2015 - September

We started our day in Moab with a visit to Arches National Park at sunrise.  We hiked to the Windows Arches to watch the sunrise, it was beautiful.  The red rock behind us had a beautiful glow across them as the sun came up over the arches. 

 

 The next trail was to the Double Arches. 

 

 

 

 

 

Views of the Balanced Rock and Fiery Furnace

 

 

 

Next trail to the Delicate Arch Upper and Lower Viewpoints.

 

 

 

The Sand Dune Arch trail had the most sand we saw in the park. 

 

View of Broken Arch from the Sand Dune Arch trail.

 

Tapestry Arch and views along the trail.

After hiking more trails than we had planned on our first day we decided to take it easy on Day 2.  We drove the scenic route 313 out to Dead Horse State Park, the site of one of the famous goosenecks along the Colorado River.  We did a short hike along the rim. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Our next stop was the Canyonlands National Park in the “Island in the Sky” region.  First stop was the Shafer Canyon Overlook. 

Second stop – the Mesa Arch.  Jerry is sitting on the overlook by Mesa Arch.

 

We made a few more stops at the overlooks along the park road. 

 There was a 4-wheel drive route on the Shafer Trail/Potash Trail that was calling Jerry’s name.  Not Belinda’s!!  The first 30 minutes was a cliff hanger, going down the side of the mountain with many switchbacks.  Belinda didn’t look the whole way.  Once we got down, the trail ran along the mountains on one side and the river in the other in several spots.  Jerry had a great time, Belinda not so much.  The journey took 2 hrs and 45 minutes, not one to repeat anytime soon. 

  We drove by a Potash Salt mining process on the trail.  They mine the potassium chloride for fertilizer.  The ponds were huge and a very vibrant blue.

 

 

Finally back to civilization along the Colorado River where Indian Rock Art was along the roadway.

 

We had a day of rest until our evening Mercedes Unimog tour through the Sand Flats Recreational Area “Hell’s Revenge” trail.  It was like no other 4x4 trip we have ever taken.  We were out for 4 hours with a beautiful sunset along the way.  We had a few stops on the trip, one with dinosaur fossil prints. 

 

The next day we took the scenic drive north east along the Colorado River through red rock territory.  We stopped at the Red Cliffs Ranch, the site of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission Museum and Library.  The museum at Red Cliffs Lodge displays a combination of early cowboy ranching and local movie memorabilia.  In the late 40s the legendary John Ford discovered the rugged beauty of Moab’s Canyon lands and filmed the 1st of many movies here. The first major motion pictures filmed in the Moab area were set on the Red Cliffs Ranch. Wagon Master, Rio Grande, Son of Chochise, Warlock, Commancheros, Cheyenne Autumn, and many more used the ranch and it’s magnificent scenery for filming. John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, Rock Hudson, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Lee Marvin, Richard Widmark, James Stewart, and Richard Boone have all worked on location here at the Red Cliffs Ranch.  More recently Geronimo, City Slickers, Thelma and Louise, along with other movies and over 100 commercials have all used the Moab area as a location.

 

We stopped at the historic burned out remains of the Dewey Bridge. 

 

We saw a few of the famous landmarks that have been in the classic western movies.

The scenic drive continued up into the La Sal Mountain Scenic Rim Loop ending up south of Moab.





We had a weekend of rest to stay out of the Labor Day crowds in Moab.  On Labor Day we took a morning 3 hour jet boat ride down the Colorado River by the Gooseneck at Dead Horse State Park and just into Canyonlands National Park along the river.  Very scenic and fun ride.

 

The Thelma & Louise Movie cliff that the car went off of.

 Lunch at the Moab Diner, an icon in Moab.  In the afternoon we drove back into Arches National Park and did the hike to Landscape Arch seeing the Tunnel and Pine Tree Arches along the way.  It was a nice 1 hour hike to burn off the very low calorie diner lunch we enjoyed. 

 

 On the way out of Arches we stopped at the Park Avenue Overlook and the Balanced Rock.

On Tuesday we headed down to Monument Valley in the car where many of the great western movies were filmed.  The iconic scene is the first picture.  It took 3 hours to drive through the park with lots of red dust, and rough roads along the way. 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Goosenecks State Park, another iconic picture of the Gooseneck’s along the San Juan River in southern Utah.   

