Moab and Arches National Park

 

On Sunday October 18^th we drove to Grand Junction, where we stayed at the RV Ranch. The drive on I-70 was routine, buying fuel in Arvada before we headed into the mountains.

On Monday we fueled up, and drove to Moab. Archview campground is north of Moab; we had a reservation for two nights, but were able to get that changed to three nights.

We drove through construction into Moab, and picked up lunch as Sultan's restaurant, which we ate in the town park. There were a lot of camper vans parked there, including people working on their laptops. We walked around downtown Moab, as Sandi had never been there before. Sandi did some shopping. Moab seems more upscale than in the past. The town was very busy, but we were told that October is their busiest month.

In the evening we drove into Arches National Park, which neither of us had seen before. It was very impressive and we took many photos. We plan to return in the morning.

Tuesday we got up very early, and were in the park before dawn. We took some photos of balanced rock at dawn, and took a short hike to see Delicate Arch, the symbol of Arches NP. Then we started to notice full parking lots. After that we stopped at the fiery Furnace, and continued to the end of the road. The area was closed, but we persuaded the ranger to let us through, so that we could check out the campground. The park was filling up, so we left. After a stop at the visitor center and bookstore, we left the park, and noticed that the entrance was closed, too many people. We drove over to check out Horsethief Campground, a BLM campground north of Canyonlands, and found a few empty sites. We also drove further down the dirt road, but the few campsites there were occupied. We did see some oil activity in that area. We continued into Canyonlands park, and stopped at the Green River overlook. We went back to the camper to rest, and later drove to the Windows area in Arches, where we were very impressed with the double arch, which is almost hard to believe. We left as it was getting dark.

Every parking area seemed to have a noisy raven, begging.

Landscape Arch is almost hard to believe.

Wednesday we got up early, and were on the road by dawn. We drove to the Devil's garden area of the park, and hiked to Landscape arch. We stopped on the way to see Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch. By the time we started back, the trail was getting busy, and the parking lot was full. We gave our parking space to a needy tourists, and headed for Moab. Sandi visited the local yarn shop. We had a pleasant lunch outdoors at the Arches Thai restaurant. We decided to drive the La Sal Mountain Loop Road, which starts along the Colorado River, and then climbs 5000 ft to 10,000 ft elevation. The road has more switchbacks that I could count, and many very steep sections. This was new for both of us. We checked out Ken's Lake Campground, south of Moab, on our way back to the campground. The weather forecast is forcing a trip replan, as we don't want to drive I-70 in the snow. We canceled our reservation for Sunday night in Grand Junction, but we may still spend a couple of nights in Grand Junction.