We left the Mesa Verde RV Park fairly early for the two hour drive to Moab mainly because we couldn't get a reservation at the RV Parks there - they were all full so we wanted to be early for the first come first serve opportunities. We thought we were being smart by coming this way after school had started back and most families were finished with vacations but apparently a lot of other folks had the same bright idea. We were heading into town with our only hope to stay at one of the first come first serve Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sights that we'd heard about. They are very inexpensive for everyone but even better, half off, for folks with the senior park pass. And even better than that we learned they are right along the Colorado River in a beautiful canyon. We got there early enough to ride the length of the BLM area which contained about 5 or 6 different small campgrounds to determine which we'd like to try to get....well we had to go with our second choice but wow - what a nice sight to be camping in....Big Bend Campground. Since these sights offer no hook-ups (water, electric, or sewage) we only signed up for two nights as we are not well equipped for much longer stays off the grid. Our original plan/desire was to spend three nights in Moab.
BLM Campsite in Moab
After admiring the views and our luck with the campsite for a short while we head on over to Arches National Park which is less than 5 miles from the campground. That is an amazing landscape to view and the naturally formed Arches are everywhere.....very cool spot. Unfortunately they are working on the road there at nights and they close the park at 7:00 everyday and even some parts of the park are closed during the day so we were limited to about a 5 hour window on this day. We ended up driving about 3/4 of the park, signing up for a ranger led hike for the next day and took a hike to the Delicate Arch before it closed. The hike was only three mile round trip but it was a pretty steady uphill run out and downhill on the way back....it was a very cool place and well worth the effort. Photographing it was a challenge because of all the folks there taking selfies while standing under the arch...but we tried.
Delicate Arch
Returning to camp we had just enough time to run the generator for about an hour. In these BLM campgrounds you can only run your generator from 8 in the morning until 9 in the evening....and you know it - those are the hours we are our touring so we don't generally get much of a battery recharge or use of our 110 volt system, no gererator means no coffee until after 8 and that is about two hours late for us. That evening we grilled some dinner and called it an evening pretty early.
18 Sept, 2017 - Touring
Given the fact that reservations are getting difficult to find AND we couldn't make our own coffee - we opted to head over to McDonalds for some breakfast and free wifi so we could work on our next destinations and reroute if necessary. We had a 9:00 appointment for a ranger led hike into an area of the park called Fiery Furnace. Our ranger, Travis, was a great guide with lots of stories to tell. The reason the hike was ranger led was because of the difficulty of the hike (I'll explain) and the fact that it would be pretty easy to get lost in there. Although the hike was only two miles and not really huge elevation changes there were many places where you had to navigate different obstacles...jumps, sliding down on your back side using your feet as brakes, and some narrow areas with substantial drop offs. During the hike Kathy was not impressed that I signed her up for that but afterwards (having survived) she was happy she'd done it. It's interesting to me how something like that builds teams - we went in with ten other people we didn't know from Maryland, Chicago and California (we represented Georgia) and we all helped each other through the difficult parts and worked as a team....coming out with a brief friendship. That took three hours so we are now at noon on our last day in this area. Since we are close to the area and the hike is short we opt to go to hike to the Landscape Arch.....it is a relatively easy 3/4 mile each way....enjoyable hike.
Down into the Fiery Furnace
Arches area scenery
Arches Scenery
Arches Scenery
Moving on from Arches and starving to death we head into town to have lunch at the recommended Miquel's Baja Grill only to learn that they are a dinner only restaurant so we ended up eating at the Moab Diner....pretty good but they could take a lesson from Steak and Shake on making milshakes. Over lunch we discussed how worn out we were but still wanted to at least try to see some of the Canyonlands National Park with our remaining few hours in the area....at least a look at the Needles part of that park we'd heard so much about. Following our GPS to the park and stopping at the visitor center we learn that this park is actually divided into two parts and you cannot drive thru the park to get from one to the other and we were in the part that was not the Needles area. Despite that bit of news, we spent the next couple of hours driving and stopping at the overlooks and enjoying the views. It was pretty nice but not as impressive as Arches. We met a nice couple from Kentucky there at one of the turn outs and spent a great deal of time talking with them....it's always good to hear some more southern accents when you're off like this :-)
Canyonlands
After such a late (and heavy) lunch by the time we returned to camp we were not even hungy for dinner. We had about one hour to run the generator so we did that and after a shower just relaxed our aching muscles. Since we have no internet or TV here we opt to watch a segment of Law & Order on the laptop that I downloaded from NetFlix before we left just for these occassions. Another early night to bed with moving day tomorrow but we both really like this area and declared we would return to see so much more the area has to offer.
