Wednesday

Another day, another couple hundred miles.  Today's event was to get to the other side of Utah.  Of course, Kathy insisted on the scenic route.  The definition of scenic is getting to mean mountain climbs, switchbacks, and narrow roads.  Just the kind of traveling you dream of when driving a motor home.

Anyway, we pulled out of Moab at about 7:00 am an headed north to I-70.

The drive out of town is real scenic.  It's all the Arches National Park area.  The park entrance is on the left of the above photo.

30 miles later we turn west on I-70.

I have to pull back the reins on the Minnie Winnie to keep within the legal limits.

Actually, I've never broke 70 mph since we left Michigan.  This machine cruises along real comfortably at 65 mph on the freeway.

After an hour on the freeway, we turn SW toward Bryce Canyon Village via the scenic route.

I'm liking this scenic route...flat and straight.

Oh-oh.  Here comes the scenic part.

Capitol Reef National Park is part of the route, as are a couple other national parks that we pass through.  We're back to rocks and hills and curvy roads...Oh My!

I think I remember the woodsy part of the trip as the Dixie National Forest.

It was along a river bed which explains the greenery.

It wasn't long and we were back into the red rocks.

Then up the mountain where we stopped for lunch.

The "road" here was two lanes, and a pull off area, and a shear cliff.  No doubt, we had a view.

From there, it was mostly a 5000 foot decent into Bryce with varying terrain.

So we're settled in for the night at the entrance to Bryce Canyon.  We'll shuttle into the park tomorrow for a few hours then move on to Zion for a couple days.

Time for a burger and beans.

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.