The Longest 65 Miles

For those of you who pull a two vehicle behind a motorhome with all four wheels down on the ground, perhaps you can relate to this……  So we left Escalante around 10:45 and headed east on Utah Highway 12, with the gorgeous scenery all along the way.  

We had just past the Kiva Koffeehouse on our left (pictured above), with the view out their windows on our right (pictured below).  I would have pulled in for some more coffee, but their parking lot is not big rig friendly, and we don’t even have a “Big Rig”.  Should have done it yesterday when we drove by.

We were headed up hill, and had to put it in first gear for a couple tenths of a mile….had two cars behind us, and there is this sign which says something like, “Slower vehicles must use turnouts.”  Go around a corner and there is a turnout, and I pull in.  It looks like it has an entrance and an exit, so I go all the way in….but there is no exit, and not enough room to turn around.  Have to unhook car, turn motorhome around, hook up the car, and get out of there.  The entrance just does not allow me to pull out and turn right the way we needed to go….so I am forced to go left.  And had to go, yes, you got it, 15 miles to the gas station in Escalante.  I go into the store, get a Raspberry Ice Tea and two energy bars, and soon we are headed back along the same 15 miles we have already covered twice today.  Grrrr!!!!  (For those who don't tow a car with all four wheels down....you cannot back up while towing a car this way.)

Eventually we have passed Boulder where we picked up the Burr Trail yesterday. The boulders are starting to be covered with massive amounts of trees…and the rest of the trip is full of trees until we get to our destination.

And if there are trees to take pictures of, Marcia will get the job done, that’s for sure.

Ever since we hit Nevada, we have seen a LOT of bicycling….don’t know if it is a race, just a rally, or what.  Yesterday there was a guy in the Burr Trail Grill who had a bicycle shirt on which said something about Utah-Colorado with September dates on it.

The summit of our ride today was around 9,600 feet…had to use first gear for nearly 2 straight miles, 20 mph at 3,000 rpm….just cruised along, and rarely had anyone behind me.

At this higher altitude, Marcia can get a glimpse of the area far to the east-southeast that we traveled yesterday on the Burr Road.  But the opening picture of this posting (very first picture) was her best shot of the distant scenery….not bad considering we were going 70 mph…err…25 mph.  (I did get it up to 50 mph a few times, typically as we were headed downhill and there was an uphill coming right up.)

 

As we come down to the 6,800 foot level, the red rock start to appear again.  Torrey seems to be surrounded by red rock!

Here is some of the view out the front window of the motorhome….which doesn’t do us much good since we have typically have reflectix covering our front windows for both privacy and to keep the sun out.  However, I get this similar view above looking out the slide window by my chair.

This is the view when I stand at the rear of the motorhome and look out the passenger side of the vehicle.

So here we are at the Sand Creek RV Park in Torrey, Utah.  We have not had a problem getting into a park…until today!  Made reservations in the Panguitch area, did not need them.  Just pulled into the RV park at Escalante, no problem.  Tried the same here at the Thousand Lakes RV Park, and the lady said the were filled up for the night…and they have nearly 70 sites.  She said that Wonderland RV Park, which has 55 sites, had 2 or 3 openings, and that Sand Creek had 4 or 5 openings.  I think it is great how these parks work together…we decided upon Sand Creek RV Park because it has better views of the red rock, but not as good as Thousand Lakes does.  Sand Creek RV Park has only 12 sites, half with sewer and half with out, all with water and electric, and the WiFi is doing well so far…much better than Verizon for the aircard.  Tomorrow we will tour Capitol Reef National Park…something neither of us have ever done before.