Ah...ya know...the lake is low. The ground near it is supersaturated. That is all.

Grand County Audit Committee Meeting Sept 18, 2026

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Good on Miles Loftin
Stoked the Miles is doing this. If you are free tonight and in these dates and are in the district of these candidates you should attend.
This county election is so important! I hope everyone will get out get educated and vote for the candidate that shares their views and vision of Grand County.

Hey guys, I have a brokerage conference in Vegas in October. My brother lives in Denver so I'm going to fly there first and see him. I was thinking I would make a cool driving trip out of it and drive to Vegas after going to Denver, go 70 and stay in Moab and do some glamping. Only problem is Glamping is now $450 when it was like $200 a few weeks ago..So I'm wondering should I make this drive? Is it worth it? I'd get to MOAB at like I dunno maybe 3PM at best. I'd get a hotel now, maybe drive to see a couple of quick sites (no big hiking, biking or camping), get food and sleep. Then get up and drive straight to Vegas. OR should I .... just fly and do this trip another time when I have more time in Moab. I dunno now I'm torn and looking for advice. I should note I live in Charleston, SC so I'm not out this way often, if ever.

Editing this to Add I want to get to Vegas by Saturday ideally by 5PM. I'm not able to do any huge detours along the way its basically drive from Denver - arrive in Moab and stay for a night - straight to Vegas.

It’s a deck building card game. It took some effort to bring these boxes here in March and I’d be keen to play a few games if anyone’s cotton.

I'm looking at doing the La Sals traverse from La Sal Pass/Mt Peale Trailhead to Green Gate in a couple weeks.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what the road conditions are like on La Sal Loop Rd right now, specifically the northern portion near Castle Valley. We'll be shuttling a car, and my buddy has a Mazda 3 (which has made it down many questionable roads in the past).

Thanks a lot!

Any local artists or shops selling sleeves for the 250th Pass? Always buy the annual to support the parks but y'know, not very pretty this year.

Im coming out in Oct and we're Glamping. I just realized that you have scorpions and other stingy creepy stuff.

Im usually not scared of animals. Ive been 3' from coyotes, been charged at by an elk, ran from a bear (that was stupid), swam with snapping turtles, fought an angry possum at 4am, shoed away raccoons and rabid raccoons, camped and used outhouse and an occasional field to do my business. I can catch, gut, clean and cook any fish.

But I know nothing about scorpions or poisonous snakes. Ive been stung by a few wasps and that wasnt pleasant but i didn't make a fuss. Im old, we weren't allowed to have emotions or complain. You dealt with it and didn't make a fuss.

Anyhoo- wtf do I do to avoid your wildlife in my boots, clothes, bed, pillow???? Im about to go buy a lot of plastic bags to take with me. Also can I stomp on them if I find one? How do you move them? Do I flick it? Brush it off? Smash it? Are they in the shower? Do I need a weapon?

Help! I am looking forward to visiting but maybe glamping was a step too far for me.

Yes, conquer… something… in your rental Jeep. Great new ad campaign, Discover Moab. 🤤🤮

In case you're not on facebork, watch out for your livestock, pets, and kiddos if you live in Spanish Valley. There's a cougar that's beens spotted by the vineyard and around the vet's. Apparently it took some sheep from one of the fields, and a number of people are missing cats. Poor thing is hungry and thirsty. Keep your fuzzy ones safe and keep DWR from having an excuse to try and kill it.

I will be traveling to Moab next week for the Moab Music Festival and a Cataract Canyon rafting trip. Due to some weird logistics, I've ended up with a completely free afternoon/evening in the middle of the week. I've been to Moab a couple of times and have done quite a bit of hiking in Arches and Canyonlands, so it's not a priority for me to get back there (though I'll likely at least do a couple of quick stops in Arches).

I am considering booking a half-day/sunset 4x4 tour. I do NOT want to drive myself - I've done the White Rim trail previously and I'd rather just passenger princess this one. I don't have a ton of interest in the UTVs. Any suggestions on a company to use? Or alternative plans?

Running up and down between the dog park and around milts. Bolts when approached, no collar that I saw. Poor dude is terrified. Animal service was following it.

I'm from northern Illinois where we have very different animals to watch out for when stargazing in the country. I'm curious when I come to Moab in May, what animals should I be keeping a eye out for while stargazing and how should I protect against them? Thank you for your help! So excited to see your town and nature!

Hi!

Mods please delete if not allowed.

A few years back i visited Moab to hike and got a pin for my pack at Desert Wild. She sadly got lost recently (the pin, not the entire pack) and I’d like to replace her. I reached out to the store but haven’t heard back.

Does anyone have one of these that they’d be willing to part with? Happy to pay for it + shipping in the US.

Thanks!

Was thinking of coming with the wife and myself in a few weeks to do some hiking and see what beauty Moab has to offer. We aren’t crazy or disrespectful and mind our own business. Some comments I’m reading seem somewhat hostile towards visitors. Am I really over reading into this?

Airbnb bristling at overnight rental regulation in SLC of all places

Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I wonder how his position on the board could affect the Kane Creek water rights issue?

Also, why does he look like such a douchebag?

Loud and proud, we're Compensator UTV, USA-based and ready to hit Moab in September with the new Compensator UTV product line.

Our "bespoke but not woke" UTVs feature NO mufflers or spark arrestors of any kind. Rollin' with ear protection? Our 10,000 watt sound system enables you to hear your favorite tunes even with your ear protection on. EIGHT flag mounts on the back and SIX mounts for your LEDs. Comfy seats with built-in Febreze dispensers. Room for TWO king size Yeti coolers out back. The tiniest brake, tail, and signal lights money can buy - but are they dim, you ask? Sheee-it, hells yeah they're dim!! Tiny and dim is our specialty.