 

We spent the night at the Hat Rock Inn in Mexican Hat and enjoyed the pool and hot tub in the afternoon.  We enjoyed dinner at the Swinging Steak restaurant, best steak we have had in a long time.  It was grilled over Juniper wood on a swinging grill.

 

 

The next morning we took the scenic route to the Natural Bridges National Monument (another 6 miles of switchbacks along a dirt road). 

Natural Bridges National Monument is the site of 3 natural bridges that sit at 6,500 feet on Cedar Mesa.  The Sipapu Natural Bridge is the second largest natural bridge in the world.  We did the hike to the Owachoma natural bridge which was a little strenuous at 6,500 feet. 

On our way home we spent a few hours at the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  It was a beautiful 30 mile drive back into it.  We did 3 of the hikes and all of the overlooks.  The landscape was always changing and very beautiful.  It was a great workout.  We made it back to Moab by sundown.  Very busy, fun 2 days.   

Pack Rat Nest

After a day of rest we headed back into Arches National Park to do the Delicate Arch Trail, 3 miles round trip.  Delicate Arch is another one of the iconic sights seen in a lot of pictures.  It was another good workout!!  We did it at daylight to avoid the heat of the day.

Our last hike in the Moab area was the Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park.  It was a 1.8 mile round trip to 2 scenic overlooks.  There are 2 theories on how the upheaval happened, one is an meteor the other is a “salt dome theory”.  It is 3 miles across and serves as a protected geologic laboratory where all can learn about and be inspired by, the mysteries of nature. 

 

 

On our last day in Moab we did a morning bike/segway along the Colorado river bike trail.  Beautiful morning ride. 

 

  We moved to Torrey by Capital Reef National Park.  Capital Reef is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles.  On our first day in Capital Reef we did part of the scenic drive and a few of the scenic observation sites.  It started to sprinkle so we decided to save the rest for another day.  We stopped into Café Diablo for a late lunch, awesome gourmet food in the middle of a very small town.  

 

The next day we did a 9 hour scenic drive, we thought it would be 4-5 hours but it was a nice surprise.  We started out down hwy 12 the scenic drive over Boulder Mountain reaching an elevation of 9,600 feet.  They have a lot of free range cattle, we came around a corner and what I thought was a bear was actually a very black cow.  We had a good laugh over that one.  We saw quite a few cows and deer on the 2 hour drive over the mountain. 
After coming down the mountain we entered the start of the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.  It is one of our newest national monuments in 1996 and covers 1.9 million acres.  It has three distinct regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante.  It is an awesome site to see, what little of it we drove through compared to the total size.  We stopped in the town of Escalante then turned around and headed back up hwy 12 to Boulder turning off on the Burr Trail.  The Burr Trail is a 36 mile scenic route through the Canyons of the Escalante.  The canyons and switch backs were awesome views. 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the Burr Trail we entered the southern end of Capital Reef National Park, the very remote part of Capital Reef.  We drove up through the Watermark Fold and the views on both sides were awesome but the road was like a washboard so we could only go about 10 miles an hour for many miles.  That is what took us so long.  It was a great day but we were glad to be out of the car and back home. 

 

The next day we decided it was time to get some physical exercise after a breakfast of bacon, eggs and trout, what a way to start the day.  We did 3 of the hikes in Capital Reef, the Hickman Bridge, the Grand Wash and the Capital Gorge Trails.  At the end of the scenic drive we wend down the Pleasant Creek 4 wheel drive road until we couldn’t cross the fast moving creek.  The views on the way out were awesome. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We still had energy so we headed to Goblin State Park, a 1 ½ hour drive back up scenic route 24.  The park is filled with stone gnomes, very uniquely shaped goblins that you can walk down into.  It was a fun hike through the goblins with lots of different shapes and sizes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a very physical day we stopped back into Café Diablo for an awesome dinner of Rattle Snake for the appetizer and Trout for the main course with a great view.
 

