5-CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Today we went into the northern part of Canyonlands National Park. 

This park is a very large piece of real estate and we did not have time to do the entire park in one day.  One could spend several days seeing it all. Besides, we are going to drive “Jeep Roads” and that is not fast traveling by any stretch of the imagination.


Just so you know, there are well paved roads in Canyonlands from which you can see spectacular views.


I took about 125 pictures today, but although I have posted a lot of pictures, I have paired them down considerably. It was a tough task.

At one point there was a half mile hike to a large stone arch. This is accessible from off a paved road. A lot of people were already there so they got to star in my picture.


It was Shafer Trail Road that we drove today. We averaged 10 miles an hour and with good reason…the condition of the road prevented anything more.


The scenery was gorgeous everywhere you looked.

Then we were off the pavement and on “the Jeep road.”  And what a road it was!

Look closely at this picture. We drove on each of these skinny little lines. It is all part of the same road.  

The road began on top of the plateau and wound thousands of feet down. The road was single lane (with two way traffic allowed), very rough with 180 degree blind hairpin turns.

It was too bad our daughter-in-law, Leslie wasn’t with us on this drive. She would have provided the music for the trip…screaming all the way!!

Now you can understand the 10 mph average on this trip.

In this location there was a huge wall where the stone was all blue. I have no idea what causes the stone to be this color, but it was striking.

So we are driving the average 10 miles per hour and we came upon this guy ahead of us going about five. I think fear may have had something to do with his speed or lack there of.  

He finally found a slightly wider spot and let us around him.  Although we did see some cars, we were glad there weren’t a lot of them.

We often saw huge monolith boulders hanging at weird angles that made us wonder what caused them to stop their fall where they did.

This was Gooseneck Overlook.

At Musselman Arch, you are allowed to walk out on this arch.  It is about six feet wide in the middle and probably 50 or so feet long.  There is nothing but air underneath.

So this was my big opportunity to walk out on an arch, so cane and all, I carefully and slowly walked out there.

Behind where I stood on the arch was a “hole in the rock” formation.

Back on the road again and heading up out of the canyon, we came face to face with another Jeep coming toward us. We each got to the very edge of the road and made it past.  At least he was on the scary side.  It was straight down on his side.

Once again the scenery was breath-taking.

That road through the middle of the valley is one we had just traveled on when we were on the bottom of the canyon.

After driving Shafer Trail Road, we went to Dead Horse Point State Park. It is right next door. Here the roads are all paved and there are various viewpoints from which you can look down into deep canyons.

At this point we are looking over the edge at the Colorado River which flows through the middle of the canyon.

 On our way out, we headed down another dirt road that would later turn into yet another Jeep road, then connecting to a highway heading back into town. The badlands in the distance looked really neat.

The map said we were at PUCKER PASS.  They weren’t kidding. The road here was even more narrow and rock walls rose up very high on each side as the road snaked downhill. The big surprise was around the next corner.

This huge boulder was across the road with only a small opening underneath where the road was. 

This is where the puckering happens, I guess, as we held our breath. The Jeep managed to just barely squeak through the narrow opening. (I think I can hear Leslie screaming again, this time just from looking at the pictures! We love you, Les!)

Up ahead on the canyon wall is what I call, an “arch in process.” I suppose someday more rock will fall out and the arch will open up.

At this point we are back on the highway and headed back to town.  We came across “Jug Handle Arch.”

In the same area was a rock wall next to the highway with a number of petroglyphs carved into the rock. We always find these facinating and there are quite a few in this area.

“High Five” to the petroglyph, folks!

Right after the petroglyphs, there were a bunch of people learning to rock climb. We stopped and watched for a while. 

The guy on the right in the pink shorts was having a terrible time getting off the ground. I don’t know if he ever got any further than this. I wouldn't have gotten as far as he did!

We want to come back here for a longer visit at some point. We only drove nine miles on Shafer Trail Road. It took us 50 minutes. 

We want to drive the rest of it which is actually 110 miles long and takes 10-14 hours to drive. Want to come along with us on that one?

Next stop is Monument Valley.

4-MOAB, UTAH

Originally, I had planned only one blog for Moab. However, we have found it to be such a beautiful area, there will now be two of them, so stay tuned.


As we approached the town of Moab, we neared the local airport. I noticed a bunch of skydivers who had all jumped out of what I assumed to be a perfectly good airplane. 

We were too far away to get a picture of all of them, but I did manage to capture one guy floating through the sky.

It was a beautiful blue-sky day, so I guess it was a perfect day for falling out of an airplane.

We then arrived at our RV Park in Moab near noon. Don had detected a leak in a water line in our heating system this morning, so the first order of business was to call a mobile RV mechanic to check things out. 

The repairman was unable to arrive till later in the day, so we decided to explore the area, beginning with lunch at a nearby restaurant.


We had found some information on the area that described how to find some petroglyphs by the city golf course. 

It was not far from either the restaurant where we ate or our RV Park, so we headed that way, directions in hand which we followed carefully.

No sign of petroglyphs anywhere. 


Finally we gave up.  Then we saw an ominous-sounding sign that said, “Steel Benders Flat Pass.” It was obviously a Jeep road.  Don and his brand-new Jeep were just itching to explore an honest-to-goodness “Jeep Road.” I was just along for the ride.

The scenery was stunning, and the road, not too bad…at least for a little while.