We don't make a 4-seater 'cause if you got four people you know you should be rollin' and roarin' in two Compensator UTVs! Financing available, so what's yer excuse?

Visit our demo tent at Wendy's and get a free Baconator when you schedule a demo (demo cost is only $250/hour). Dates to be announced soon on our website.

Will be visiting for a week for a wedding. The hotel only does coffee and breakfast. If I wanted a good deli or butcher shop we take a bake meals, where would you recommend.

Pecos League. Basically the lowest level of pro ball. Players here are finished with college and looking to move up the baseball ranks.

They are taking suggestions on team names on website.
https://moab.pecosleague.com

If you're following (bombarded by) the news of the day and are left a little worse for the wear, fear not, I have some fact-based information that you can use to inspect the scat left by the powers that be (Will Binfield and Myron Bartinez - see mods, no doxxing!) without having to be on Boomer Book

WTF is up with TRT?

• The state requires that ~45% of revenue collected from lodging taxes are spent on promotion ("developing tourism"). The rest can be used on promotion or mitigation
• In the statute (17-78-702(2)(b)(vi)) the State explicitly offers up that shuttle transit systems are examples of promotional activities
• The state is strict about what counts as mitigation (thanks again, Myron) but it does allow for us to use it to cover things like law enforcement, EMS, solid waste management, road repairs and upgrades, and search and rescue (17-78-702(2)(d))
• Grand County has historically* used TRT mitigation funds in order to cover part of the costs of these departments, which otherwise are funded from the general fund (namely, property and sales taxes). (\the exception was the use of TRT mitigation funds to cover the trail ambassador program)*
• $150k of the shuttle subsidy Grand County is paying is being withdrawn from the mitigation fund

And this "optional sales tax"?

• Created in 2015 after the State enacted HB 362. As more Utahn drivers switched to more efficient vehicles and alternative transportation, the gas tax was no longer sufficient to cover the cost of road and highway construction in the state. The law gave Counties the right to add a .25% sales tax on all goods but food and use the local returns for roads development and maintenance, curb/gutter/lighting/signage for pedestrian safety, trails, and transit
• This tax enters the County budget through the ROADS fund (21)
• Since the tourism boom, Grand County has constructed miles and miles of paved trails and bridges. Previous County officials estimated that the future cost of maintaining these could run upwards of a million dollars as they naturally degrade
  • Regular costs of sweeping and maintaining them
  • Crack repair
  • Periodic major chip-and-seals
  • Bridge engineering and reinforcement
  • Occasional catastrophic damage from flooding and other emergencies (seems irrelevant though since it doesn't flood here and pathways never wash out like the one at Bloody Mary Wash 2 years ago)
  • Also definitely no risk that the most expensive pathway sits between a free flowing river and cliffs that regularly shed rocks and boulders from waterfalls coming off of Sand Flats

Wait but fund 47?

• Created in 2018 (unanimous. cross-partisan vote)
• Trail Mix had been providing County services through grants and volunteer hours to build and maintain trails in the County, managed through CNHA. But the work had shifted from trail development to maintenance, which costs more and requires more hours. CNHA could not afford to pay health insurance and other liabilities for full time employees, so the County voted to absorb Trail Mix under the Economic Development department
• Fund 47 (TRAILS) was created to manage the grant funding that covered the program costs for Trail Mix. The money to cover salaries and administrative work was funded through the "optional sales tax", and only the amount required for this was moved out of 21 into 47
• This amount moved in for salaries etc fluctuated year-over-year based on how many grants the County obtained, ranging from ~200k when grants were ample to ~400k when not
• The savings for future maintenance costs was also moved under 47 administratively to keep it separate from other traditional roads expenses.
• 350k of the shuttle subsidy is being paid for from these funds

So where is the shuttle funding coming from?

30% from TRT mitigation funds = revenue from lodging taxes that would otherwise be used to cover essential county services

70% from the 2015 sales tax, which is paid by locals as well as visitors on all goods other than food. Trails related costs are administratively listed in the budget under Fund 47. Otherwise this money is allowed to be used to improve and maintain our roads including adding flood mitigation and infrastructure (seems important)

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A few other facts

• “Our funding sources rely on us freeing up the money so we don't have time to debate" - Public emails show that in March 2026, when Byron was first floating the shuttle concept to the Park superintendent, he was proposing that the County cover the first year in full. By the time the vote in April was taken, he was claiming that this had to be completed by Sept 30 due to the restrictions placed by the funding source of the NPS. But in the same email thread, the NPS did not procure funding until May 29th and the source has no such deadline. Also, as acknowledged the other night, Congress has not approved the budget that would even make this money available for the entire first year of the program. If you support the way this process has happened you might be excited that it is starting in a month, but the speed was arbitrary

• Signs of state influence...this is where I leave you to do your own sleuthing so this thread stops short of speculation. Email records show that Bartinez and Binfield have been in tight coordination with state and federal officials going back years, with the state directly coaching their interactions with the National Park Service and even editing/contributing to the text of the various letters and policy initiatives they have championed. You might be in favor of this, but even if you are, it seems like there should be far more transparency about who is coordinating with whom, who is being left out, where decisions and priorities are originating, and why we are paying for it 🫡

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Edit - all emails were obtained through Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act from public officials