Moab - Arches NP, Canyon Lands National Parks and More

Saturday May 10...Catchup time. We drove from Page, UT to Moab today. A bunch of narrow roads, but not much traffic so it wasn't too bad a trip.  We called ahead to reserve an RV spot, but even tough there were no special events in Moab it took three tries to find a park with space fr Saturday night.

We found a park. Slickrock Campground. Kind of cramped and dated, but friendly staff .  They advertised Wi-Fi, but we never could connect for the three nights we stayed. The reason for no updates to the blog for several days.

Nothing but dirt/sand for parking areas which made for a dirty RV. Afraid no recommendations for this one. Not a great place to manage four dogs, but they didn't mind.

Finn Mactavish

 After setting up, I took the Jeep back through town to visit an acquaintance who runs a motorcycle shop on the other end of town.  Afterwards, I stopped off in town to pick up some grub at the grocery store.

Out last visit to Moab was in 1988. What a change. Like 1,000 percent growth. Very busy with mountain bikers, Jeeps, and ATVs.  The Jeep blended right in being that I had our two mountain bikes on the back of the Jeep.  In fact, they were the same two mountain bikes we had here in 1988.  I guess we haven't worn them out yet.

Sunday...Our task - visit Arches National Park.  The entrance was just a couple of miles up the road from our campground. Graced through the entrance free gratis via our Senior Access Pass. Saturday night it rained and rained hard. Not exactly the norm for Moab and definite "don't go there when wet" for the typical Jeep back roads. So, here we are in Arches NP on paved road with the other motorized tourists. The pictures were a difficult due to more rain that came down pretty continually for the rest of the day. Even a little hail to go along with the thunder and lightening.

Visitor Center for Arches NP

 

 

One plus for a rare rainy day in Arches is the falls descending from the buttes over the bare rock.

 



 With all the rain, getting close was a problem.  I had a rain coat.so leaving Judy and the dogs in the Jeep with the heater on, I trudged up for a closer look at one of the more substantial arches.

 

View from one arch to the next.

 

Usually the colors are reddish, but not always.

 

 

 

More Arches NP pictures here.

Tomorrow...Canyon Lands National Park.

Monday...Still a little wary of off-roading due to wet, we hit Canyon Lands National Park. Another paved road adventure avoiding the typical tourists. BUT, a great view of some of the better dirt roads for another day/visit.

The picture above includes a road ascending Shaffer Canyon.  A route used many years back, much narrower then, to herd sheep up to the top of the mesa.

White dot in the pic is a pickup....same pickup in this picture...

View back down the canyon the other direction.

 

But they do maintain the this road...The grader was operating the same time as the pickup.

 

No rain today, but it was pretty cool up here so a coat was the norm.

 

We stopped for a snack at a picnic ground. A pair of locals seemed to want a share and were not afraid to cozy up close for their cut. Now this drove the dogs crazy as Finn and Millie have this thing about large black birds. 

A close look down below and you can see what is called the White Rim Trail. This route was suggested as a non-technical 4x4 trail (long day) that we may have to come back to check out.

Heading back down from Canyon Lands NP, we took a side trip over to Dead Horse State Park. A very nice park with more fantastic views.

Colorado River far below.

 

 

Another long day playing tourist.  We wound our way back down the mesa to the RV park and caught up on our laundry.  More Canyon Lands NP and Dead Horse SP pictures.

Tomorrow we leave Moab...we've decided we've seen enough Utah rocks and are looking forward to starting back home to Montana and our own personal style of scenery.



Tuesday...Up early, water dogs, pack up Gus, hook up the Jeep and down the road. More scenery on our chosen route. But the adventure continues.  We were traveling well and took a quick lunch break at a rest stop on a rather remote stretch of highway.  Started back up only find a ways down the road, the traffic wasn't trafficking. We were behind a large semi and a small car and couldn't see far down the road. We ended up stopped for an hour and forty five minutes.  W a  y  down the road a FedEx truck had an accident in a construction zone.  He didn't see the flag man and stopped cars until too late and ended up hitting a car and going off the road. Judy's picture as we past when the traffic was finally moving again.

Link to news article.

Continuing on, we finally hit I15 going north and started looking for an RV park.  Missed a couple of exits and finally hit one in American Fork, but ran into a WalMart before finding an RV park soooo... we stayed on the cheap and hit the road early Wednesday morning.



