Wedge Overlook and Emery County

On Wednesday we drove to Green River and filled the fuel tank.  Sandi stopped in the post
office to buy stamps, and the lady gave her a very helpful and detailed tourist brochure,
"San Rafael Country", on the San Rafael Swell area.

We headed West through the San Rafael Reef to exit 131, where we turned north, into a canyon that
led to a bridge over the San Rafael river.  We stopped to admire the Buckhorn Wash pictograph panel.  We continued on that road and then turned left to get to the Wedge Overlook, with a spectacular view of the Little Grand Canyon.   This area seemed to be off the beaten path, compared to the area south of I-70.

When we arrived at the Wedge Overlook campground, we struggled to fit our rig into the confusing maze of roads and spaces between trees, but ultimately found a spot that worked.   We walked to the edge of the canyon, and admired the view.  We chatted with a couple from the Vancouver area, who knew the area well.  We relaxed, in a campground that was mostly empty.

On Thursday, we decided to go to the Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry.   There are thousands of bones in a small area, posing a mystery of scholars.  The bones were scattered in the sense of no articulated skeletons, but grouped together in such a dense area.  There are many theories, all which of which have obvious difficulties, so there is no accepted explanation.  We chatted at some length with Mike, with a masters degree in geology, who ran the quarry, among his other functions with the BLM.  He was perhaps as interesting as the quarry.  We took the rock walk, and used the pamphlet to learn about the various stops on the walk.  Sandi took many pictures of wildflowers.

On our way back to camp, we went through the town of Huntington, where we found the Mexican restaurant, Palenque, that Mike had recommended to us.  Richard practiced his Spanish.   We later stopped at the Buckhorn well, a water well constructed by the government for the ranchers in the 1960s; the old pump is on display, but no longer in use.

When we returned to our campsite, we were immediately greeted with an inquiry about our plans.
The young woman and her husband had been celebrating his birthday in our particular campsite for 15 years!  They were very happy that we would be moving the next morning; she moved her car to claim our site.  The Canadians told us later that the group had discussed all day how they would approach us about moving.  We were told that there might be 40 people in the group by the weekend, so it was probably a good idea to move.

We walked along the rim and saw other individual campsites spread out along the road; next time we will aim for those sites first, rather than the campground.  The view was perhaps even more beautiful
from the end of the road.

On Friday, we got on the road around 9, and headed for Highway 10.  We used our booklet guide to find the Rochester panel.  Sandi elected not to hike, as the trail was described as dropping steeply to the side.  Richard had never seen so many petroglyphs in such a small area.

View from scenic overlook on I-70

We used our booklet to find the cutoff road to I-70, Miller canyon, and then headed towards the town of Green River.  We had lunch at the town park, bought gas, and then headed for Dewey Bridge campground, next to the Colorado River.  Richard was concerned that there might not be a campsite available on a Friday afternoon, but we were able to take the last campsite.



We took a hike to see Dewey Bridge, and read the historical markers about the small community of Dewey, which was centered on the ferry.  We also walked to the river gauging station, where we inspected the cable car and the telemetry station.   This is also an access point to the popular Kokopelli trail; we saw many 4WD vehicles headed up the trail, which was a good gravel road at that point.   We enjoyed very mild weather; at one point, it was 72 F inside and 72F outside the camper.  At dinner we discussed the impressive booklet that we had used for the last few days; Sandi thought that grant money must have been involved.  We both agreed that it was very detailed and very well done, including mile by mile descriptions.

On Saturday, we drove to Grand Junction, where we bought gas and some parts for our RV.  We found an RV wash, and washed thick mud from the truck and camper.

We continued our drive to Charlie and Gail's house near Glenwood Springs, where we discussed the state of the world, and admired their house.  It was good to see them.

Snow in April in Colorado

On Sunday morning, we headed home in what turned out to be a snowstorm!  Luckily the roads were only wet.   By the time we got to Boulder, we needed to wash the RV again!

Overall, it was a very nice trip.  We both appreciated getting away from our technology and phones for the week.   This was the first trip for the new solar system that Richard had installed on the RV, and it seemed to work well, so that is good.  It was nice to see territory that was new for both of us.

Goblin Valley State Park

Sandi and I left at 8 AM on Sunday morning for Utah. We had planned to leave Saturday, but the weather in the mountains was not good. The roads on Sunday were good, and we drove with relatively few stops. Glenwood Canyon was impressive, as was the Utah desert, with its book cliffs. Our longest stop was in Grand Junction, where we bought fuel and groceries at the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

After Green River Utah, we turned off I-70, and drove south, with the San Rafael Reef on our right. We arrived in Goblin Valley State Park about 5:30, and set up camp. The small campground is kind of whimsical, with rock formations everywhere, and many kids treating it as a giant playground. Our campsite has a toadstool rock formation, a covered picnic table, and a large concrete pad for the RV. The campground was full. We learned that there were two weeks of spring break in Utah, and this is one of them.

On Monday we drove to the entrance station; Sandi bought gifts and postcards for her grandkids. The young ranger suggested that we hike the Curtis Bench trail, which included an overlook of the Valley of the Goblins. The rock formations were amazing, and even hiking in the desert was interesting.

We had the trail to ourselves until we turned around to go back. We had a nice conversation with some Quebequois retirees from Montreal. They were on a grand RV tour of the US, starting in Florida.

Late in the afternoon, we walked in among the Goblins. Goblin Valley is a area with many toadstool type formations, created by weathering of sandstone. The goblins can be whimsical. There were many adults and kids playing in and around the Goblins. We kept walking further into the field of Goblins well beyond where the other visitors were. Richard was interested in following the drainage; Sandi was looking at the plant life. We had been watching a rainstorm to the north, hoping that we were safe. As we walked back to the parking lot, we were peppered with cold rain, wind, and a little sleet. The wind woke us up during the night, shaking the camper. Sandi noted that in the book she was reading, Edward Abbey talked about strong spring winds in this area.

On Tuesday, we headed for Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular slot canyon. Because of rain the previous night, there was a very large pool of water where the canyon started to narrow. The trail went high along one side of the canyon. Richard casually scrambled up, hands in his pockets. Sandi was terrified, but pushed through it, and we reached the valley bottom, and the entrance to the slot. The pattern of the water carved rocks was amazing. We went in about one mile. In many places, the slot was so narrow that two people could not pass. This became an issue when we turned around at a large stone, and started to go against the flow of traffic. Sandi was impressed by the small children who were fearlessly climbing the rocks.

We returned to the camper for lunch, and then decided to explore the other side of the San Rafael Reef. We stopped to see some petroglyphs, and the historic Temple Mountain uranium mining area. We then turned off the main dirt road, onto the Chute Canyon Road. From the back side, you can see the many layers of rock which make up the reef. The area is full of off road vehicle trails, but we did not see many vehicles

We headed back to the camper for dinner. After dinner, we took a stroll out to where we could take advantage of the evening light to take pictures of the impressive San Rafael Reef.