 

We started out the next day with a scenic drive up through the Fish Lake National Forest.  Unfortunately during our first 30 minutes we hit a deer, which was a shock to both of us.  We had been so careful and looking for them but it popped right out of the ditch and into the front passenger side of the car.  We are okay, the deer walked away but we are not sure how he did.  We have a small dent in the right front corner and the passenger door wouldn’t open, the front quarter panel was jammed back.  We continued the scenic drive up through the forest to see the fall color changes and Fish Lake.  It was a pretty drive.  We got back to the RV and Jerry was able to fix the passenger door so it opens now, a little creaky but it opens.  We will have to wait till we get to a bigger town to see if we can get it fixed better. 

 

 

We had a day of rest before we move on to Bryce Canyon National Park. 

 

Nice scenic drive to Bryce Canyon City, just outside Bryce Canyon National Park.  We took the 3 ½ hour Rainbow Point Tour that was provided free by the National Park service.  The tour took us to the end of the scenic drive, our driver Jay provided a lot of historical, geological, plant and wildlife information.  It was a great way to get a morning overview of the whole park. 

 

 

The next morning we were up at daylight to start our all day journey through the park.  We started with several hikes that totaled about 4 miles at almost 9,000 feet elevation. One of the hikes is rated the “World’s best 3-mile hike”. It was quite the lung workout but well worth it with all the awesome sights, bridges, hoodoos, trees, and formations to see.

 

After the big hike we drove back up to the end of the scenic drive and did every scenic lookout on the way back with a few short hikes to different vistas.  It was a good day of hiking between 8,000 and 9,000 feet.  We enjoyed lunch at the Bryce Canyon National Park Lodge that originally opened in 1924. 

 

After so much hiking yesterday we decided to do a road trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Since we are 3 hours away it was a good time to drive there in the car for the day instead of taking the Motorhome since it is more remote to get to than the South Rim.  Nice scenic drive down, crossing into Arizona with great weather.  Arrived at the park and headed straight to the end of the scenic drive to work our way back to the Visitor Center and Lodge.  We did a few short hikes at the scenic overlooks and had a picnic where we were attacked by bees and had to finish eating in the car.  We spent 4 ½ hours and saw everything we could get to by car without hiking down into the canyon.  It was an awesome sight. We are excited to see the South Rim in a couple of weeks to compare the two.  Nice drive back to Bryce with a stop in Kanab, Utah where we found a real grocery store that did not have tourist prices.  Water was 2.99 a pack instead of 7.99, what a difference.

 

Jerry enjoyed a Segway ride out on the 2 tracks on our day of rest.  He had a few wildlife sightings on his ride. 

After a day of rest we headed out on another road trip to finish the All-American Road Scenic Byway 12.  Our first stop was Kodachrome State Park.  The park was named after the Kodak Film Corp. in 1949 by the National Geographic Society because of the ever changing colors and shadows that occur throughout the day with the light changes.  We did the Angel’s Palace Trail hike with views of the Kodachrome Basin, Bryce Canyon and the surrounding area.   

From the state park we continued down the Cottonwood Canyon Scenic Backway (dirt road) 11 miles to the Grosvenor Arch.  It is a unique sandstone double arch located within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. It is named to honor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (1875–1966), a president of the National Geographic Society, publishers of the National Geographic Magazine.

 

Scenic Byway 12 travels through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to the town of Escalante.  We enjoyed an art festival in Escalante with street vendors and music. 

On our way back we stopped at the Mossy Cave and Waterfall Trail, part of Bryce Canyon National Park but located just outside the park.  It was a short hike to the Mossy Cave and waterfall.  The waterfall was the first one we have seen on this trip, it was a short waterfall but very pretty. 

2 days of rest enjoying the outdoor heated pool and hot tub, haircuts from both of us before heading to Zion National Park next.  We went back into the park to watch the moon rise with the eclipse and blood moon.  We had some good views before a few light clouds moved in to block our view.

 

We moved to Hurricane, Utah just outside of Zion National Park.  Our first day in the park was very active.  You have to use the park shuttle service up into the canyon so it felt more like a cattle drive than any of the other parks we have been in. 

 

 

Our first hike was the Riverside Walk up to the Narrows along the Virgin River.

 

The second hike was to the Weeping Rock Trail, the trail ends at a rock alcove with dripping springs.

 

The third hike was a combination of the Kayenta Trail to the Upper Emerald Pool Trail back down to the Lower Emerald Pool Trail.  The Upper Emerald Pool Trail was strenuous but worth it once we arrived at the Upper pool area.