19 Sept, 2017 - Traveling
A good nights sleep and a good breakfast to start the day off right. After breakfast we go outside to enjoy some coffee in our beautiful surroundings before it's time to get on the road but the wind really started to pick up so that was short lived. We get the camper ready to travel and off we go towards Capitol Reef National Park. Again we find reservations difficult - our preference is to stay in Torrey, Utah but neither of the three campgrounds there has any vacancies so we ended up on the eastern side of the park in a town (surprised this place even made the map) called Cainesville, Utah....and glad to get what we had. We booked two nights there....probably not enough to see the area thougherly but we will get a full day in the park.
The fastest route to get there would have been I-70 but my friend, Don Nagel, said that would be a mistake and advised that we go back south on 191 to Blanding and pick up 95 towards Hanksville....oh my, what a wonderful and scenic route that was. We encountered so many different terrains that it felt like different planets. The GPS said it was a 2.5 hour trip but we ended up with an all day adventure as we made so many stops along the way. The first stop was at a pull off marked Butler Wash Indidan Ruins....a short hike to some more cliff dwelling ruins was a nice break from the driving. We spoke to a couple there who actually live and work in Yellowstone National Park (he is a ranger and she a contract nurse) who said there was literally hundreds of similar sights in this area.
Butler Wash Indian Runins
Next stop for lunch and a look around was the Natural Bridges National Monument...another pretty interesting environment. We did the nine mile loop drive there and got to see several of the bridges.
The Natural Bridges area was mostly deep sandstone (white) looking canyons but as we continued we entered the Glen Canyon National Recreation area and saw some fabulous views of red rock formations and ultimately crossed the Colorado river again.....can't seem to get away from it. It was a very pretty area where the bridge was and I believe it was right at the northern end of Lake Powell which we hope to visit in the next week or so. We stopped at a pull out by the bridge for some photos.
Glen Canyon - Colorado River Bridge
As I was walking down and bank (without Kathy) to photograph the interesting looking bridge that crossed the Colorado River I came upon a stick that looked an aweful lot like a snake in the path....upon closer inspection I realized it was a snake and we were at a standoff. I gave him some distance in hopes that he would move but he wasn't going anywhere. In order to expedite this situation I lobbed a small rock in his direction in hopes of scaring him off....the rock landed right on top of him and he left in a big hurry. He took off so fast that I wasn't sure where he went...just disappeared. I continued on a short distance to get nearly under the bridge with an eye out for him...still a little nervous when a big truck on the highway above crossed the bridge and it made such a noise that it scared me to death....but I didn't see him again.
As we left that area and continued the landscape began to change again and looked like a moon-like appearance with what looked like low rolling hills of sandy desert....but the farther we went and the closer we got to our destination it became higher hills but differnt looking...no trees or vegetation at all....very different looking. We laughed and said we could hardly wait to see what our camp site looked like.
Landscape east of Cainesville, Utah
Landscape east of Cainesville, Utah
Checking into the Sleepy Hollow Campground was an interesting adventure also.....they had told me they offered water, electric and a dump station on the campground. Normally that means water and electric at each camp site but here it meant electric at the site and you could fill your tanks with water before parking. Not a big deal as just the electricity was an upgrade from the previous two day. The campground is small and literally in the middle of nowhere....we met some very nice folks from Vermont and Washington State as we sat around outside talking until after dark. Nice temperatures but a bit windy still.
Great pictures! Glad you are enjoying the camping.
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