In A Continual State of Erosion–Part 10

Saturday – June 9 - Let’s see, we left Calf Creek, drove 10 miles and parked in the Petrified Forest SP at Escalante. We did not hike or do anything outside the rig. We surfed and surfed some more. Then we watched TV for several hours.

After watching CBS Sunday Morning, we managed to rouse ourselves and drive 30 miles to Bryce Canyon. We parked and surfed. After dinner we will drive to Sunset Point and attempt to get some good pictures. We already have hundreds of OK pictures of Bryce. Maybe the new camera will make a difference?

Bryce at Dawn

Monday – June 11 – We made it 10 miles from Bryce to Red Rock CG, near the end of UT12. This is one of our fav CG’s. It was designed right from the start. And such a difference it is from Bryce.

Tuesday – June 12 – Laundry, groceries and hair cut day.

Wednesday – June 13 – Lazy Day.

This is the fifth time we have driven US12 and it is the first time I have it recorded correctly in my mind. While it is a scenic road there are less than 20 miles of scenery that really does it for us. There are three scenic sections a) from Boulder to Escalante, b) the short section by Powell Point and c) the very short section here in Red Canyon.

Scenes In Red Canyon

Since Cap Reef we have been in rental RV land. They dominate the traffic. The Europeans invade this area each year. I think we should charge them $1,000 per person just to land in the US. Call it partial payback for protecting them from Russia for 60 years. When we leave here, we will leave most of the rentals and Europeans behind. WooHoo!

The Europeans, (soon to be the Eurarabians), like to photograph US auto tags – a collect them all deal. I try to park to protect our plates.

Dorothy’s brother says we have been in Utah so long we should buy land. Fine with me. It’s nice to have someone comment on our Blog. We don’t get any comments from Montgomery.

Thursday – June 14 – We managed to break camp by 10 and drive south on US89 and west on UT14 to Duck Creek. 30 miles in all. We have an extremely weak cell signal here and no TV.  Poor us.

We are killing a little time waiting until it’s a tad warmer to arrive at Great Basin NP. Duck Creek is 8,200 feet, a thousand higher than Red Rock and so a little cooler here. I thought we might put the yaks in Navaho Lake, but it does not look at all interesting.

Friday – June 15 – We read that the view from Strawberry Point was supposed to be good, so we took a flyer down a 10 mile dusty road to see. Every so often you get a lot more than you expect. This was one of those times. From the 9,000 foot point, you have a 235 degree vista and can see three national parks. Cedar Breaks, Kolob Canyons and Zion. [OK, OK, Kolob is  a discrete part of Zion and Cedar Breaks is a monument, not a park]

Cedar Breaks Is In The Background

All along Strawberry Point Road are seasonal home sub-divisions, especially near the point. A few of the homes date from the 60/70’s, but most were built during the last boom. Interesting to us was how many were occupied on a Friday morning. Water trucks fill your water tank and all electricity comes from PV arrays.

Saturday – June 16 – Lazy Day

Sunday – June 17 – Got away early. Skipped breakfast. Got down the mountain to get a cell signal. We are hooked on surfing this year. Bought groceries at Smith’s. Dorothy had been wanting green beans for weeks and there are no supermarkets in Escalante country.

We went to Home Depot looking for a door mat to replace the one we left somewhere. As we parked, a guy came over to the rig. He had seen us in Escalante a week or so back, had done some research on Lazy Daze and wanted to chat. After awhile, he decided he wanted his wife to see KoKo too, so he went home and brought her back. Meanwhile, we had lunch. When Chris and Kelly returned we had a nice visit about all things Lazy Daze.

We decided to head to St. George and stay in Snow Canyon SP. On the way, we made an impulse decision to stay at Quail Creek for one night. Nice lake with great views. Sadly, they had no more electric sites, so we went a few miles and got a site in Sand Hollow SP. Pricey! $28 with full hookups. But with the temperature over 100, it was the only option. We need to get the oil changed and pick up some things at Costco and of course Wal*Mart.

Quail Creek SP

Sand Hollow SP

Monday – June 18 – We moved to Snow Canyon SP in St. George. It is one of the prettiest parks that I been to.  I love the different colored rocks, bushes, and lava flow all at one place. There are a lot of trails to hike. The level camp sites have a ramada, small trees, a view of the rocks.  If it were in season, then this park would crowded because the sites are close together, but now, without anyone next to us, it's very nice.  Around 6:00, the rental RV's start coming in.

Snow Canyon SP

We saw several vans today for The Biggest Loser Resort. [The road had a few dozen woman hiking who seemed well qualified for the show] Yep, it's a fat farm - wonder if it has anything to do with the reality TV show. If I had internet I would look it up and see how much it costs to go there.  Bet it's not cheap.

Some thoughts on tourists (those from foreign countries that rent RV’s).  If it's not yours, then you don't have to take care of it.  The people next to us wanted to raise the front of the rig.  First they put down a board, but that wasn't enough, so they put rocks on the board - never ever seen anything like that before and probably won't again!

People talk about dry heat/dry cold as opposed to humid weather.  It's hot in St. George, around 104 degrees which is normal for this time of year.  104 is hot, I don't care whether it's dry or not, it's hot!

Tuesday – June 19 – We got our shopping and errands done. We also visited the VC at the Temple here and had a long talk with one of the elders. Had a rather unusual, but tasty, enchilada meal for lunch.

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We are headed into the dark zone. We expect no TV and only occasional cell coverage for the next few weeks.

Wednesday – June 20 – We drove 17 miles north to Pine Valley RA.  It is one of largest Forest Service campground complexes. There are six camping areas. At 6,700 feet it is cooler, only 90 in the afternoon. I had thought about going to Cathedral Gorge SP, but it’s only 4,800 and the web site does not mention electricity.

We found excellent an cell signal at the entrance to Pine Valley, so we will post this in the morning and head to Great Basin Park for the weekend.

This means we are leaving Utah after 12 weeks.