Then we reached a hairpin curve and started down a steep incline.

By this time the road was very narrow and rough but we were looking down into a very pretty valley with enormous rock walls all around.

A few more hairpin turns and we found ourselves at the bottom of the canyon with a dirt road canopied in luscious green trees. All the previous dryness of the area had suddenly disappeared.

Once again we were surrounded by huge rock walls, making one feel very small.

Then we crossed a shallow crystal clear stream.

Don said his Jeep had been formally baptized on it’s first official Jeep Trail.  He also put the first scratches in it which thankfully he was able to buff out later. So it is now officially an off-road Jeep!

***I jumped out of the Jeep to take a picture of this memorable moment.*** (More on this subject later.)

There was more beautiful scenery down in that canyon at every turn.

About this time Don mentioned that he was seeing footprints in the dirt. Around the next corner was a single guy hiking all alone on the trail.

The trail finally became almost non-existent and we turned around and headed back out.

As we slowly drove back down the street we had originally come, Don pulled over because right there were the petroglyphs that we had been looking for. They had pretty much blended into the rock, but they were there and very interesting as well.

Along the bottom of this rock there is what appears to be a sheep coral and seven sheep, including babies in between each of the larger ones.  

And then, of course, there is the graffiti some moron scratched right in the middle of it all. So frustrating to see that damage!!

About this time we found out the repairman would be a couple hours later than expected, so we had time for another drive. This was a highway along the Colorado River over to a little town called Castle Valley. 

Again a great scenic drive.

Coming back we saw several large groups of people on raft trips on the river. The river was pretty calm, as least where we were, so I don’t think they got into much white water.

Remember how I told you that we often stumble into “adventures”? Well, today was the first one of the trip. 

As we got back into town, about 4pm, I suddenly found my iPhone was missing. Now considering that this little gadget contains pretty much my whole brain, I hit panic mode. I knew I had it at lunch. I remembered laying it on the table so I wouldn’t forget it, but now it was gone.

I dropped Don off at the RV to meet the repairman and headed back to the restaurant. No phone there. However, the nice lady offered to call the phone and see if anyone answered. 

Amazingly, a man answered, identified himself as “Jim” who she immediately assumed it was my husband. Finally she handed me the phone.

In talking to “Jim,” I discovered that he was a man that we had seen hiking back in the canyon on the Jeep trail when we were there several hours ago. 

"Jim" had looked down next to the ***creek*** where I had taken the picture of the Jeep and found my phone laying in the dirt. He was still in the canyon but coming out. 

Ten minutes later, he stopped by the restaurant and handed me my phone.  I handed him $20 that he didn’t want to take. Then finally said, “OK, I’ll have a beer and pizza on you!” Works for me!

Thank you, Lord, for helping me find my phone!! What would I do without it?

These are the kind of adventures that makes one old…and I don’t need any help doing that!!

Tomorrow we are going into Canyonlands National Park. Stay tuned for more beautiful pictures.

3-SALT LAKE CITY AREA

Salt Lake City traffic was not as bad as we expected. Also, a lot of the anticipated road construction has been completed making it was an easier drive than we expected.


As we approached SLC, I noticed red areas on the mountains.

Eventually I figured out that the trees were turning colors, almost all red. I don't know what kind they are, but they are really pretty.


We were planning on spending the night in another Interstate Rest Area on I-15 near Springville.  

Two web sites that I check as we drive said there was a rest area in that location. Also a sign was on the highway saying there was one, “Courtesy of Flying J” at the same exit. That was convenient as we had already planned to stop there for gas. 

Unfortunately, it turned out that Flying J only provided use of their restrooms to the public, not any place to park. OK, it was noisy there anyway. So we moved on.


We turned off I-15 and traveled about 45 minutes down Utah Highway 6 to where the map promised that there was a Rest Area.  

We have driven Highway 6 a couple times before. It is a beautiful drive down a winding canyon with a stream rushing down one side. The bonus here this time, was those wonderful red trees and furthermore they were a lot closer to the road.

They provided quite a show of color in addition to all around beautiful scenery.

We were beginning to think that we were facing another “missing rest area” as we had never seen one on this road before and we weren't finding one now. 

Then there it was. Brand new since the last time we traveled this way and without a doubt the most interesting Rest Area we have ever been in.

Not only was there grass and flowers, the entire Rest Area was built to be a replica of an old railway station.

It was called Tie Fork and apparently there is a lot of Utah history in this location. For a short while, way back when, this was a major railway area.

There was an actual old steam engine…

…a water tower and an area representing a round house.

In the round house area there were numerous large posters detailing the history of the area in several different ways, like native peoples and geological formations.

Inside the building were the restrooms. The “waiting room” even had benches reminiscent of an old train station waiting room.

As I wandered around the area, a Magpie stopped and posed on a fence post to check out what I was doing.

A few other rigs had pulled in to park by now and Don took this opportunity to wash about a gazillion bugs off the windshield. 

We always try to start out the day with a clean windshield as it makes taking pictures a lot easier, not to mention just seeing the roadway. 

However, today, thanks to a rather heavy coating of bugs, I was hanging out an open side window to get pictures of the red trees. What I won’t sacrifice for a picture!

Lest you think we spend all our time in Highway Rest Areas, tonight we will be in Moab, Utah in an actual RV Park for a couple days. From there we will be visiting Canyonlands National Park. It should be amazing and we are looking forward to it.