On Sunday, August 8th, we departed Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park. We really enjoyed our 15 nights there. The crowds were big in the park, in fact Yellowstone reported more than a million visitors in July, a new record. But we had to go south thru Utah to our next major stop in Ouray, Colorado (pronounced U-Ray).
As our practice, we packed up our camp the night before to get an early start. We had a 250 mile drive to Tremonton, Utah, and the Aspen Grove RV Park (www.aspengrovervpark.com/). We backtracked through Idaho Falls and Pocatello, then got onto Interstate 15 south. The drive took us through the Snake River Valley, thru a gap in the lava dike on the south end of the valley, then into Utah. It was a sunny but totally smoggy day. We were catching the smoke from Oregon and California fires all day. You could barely see the mountains on either side of the valley. Aspen Grove RV Park was very new, opened in 2019, and nice. Concrete pads, all pull-thru’s with a good dog park. However, no shade. Their website says, “hey we’re new, give us a couple years for the trees to grow”.
Utah is a beautiful state, but in August, it is too hot. Tremonton had highs in the 90’s and the next destinations of Provo and Moab were predicted to be higher. We will be in southern Utah in late September and October when temperatures will be more moderate. We plan to return to northern Utah at some future point in time
On Monday, August 9th, we had an easy drive (120 miles) south on I-15 thru Salt Lake City (our first major city transit since Cleveland, OH, in May), south to Lakeside RV Park (www.lakesidervcampground.com/), in Provo, the home of Brigham Young University (BYU). Arriving in Provo, we drove to Larry H. Miller Ford to have the oil changed in the Canyon Star. We sat in the RV, with the generator running and the AC on, while they did the work in the parking lot. They did discover that the inner dually tire that had the valve stem problem was very low 37 PSI, so they filled all the tires. We got to Lakeside RV to discover that it really wasn’t on Utah Lake, but instead on the Provo River, next door to Utah Lake State Park, which is on Utah Lake. We also discovered that the wastewater tank that we carry on a hitch carrier on our Chevy Equinox was missing! We realized that when Martha had driven the car from the Ford dealer to the campground, the hitch carrier had bottomed out on the exit to the road and pulled the hitch carrier right off the car — because Walt had forgot to put the hitch pin in, two days prior in West Yellowstone. How lucky can you get? If that had fallen out on the 370 mile drive, what damage it could have done to other vehicles.
Lakeside RV Park is in a really nice cottonwood tree grove with plenty of shade and a POOL, which Walt really enjoyed. On Tuesday, August 10th, Walt drove back to the Ford dealer, found the tank and hitch carrier on the grass next to the road exit from the dealership, put it back on the car, and à no damage done. You still could not see the mountains on either side of the Utah Lake valley due to the smoke, so we spent the day in quiet relaxation. Walt took a nap on his lawn recliner under the Canyon Star’s awning, read his book for a while, took another nap, and whiled away the afternoon. It was very pleasant under the cottonwoods, even though the temperature was in the low 90’s. Martha crocheted and watched old movies. It might have been the Doris Day movie phase. And another visit to the pool.
On Wednesday, August 11th, we headed east thru a gap in the Wasatch Mountains, known as the “Old Spanish Trail”, pioneered by Spanish friars in the 1500 and 1600’s. The road, Utah highway 6, climbs thru the mountains and down to the high desert at Price, Utah, then intersects Interstate 70 near Green River Utah. After a short drive on I-70 east, we turn onto US 191 South to Moab. The road enters into canyon country with Arches National Park on the north of the road and Canyonlands National Park and Deadhorse Point State Park on the south side of the road. We arrived at Canyonlands RV Park (www.sunrvresorts.com/resorts/the-rockies/utah/canyonlands-rv-resort-campground/), in the early afternoon. This is a Sun Resorts park (like Indian Creek in Geneva on the Lake, Ohio, were we stayed in May). The have multiple parks across the country and they are good quality parks. And they had a POOL! The temperature was to peak about 100 degrees, so the pool was wonderful.
The next day, Thursday, August 12th, we woke up about 4:00 AM, walked the dogs and got ready to go to Arches National Park (www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm). Arches is a pretty small park with one campground and scenic drive that is about 15 miles long. We had heard stories of it being very crowded and the Park Service not letting any additional vehicles in after 9:00 AM, so made sure to get there early (practice from our Yellowstone stay). We drove in and parked at the LaSal Mountains overlook. The LaSal mountains are to the east of Moab and reach over 10,000 feet. We watched the sunrise and saw the panorama of Sheep Rock, the Three Gossips, the Courthouse and other named rock formations. We drove to then hiked the trail at the North & South Windows arches. We went to the Delicate Arch lookout, but didn’t hike the 3 miles to the actual arch, drove to the Devil’s Garden Campground and just were totally awed by the spectacular formations.
That evening, we went to Canyonlands by Night and by Day (canyonlandsbynight.com/), had a great dutch oven dinner and took a jet boat trip up the Colorado River canyon just east of Arches National Park. Our guide, Preston, was very entertaining with bad jokes and facts about the Moab area. As he said, he hasn’t lived his whole life in Moab, only because he’s not dead yet. As the day ended and the canyon became dark, they presented a light and sound show. A light truck on Utah highway 128 next to the river shined spotlights on the canyon walls, coordinated with a soundtrack playing in the boat. It was very entertaining. We also saw base jumpers leap from a spire on the east side of the canyon and float down to a parking lot at the National Forest Service campground.
On Friday, August 13th, we left Moab for the trip to Ouray, Colorado. We really could have enjoyed staying in Moab longer, but it was just too hot! We had been nervous about this day’s drive through mountains and canyons, but we triple-check the route with Google Maps (will lead you down a “goat path” if it is even a centimeter shorter), RV Trip Wizard and Rand McNally and all said go the same route. So off we went. We turned off US 191 South onto Utah 46 East, then Colorado 90 East, skirted the southern shoulder of the LaSal Mountains, descended thru LaSal creek canyon, and came to the Delores River valley of Colorado. At Naturita, CO, we climbed up onto the San Miguel Basin, on Colorado 145, to the town of Norwood, then like off the end of the earth at Norwood Hill into the San Miguel River canyon. We followed Colorado 145 up the Canyon to Colorado 62 to Ridgway, Colorado. Colorado 145 continues on to Telluride, Colorado. At Ridgway, we turned onto US 550 South, past the Orvis Hot Springs (clothing optional for those of you interested), then 10 miles south to Ouray and the Ouray Riverside RV Park (www.ourayriversideresort.com/). It was an incredible drive. As we entered Ouray (7700 feet above sea level) you are surrounded by 10,000 to 12,000 foot mountains.