Wednesday...Finally catching up on the Blog. We were rolling along great, hit a Casino at Fort Hall, dropped five bucks in the machines, had lunch and and kept on trucking on up to Montana and pulled in for the night at an RV Park in Dillon.  Tomorrow...HOME!!!!


Thursday...Home again.  We stayed the night at a great little RV Park just south of Dillon.  Plenty of grass for the dogs to roam, great views.  Pack up and truck for home.  We made it back with a leisurely pace stopping for gas in Deer Lodge.  Home by 2:00 PM.


Thanks for coming along.  Until our next adventure...

MONUMENT VALLEY

Friday...We left Page packing up early. We wanted to arrive at Goulding's Campground in Monument Valley as early as possibled in order to get out and see the sights.  This we did.

There was plenty to see on the way, but we only stopped once to top off Gus's gas tank.  I don't like to go far before topping off the tank.  With an 80 gallon tank, it's too depressing to fill from close to empty.  We arrived at Monument Valley before noon. Check-in, get settled, have lunch, check on tours. The Navajo Nation established Monument Valley Park in 1958. They control access to the Park very tightly with most access through Navajo operated tours, but there is one loop road opento private vehicles (ha, ha).  It is a primative road at best and while they note that it may not be appropriate for lower vehicles. It was a hoot to watch all the tourists trying it out with there regular passenger cars.  I hope most of them were rentals. We, being in the Jeep, were in our element.

Now if you aren;t alrady aware, Monument Valley was where John Ford and John Wayne filmed some of their best western films like Stage Coach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, and others.  Now we know why.

I created a seperate folder in the CLICK HERE for the picture file just for Monument Vally.

Saturdsay morning...I took a sunrise tour this morning before we pack jup to leave so there are more pictures in the above link.

Thursday - Adventure on the move

Up early, cleanup, disconnect, stow, hitch up the Jeep and we are out of town.  The climb up Highway 59 out of Hurricane is steep.  We've been up this stretch a couple of times with the Jeep, but failed to realize the degree of climb for the first few miles.  STEEP, STEEP,STEEP. I told Judy had I realized how steep, I would have had her drive the Jeep and hitched it back up farther on.  But, we made it, or so it seemed...  Farther on, about 24 miles, we had continued to climb some and finally started down a grade after going through Colorado City.  All of a sudden the engine temperature started to climb...fast.  Whats up?  A good place to pull over quickly and start checking things out.

I had just flushed and changed the coolant a couple of months back and have been watching the coolant level with no real issues, but now you could see coolant had run all down the underneath of the bus.  The lower radiator hose (my first suspect) was intact and the coolant had not really come from there, but I could tell from the feel, there was no pressure in the system.  No need to wait to remove the radiator cap.  No fluid, over flow tank over full.  More cooling time and I started to add water from a 3 gallon jug we carried.  Took all of it and more.  My biggest fear was a blown head gasket ($$$$$$$$$$$$$ down time $$$$$$$$$$$$$). Put the cap back on and tried running up and down a side road.  Pushing some fluid back out the over flow.  Not looking good, but no BIG bubbles blowing out so not certain what it could be.  With Judy driving the Jeep, we traveled back up the road only a half mile into the small town of Hillsdale and there was an automotive shop and we stopped by.

Yes, they could check the engine.  Did a CO2 exhaust check which was clear for a leaking head gasket (whew!!!) Pressure tested the coolant system...OK, more whew!!! The only remaining thing, the radiator cap.  Yes that simple and I had not changed it when flushing the system 2 months back. Hit a Car Quest next door $6 (plus $26 for 2 gallons of antifreeze) and we were off again!

Talk about a scare! So down the road and we are sitting for the night in Page, AZ just off Lake Powell as originally planned.  No more problem, ran cool the whole way, hills or no.  I'll drop the pure water and refill the radiator tonight, but no problem running the rest of the way today.  NOT THE ADVENTURE WE WERE LOOKING FOR!

AND A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR OUR GRANDDAUGHTER EMMA!!! HUGS GIRL!

A Little Rest and a Push for the Edge of the World!

