In The Parks

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park is one of the places that needs to be visited again and again. This time we stayed at Ten-X USFS Campground a few miles south of the park--beautiful, inexpensive, easily accommodates large RVs.

We didn't hike into the canyon but had several days to check out the vistas by driving and walking around the south rim. Weather was great with lots of sunshine as well as frequent afternoon thunderstorms.

As we were there over our 57th wedding anniversary we decided to splurge on a meal at a steakhouse in nearby Tusayan. After buying gas and a few grocery items in this touristy little town right at the entrance to the park I should have realized that my penny-pinching ways were going to be offended. The occasion was memorable and made me appreciate even more our favorite Wendy's meal of baked potatoes, chili, frosties, water which costs us $6-$8 for BOTH of us. 

Three or four bull elk shared our Ten-X campsite for a few hours.

Although we have been to Grand Canyon many times I had never seen the elk. When we first arrived at the Ten-X campground we had the opportunity to help a young man from Germany with the process for finding and paying for his campsite. During our conversation he mentioned the moose he was looking forward to seeing. I suggested that he was probably thinking of elk but that you don't see elk very often. How wrong I was! No moose of course but there were elk everywhere.

Goosenecks State Park

I had never heard of Goosenecks State Park but ran across it searching for our next place to stay after Grand Canyon. What a neat place! The campground itself was nothing special--vault toilets but no water, electricity, or dump station. You camp right on the rim of the canyon carved by the meandering San Juan River. Be careful not to back your RV right into the canyon!

Like most of the vistas of the canyons of the Southwest its hard to capture the scene with a photo. 

Looking in the opposite direction of the Goosenecks was a pretty scene of mesas in the distance that we enjoyed every day with varied lighting and color. 

What a surprise to wake up one morning after heavy rain and thunderstorms the night before to see this beautiful scene with the clouds/fog rolling around the mesa.

Look carefully to see some of the switchbacks which took us
right up the face of the mesa from the floor below

And we aren't through with Goosenecks yet. Coming in to the park we had noticed a sign to Natural Bridges National Monument. We decided to take the Subaru and check it out.

We had driven only a short distance before it became a gravel road and then a huge sign warning about switchbacks, steep inclines, and advising against trucks and RVs. We had an all-wheel drive Subaru so no problem! The road appeared to be headed right to the mesas ahead with no apparent path through or around them. Sure enough the road went right up the face of the mesa--steep, narrow, switchbacks with the cliff on one side and a sheer drop off to the other.

Another memorable experience. Once up to the top of the mesa it was paved road and after viewing the natural bridges we decided to take an alternative route back to our  campsite at Goosenecks.

Arches National Park

Several years ago while visiting this area pulling a small trailer we had been directed to Horse Thief BLM Campground because the campground in Arches was full. We liked the campground so much that we chose to go there again for this trip. It is located several miles from Arches National Park but right next door to Canyonlands National Park high up on a mesa away from noise and crowds.

Look carefully at people in the picture for size perspective.

We spent a morning visiting Arches National Park, mostly driving with many stops and a few short walks. Although there are many spectacular views many of the best are only available after a moderate to strenuous hike. We still found many vistas to Ooooo and Awww over.

The city of Moab UT became our source of groceries, dining out, laundry, gasoline, etc. What a fun place to visit. We had to have lunch at the Blue Pig and thoroughly enjoyed a good meal with the Harley Hogs. Actually the large group of motorcyclists were eating next to us, not with us. That might be too great a gap to be bridged--motorhome and Harley! There is a great rock shop at the edge of town where we purchased a book and map to seek out some local treasures.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park has many places where one can drive, pull-off and experience great views of the canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers. At one such vista an artist was busy capturing the view. I said something comparing drawing/painting and photography. She replied, "Photos lie." Although I certainly consider photography an art, I do appreciate her perspective that just a snapshot photo of one of these immense vistas usually fails to portray all that we see, feel, and experience.

Canyonlands is an ideal park to visit with a 4-WD vehicle as many do. There are jeep roads all over the park. When I talked to one park ranger about trying some of the roads with our Subaru he mentioned one short section we could try but even there he warned us that a tow would cost us about a thousand dollars. That seemed a bit more than I wanted to risk so we stuck to the main roads.

We did use our new rockhound book and map to check out a few areas (unpaved back roads of course) and were rewarded with a few more gallon water containers full of agate.

Capitol Reef National Park

Our next stop was at Capitol Reef National Park. This park is a bit out of the way but has become one of our favorites. Geologically it is one of the best example of a Waterfold in the U.S. but I'll leave it to you to check out what that is all about. The scenery was awesome and different than what we had been seeing in Arches and Canyonlands.

This was the home for a family w/ 10 children

But it is perhaps the campground that makes the Park so enticing. Fruita is the name given to the campground and the immediate surrounding area. Early Mormon settlers created a community in this area around the Fremont River with fruit and nut orchards being the main feature. The campground is right in the middle of orchards with the Fremont River flowing through the campground and immense cliffs all around. Many of the old buildings are in the campground or nearby.











We took a couple of side trips on rough gravel roads. One was named, Grand Wash and the other, Capitol Gorge. Both were washes, dry most of the time but filled with water and debris during flash floods. We drove into them during good weather but would like to have seen them (but not been in them!) during the thunderstorms experienced later in the week.

I had the opportunity to do some rockhounding along the Fremont River just outside of Capitol Reef National Park and thoroughly enjoyed adding some petrified wood and beautiful agate to our cache. Pearl joined me for another rockhounding trip at another site where we collected selenite crystals and agate. More water jugs filled with rock!

Had to include this photo by Pearl of some of the huge trees found in the Fruita area immediately adjacent to our campground.

Another unique feature of the campground was the opportunity to eat from the orchards! Or we could (and did) purchase delicious fruit pies from a museum/store located at the campground.

A unique campground--check it out!