the main drag, camping is always available.

mountain biking will definitely not be affected by the car show crowd... :roflol:

[brettyb]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Looks like we will be camping now. I pretty well knew the car show crowd wouldn't be camping much, at least outside of the RV campgrounds, and that few car showers would be bringing mountain bikes, but now it is confirmed.

Still curious whether anyone has stayed at Up the Creek and about bugs in the Colorado River campgrounds (though we're leaning towards camping at Sand Flats).

[fouristhenewone]

I have stayed at Up the Creek a few years ago. It was fine, but nothing special. The website makes it look quite a bit more enticing than it actually was, and it was a little noisy from city noise. The owner was less than nice, but all in all it wasn't a horrible place to camp. Anywhere you camp by water that time of year, I would expect some bugs.

[brettyb]

four--thanks for the feedback. The Up The Creek site does make it look very nice, but based on the coordinates, i can't imagine it being a very quiet location. However, if we were to go the private cg route, it seems like the best option, b/c it seems like all the other private cg's are heavily geared towards the RV's.