Saturday...A day of rest. a little laundry, some reading, finish watching "Catching Fire- Hunger Games", a nap.  The  good life.  There was an Ironman event in town today which virtually shut down the traffic in town through the core of the daylight hours.
Tomorrow? Bigger plans. We've been working up to an extended Jeep adventure. This time our target is Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We've loaded the Jeep with camping gear, filled the water jug, and other necessary supplies. We'll decide on camping out depending on progress and what we see when we get there. The trip is around 90 miles one way. 56 miles of dirt with the last couple being rough rock. Wish us luck.  The pictures should be worth the trip. 
This is a very remote part of the Grand Canyon National Park. Not much in the way of support. Keep and eye on the "Where are We?" link to the right to see our progress.

Sunday/Monday...We loaded the Jeep as planned and hit the trails for Toroweap. We took the road of less dirt traveling down paved Utah 59 past Colorado City and Pipe Springs National Monument and hit dirt for the next 60 miles on County 109 towards Toroweap.  A few vehicles were coming out, the weekenders, we assumed. We had taken the rear and side panels off the Jeep, the weather was slated to be in the 90s.

Not too long after running down the dirt roads, the dogs started rebelling.  The wind had come up and with the rough roads, the noise and wind were getting to be a bit much. They tried getting Judy to ride in the back, the four dogs up front, but that didn't last too long.

Eventually everyone found their spot (almost all of them up front, of course), the miles started to fly by.  The roads although classified as primitive and not regularly maintained were good.  At least as far as the Jeep was concerned.

We have not found a lot of signage in the more remote areas we have been hitting down here, but there were some regarding the major routes to/from Toroweap.

 Not a big deal now we had good maps, but still reassuring.

I do some remote area riding on my motorcycle, so I know remote drivable roads. This one is taking us to about as remote a destination as can be attained in the lower 48 states, but eventually here we are, but just cause we hit the Park boundary doesn't mean we're there yet.

The road is still pretty decent until you get just past the Ranger Station. They go out of there way to keep the rif-raf out from there on. They advertise you should have a "high clearance vehicle".  They mean it.  I didn't take too long and we were creeping over rocks in low range four wheel drive.  the traction is great, but so rough you need to creep.

 Two or three miles of this and you get to the Overlook. Where some people didn't go too far beyond the parking/picnic area.

But, we were definitely at the Grand Canyon!

 And no, there are no protective barriers.

 The raw, undeveloped Grand Canyon.

 

After "bellying" up to the edge for a few more pictures (that's a 3,000 foot vertical drop), we headed back a half mile to the Tuweap Campground.

More rock crawling and we found ourselves in what must be one of the most unique primitive campgrounds around.  Nice composting toilets, picnic tables and not much else...unless you count the rocks and direct view of the Grand Canyon.

There were only a couple of other campsites occupied so the solitude was definitely unbroken. First come, first serve for the single sites. A couple of group sites require reservations, but we saw a notice that starting September of this year all sites would require reservation, PLUS fires, including charcoal barbecues would be forbidden.

A little hike on the only trail open to the dogs (leashed, of course) brought back many more pictures including the flora of the high desert. There is no end of photo ops in this place! (Check the link to full photo folder for more).

 

The dogs were appreciative of the cool perches on the rocks behind our tent.

 

 

Sunrise over the GC.

 

 

Breakfast and its time to crawl the rocks back out of the campground and head for the barn (or Gus in this case).

On the way out, we were entertained by the famous trained posing rabbits of the Grand Canyon. Fauna to go with the flora.

Not to mention a couple of local gopher snakes.

 

The desert has no end of colorful flowering plants this time of year.

 

We stopped to chat with the volunteer ranger at the ranger station on the way out.  Watered the dogs and hit the road. In all, barely 24 hours from home port to home port, but a little trip that I doubt we will ever surpass.  The little Jeep surpassed itself barreling down the back roads. Our camping gear worked out and we have four very tired dogs. Showers done, dogs washed...now what will be our next adventure?

Tuesday...Ran over to St. George today.  Looking for a Yarn store, but nothing at the Internet address. Next stop Camping World to pick up a few things for Gus. Nice day Sunday, but not real hot.

Wednesday...A day to relax and clean up things and relax getting ready for more travel in the morning.  Cooked a steak on our cheap $10 charcoal grill which cooks really well.  Corn on the cob in the microwave and asparagus completed dinner.  Tomorrow we head towards Page, AZ and Lake Powell.  Not too long a day. Only 137 miles to Page.