Our stay in Green River was HOT! Without shade, the motorhome struggled to keep the inside to a reasonable cool feeling, and sitting out in the shade did not make it any better. Let alone, our little Indy Girl was not happy about the patch of grass we camped next to...not happy one bit. Perhaps another park nearby might have more shade...but it was only for two nights, and the nights cooled down around 1 am. YUCK!
After getting gas at $4.85...(amazing how the nothing town of Salina Utah was down to $4.18!), we headed east on I-70 for 25 miles, then south on to US-191 towards Moab.
Quickly off in the distance you can see the northwest tip of Arches National Park.
The closer you get to Moab, the prettier it gets. The only complaint that I have, and I have had it for years, is the ...
... Power Lines and Power Stations that interfere with the view. If you look close above, there are power lines along the entire bottom of the pictures...you can certainly see them at the bottom left of the picture.
And this picture here has a train, and the power lines in front of this gorgeous mountain.
Here is the entrance to the park. Been to Arches around a dozen times in my lifetime, it is a very eye-catching, interesting, scenic park. Although we considered going again this time, we did not want to add the 3-4 hours more to our drive into Colorado, and it was just too HOT to stay at a park in Moab. Marcia has been to Arches 3 different times...so we did not feel it was worth it again. The first time I took Marcia there it was totally a surprise to her. We had been married for less than a half of a year, did not have our first motorhome yet. Came to visit my daughter in Salt Lake City, and on the way home I choose the road through Moab. As we left the park, being there for a mere 3 hours, Marcia calls my mom...the conversation went something like this.
"Hey ma, you know what your son just did to me?"
[I gulp] Mom says, "I can't imagine..."
"He just took me through Arches National Park! It is so gorgeous!" [I wipe my brow]
The views in and around Moab are breathtaking...I guess that is why the town is growing in population...up by 35% since 1990.
We did drive by one arch, Wilson Arch, which can be seen in the middle of the picture above, and more easily in the picture below.
Beyond that are even different rock formations. We did not get a picture of the Hole in Wall, one of the 'many' Hole in the Wall landmarks in Utah, one of which is certainly Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall.
We arrived at our destination around 1:30 pm, Target Tree Campground, a San Juan National Forest campground. It is about 20 miles east of Cortez, at 7,600 feet. Yes, we have shade. It is currently (5:00 pm Tuesday) at 79 degrees, and it will be down in the mid to lower 50's tonight. That is pretty much the forecast for yesterday, today, tomorrow...etc. More about the park in tomorrows blog.
Moab and Arches is so beautiful! But I am guessing in that heat it would be brutal as well!
ReplyDeleteDon't know why, but Blogger put your comment into spam. Yes, the heat is brutal, but we would have parked the tow car and just drove the motorhome around, easier on Marcia that way...but we still had 3 1/2 hour drive to get to Colorado, and that was too long of a day.
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