Day #8 and I have a little better opinion of Utah now.  The winds have calmed and the dust settled...all over everything we own.

In any case, we left the RV park bright and early to be at Arches National Park at 7:00 am.  We had lots of company there, but once inside the park, people spread out and the crowds were manageable.

Driving into the park, the sights are almost endless.

The blank strip at the top of the photos is the overhang of the coach on my class C RV.

Here are some panoramic views of the drive in.

These are the petrified dunes.

Our first stop in the park was at Balanced Rock.

Kind of obvious how it was named.

And a few other shots in that area.

Moving on from Balanced Rock, we went to the Windows area.  This is an area with the arched formations.

There's a trail around the area through the landscape.

It ends up at another arch.  I think that is called the big window.

We left windows and headed out to the rest of the park that we could access.  A large section was closed for road repair.  This was an area that had multiple peaks.

This is a close up of the feature.

Looking back toward the windows area.

We arrived at Delicate Arch.

We went to the overlook site.  You could take the 2 mile hike to the arch.  It was uphill both ways, so I passed on that.  The overlook site was still a bit of a climb.

Looking the opposite direction, it's a greenish landscape.

Much of it looked like a mossy fungus of some sort.  It had the appearance of the green stuff lawn seeders use.

Anything that grows here seems to have some sort of defense mechanism.  My bloody ankles can attest to that.  Maybe it's why we're told to stay on the trails.

Finally, a few more shots of the red rocks as we leave Arches National Park.

And our home away from home.

Sure is nice having the rest area traveling with you...especially in these areas.

So much for Arches...on to Canyonlands National Park and the "Islands in the Sky" route.  The trip to the park as usual was scenic.

First stop was the Shafer Canyon overlook.

It's a flat top platform that juts out over the canyon.  Here are some more views of that area.

A panorama of the overlook area,

The canyon floor from the overlook.

No guard rails anywhere around here.  I'd be a nervous wreck with children on this slab of rock.  One step and it's a few thousand feet to the bottom.  Gives me the jitters being 10' from the edge.

Next stop was the "Mesa Arch".  That's the arch to the left where all the people are standing.

Here we are at the arch looking out toward the canyon.

The final stop today is the "Grand View Point" overlook.

There sure is a lot of real estate here.  There are Jeep trails here and there, but for the most part it's just acre after acre of bare land.

So after 9 hours traversing a small portion of Utah, I feel about like this old scrubby tree...dead.

Tomorrow is a travel day.  We're headed toward Bryce Canyon and plan to tour that Thursday morning...I think.  Days are all kind of a blur anymore.

It's Monday and we're finishing out week #1 of our western journey.  Seems like a lot longer.  Not sure if that's good or bad.  The GPS reads 1890 miles traveled so far.

This morning we exited Silt, CO on our way to Moab, Utah.  The drive was only a few hours today.  As was the case yesterday all through Colorado, the scenery was constantly changing along I-70.

There was always some kind of rocky ridge to look at.

And it was always scenic.

Until...

This is what it imagine the Gobi Desert looks like with maybe a little less scrub brush.

Here's a view back east after several miles of Utah "scenery"

And the wind...geez, I was sure we were going to tip over.  Fortunately, it wasn't a long drive and we arrived in Moab and after a lunch, walked the shops downtown.

We found an RV site at the KOA a few miles south of Moab.

And, did I mention the wind?  This isn't a scenic shot, but the haze you see looking at the mountain ridge isn't that humid summer haze.  It's red rock dust.  What a mess!

We spent a couple hours in town at the height of the wind storm to escape the blowing sand/dirt/dust.  There were times it was like a fog.

It has lessened somewhat now and we're tucked into a site that offers some protection.

So far, I'm not too impressed with Utah.  Tomorrow I may change my mind with a trip into the national parks.  People we talked to today that had been there said it was like touring in a sand storm.  No thanks to that.

Never had in my mind we might lose a touring day because of wind.  I've got a jacket, gloves, rain coat, umbrella, etc., but I forgot a pair of goggles.  Could have used the snorkel mask today.

Week #2 awaits.

Sunday...Day 6.

We had a bit of a misfire on RV park selection with the bison ranch.  It wasn't very nice so we vacated after one night and moved down to a resort park in Loveland, CO right on the route to Rocky Mountain Park.  It was a wise move and we enjoyed our stay in Loveland.  We even had a chance to break bread with Alex and Erin Wilson.  They shuttled us to a bar-b-q joint that was very good.

Today was a real nice adventure.  We had originally planned to go into Estes Park at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and spend some time there and shuttle into the mountains and spend the night in Estes Park.  Once there, we decided to just move through at a leisurely pace...which is the speed limit, 35 mph most places.

So we left Loveland and ventured west.

The recent warm temperatures have the rivers roaring from the snow melt.

The excitement builds as the mountains on the horizon grow larger.

After a stop at the Estes Park visitor center we entered RMNP and almost immediately encountered wildlife.

We saw many elk as well as prairie dogs, marmots, and mule deer.  We also encountered many cyclists.

I can't imagine the "fun" they're having.  It's a 5000 foot elevation climb over a 20 mile distance.  I guess the payoff is going back down the mountain.

The vistas we had all day long kept us in awe.  Here we are still in the "warm" sector below the tree line.

As we continued on, we encountered snow at about 10,000 feet, I'm thinking.

It was in this area that we saw a few mule deer...at least that's what I think these are.

Continuing on to "forest canyon"  We're at a pretty high elevation here and it was very windy and required us to put on jackets.

Absolutely beautiful scenery at every turn in every direction.

The marmots were all over this place.

They look like a groundhog.

Well above the tree line there was still a bit of snow.  The "Trail Ridge Road" that we were traveling just opened last week.

That's snow on the right and a steep slope to the bottom of the hill on the right.

Half way on the trail near the summit, is the Alpine Visitor Center.  There's a gift shop, small eatery and NPS information center.

At the Alpine Center, my GPS shows the elevation and our distance traveled from Oxford.

So leaving the Alpine Center, it's left back to Estes Park, right to Grand Lake, or straight for the express route down.

I really don't remember exactly where it was, but somewhere around this point we crossed the Continental Divide.

We'll float toward the Pacific from here on.

So we continue down now.

The scenery still amazes us.

We descended to an elevation where is was t-shirt temperatures again and stopped at a trail head for lunch.

Kathy's trail mix packets "inflated" on our trip over the mountain.

We thought the sight seeing was probably about over, but the trip down I-70 was equally scenic from Vail, CO to our destination at Silt, CO.  The route follows the Colorado River valley.

We ended the trek today at about 4:00 pm and pulled into a KOA along I-70 at Silt, CO.  It's a nice little place and very well kept.

Our site backs up to the freeway but we run a fan at night so any traffic won't be a bother.

Most of the vehicles we see are from western states.  We see very few license plates from states east of the Mississippi.

This park is along the banks of the Colorado.

It's a roaring river now.

There's a pair of eagles nesting near the park that we went to see.

That about capped the day.

On to Utah tomorrow.  Not sure how well that will go.  It was really hot here today.  Went from a pleasant morning to snowy cold on the mountain to desert like heat this afternoon.