The adventure-travel epicentre of the canyon country is a surprisingly small town. But even with a population of just under 5,000, Moab boasts enough great-outdoors options—plus epic film-worthy scenery to match—to justify a town ten times its size. The city, named after a Biblical kingdom, started life as a Mormon settlement in 1855, and went through a phase as a uranium boom town in the 1950s. Moab’s latest incarnation began in the 1980s, when proponents of a nascent sport called mountain biking discovered that the endless miles of colourful sandstone known as ‘slickrock’ were perfect for fat-tyred fun.