4/16 - Leaving Deb's and driving the 8 miles of rough road back to Cisco, I'm glad that I didn't leave and then come back. The van can handle it if I go slow, but it's a lot of work to pay attention to all the bumps in the road and go so slowly. I was relieved once I got on better roads. The highway (70) has and 80 mph speed limit! I don't like to go over 65 if I can help it and since it's not crowded, people can easily go around me. Who is this person??? 😂 I used to be in such a rush, but then again, I rarely drove much over 70 in more recent years.
I stayed at a campground (James M Robb) quite close to town. An urban campground, so not inspiring, but I wanted a shower and needed some water. It did have some views of the hill, which come to find out were the Colorada National Monument that I didn't know existed. We just stayed at the campground in the evening. I was ready for a shower, but had to wait due to a large group of young girls showering... Once I went in I had it all to myself and it was a good shower, which is always a treat! I totally could have/should have showered while I was at Deb's as I had enough water and dumping was easy. I'd like to use my outdoor shower, but the ground it so dirty that I feel like I'd just get splashed with mud on my legs.
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| View from campsite |
4/17 - Went into downtown Fruita to check it out and grabbed some lunch. It's a cute town, small. Lots of cute houses and I noticed how much I appreciated the trees, grass, and flowers. Utah is amazing and I've totally loved it and been awed by what I see, but the dust...!
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| I literally cannot look at this without laughing. Funny girl! |
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| Napping while I had some lunch |
After our downtown excursion, we headed to the Colorado National Monument. I had known nothing of this place, but had seen mention of it while in Fruita and I really wanted to check it out. It is really cool. It's like the Grand Canyon in that you're mostly on the rim of it. It seemed like each of the canyons was quite different, making this a really fun and interesting visit.
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| 1st tunnel - plenty of room, but still makes me nervous |
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| Looking down at the road I drove up |
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| I just love this tree! |
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Something about those vertical lines are mesmerizing to me
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Leaving the Colorado National Monument, I ended up in Grand Junction, so I went to the Walmart and got some supplies. One thing I really wanted to do was start knitting so I got a skein of yarn and some knitting needles. I have knit before and with Youtube, I figured I was all set. I had considered finding a place to stay in Grand Junction or Fruita again, but decided to head back to Utah. Along 128 there are a bunch on BLM sites and I was going to go to one that I had stopped at before. In the end, I stopped at the Dewey bridge campground (7 sites) and since there was a site available, I decided to snag it. I'm so glad I did as probably 10 minutes later someone else came through looking for a place to park. Since it wasn't that late I didn't think it was going to be hard to find a spot, but it didn't look that way. I had a nice site, though it wasn't on the river like some of them were. I chatted with two different groups for a while and had a great evening and even spent some time sitting outside the van. It has finally warmed up and now I'm often hiding from the sun! Nothing like going from too cold to too hot. Though the dry air does make a difference - especially with regards to how much I sweat - it is very hot in the sun! The sun is so strong and I'm sure it adds 20 degrees.
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| sleepy girl |
4/18
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| The mighty Colorado River. It was moving fast! |
Headed down 128 with the plan to go to Castle Valley
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| The drive up to Castle Valley |
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| Views from the town of Castle Valley |
Instead of doing the whole La Sal loop around the mountains, I turned around and Zoe and I did this little hike.
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| This is the first lizard bigger than a pencil I've seen |
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| Exiting the hike and I liked the view of the van and the mesa |
After heading down from Castle Valley, I tried to find a camping spot at one of the BLM campgrounds on the river closer to Moab, but nothin' doin'! They were all full and it was only around 12:30. So, I went and found a free BLM spot and left my chairs out so we would hopefully have our spot when we got back. Then we went to the Mill Canyon Dinosaur tracksite. Some of them were really clear and super cool! There's nothing like seeing the signs of dinosaurs from over 100 million years ago!
"The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite is an Early Cretaceous (approximately 112 million years ago) dinosaur tracksite located north of Moab in Grand County, Utah. First reported in 2009, the site contains over 200 tracks and traces representing at least ten different types of animals, including nonavian theropods, sauropods, ornithopods, ankylosaurs, birds, and crocodiles. " |
I can't remember the details, but these footsteps didn't have the claws of the other ones.
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After killing some time at the dinosaur tracks, I went back to Arches. I couldn't go back in until 4 PM because I didn't have a reserved time. Since the sun sets close to 8, I figured I could do the two hikes I wanted to do before dark, which I did. I really wish that I had hiked Park Avenue instead of one of the other ones, but oh well. Maybe I'll go again another year and do that one.
I'm feeling a bit tired of going from one thing to another and am getting a little done with Utah rocks. It is all so cool, but too much all together for me. I was going to try to do Corona Arch that I've heard great things about (outside of the park and dogs are allowed), but I don't really feel the need to go see another Arch...
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| This double Arch was one of my favorites. |
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| North window |
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south arch
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| North and south window |
Hike at Devil's garden to Landscape arch
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| This is theoretical, not known |
Sunset back at the campsite
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| Somehow that doesn't look too comfortable... |
4/19 -
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| morning view from site. Balloons are always a treat. Later I saw skydivers as I was driving past the airport. |
After leaving Moab, we went to Green River, but there wasn't anything there (that I could see), so headed right onto Goblin Valley State Park. It's pretty cool, but not a highlight for me. It is interesting to me how different hoodoos can be. Compare this to Bryce Canyon! No comparison in my mind.
Dogs are welcome here and you can walk in the valley among the goblins, so Zoe and I went down and walked around. Again, not super interesting to me and way too warm and sunny for the old girl (Zoe I mean! 😂 ) so we didn't stay long. I ended up leaving and finding a dispersed camping spot with an awesome view with the plan to go back the next morning for a hike.
Since this is supposedly one of the darkest skies, I was hoping for the clouds to go away and get a good view of the sky. Well, the clouds cleared, but the moon didn't get the memo that I wanted to see the dark sky here. It was really bright! I have already been in some great places, but I wanted to try to spend more time (I read that it takes about 15 minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark to make the stars stand out better). I want to see if it's better than Blue Mountain Lake. I have had trouble seeing the milky way out west, but maybe that's due to the time of year? Not sure. What is so nice here is the open sky!
4/21 - We hiked to Wild Horse Window from the site. We didn't start with the family we met last night, but ended up arriving at the window together and on and off hiking together. I was a little worried that Zoe would make it, but she did pretty well and there were some shady spots for her to rest and cool off and she did great. The end of the trail was very cool and shaded, so that was great. The destination ended up being way cooler than I expected, so it was a great hike.
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| traffic jam |
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| lunch spot |
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| These rocks are soooo cool! I love the stratification. It's so uniform. |
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| view from campsite |
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do after Capitol Reef. Do I head back east or drive south on 12 (scenic drive) towards Kanab???
