UTAH’S CANYONLANDS--- CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK Monday, May 14 No name, no fee, side of the road on BLM land, camp spot. 75 degrees at 9:45, with clear blue but hazy skies toward the mountains. We drove on into the community of Torrey to look it over and to get some gas. Another pioneer Mormon community, but we did see other churches of other denominations here. After filling the tank, we drove back to the Fruita campground inside Capitol Reef National Park to get a spot to camp. After we had secured a spot, at this very nice campground , we drove back down the park entrance road to look at the various sites. Why is the area interesting? This park preserves the 100 mile buckle of the earth’s crust back over itself called ... read more

May 10th, Thursday (continued) The Arches National Park is a park not to be missed!! We wonder how many people drive Interstate 70 and not bother to go a little over 20 miles south to see these spectacular views. This park contains the largest concentration of natural stone arches in the world---more than 2,500. To be labeled an arch the hole must have an opening of at least three feet long in any one direction. We drove through the park and saw balanced rock and those arches that you didn’t have to hike a long ways to see. The campground here, at Arches, is situated on a ridge with an absolutely glorious view—unfortunately, it was full. After touring this park, we drove 6 miles south of Moab to Ken’s Lake, a BLM campground on a small ... read more

Tuesday, May 8th It is 66 degrees this morning at 10:30 with mostly blue skies. Starting mileage is 25205 from Wind Whistle BLM campground. I am going to cover this huge area briefly as my verbal descriptions of these lands, created by upheavals of multiple layers of sandstone, once a gigantic seabed, and then carved and shaped by wind, water, and gravity, cannot do them justice. These flat of layers of sedimentary rock have been cut into hundreds and hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires. Five National Parks can be found in Southern Utah, an additional 6 parks are National Monuments, 9 million acres are National Forests, and lastly, 23 million acres are managed by the Bureau of Land Management . Obviously we had a lot to see and do in this region ... read more

Valerie and I have tried to figure out why our parents never traveled up this way to see these parks. They traveled for a year all over the USA in Rosie I, but seemly missed this area of the country. It is really sad as Dad, with his interest in archeology, would have thoroughly enjoyed them. The only thing we can come up with is that it isn’t on the west-east route to El Paso, Salt Lake, or Flagstaff, which were the routes we usually traveled as kids to see family, and I believe they traveled after we were raised. Friday, May 4th Canyon de Chelly campground. Starting mileage was 24830 with blue sky and 77 degrees at 1:30 when we began our exploration of the South rim of the park. The park consists of several ... read more

Tuesday, May 1st Happy May Day, Y’all! Blue, clear skies and 64 degrees. Fool Hollow State Park near Show Low, Arizona. Started off the morning by cleaning up Rosie inside and out as each camp spot here had a concrete pad to park on instead of the usual gravel or dirt. There were lots of ground squirrels and chipmunks out running around. Valerie was taking some pictures of the camp spot/lake and swimming along came 3 pairs of Canada Geese. Each pair had one goose in the lead, a row of 6-8 goslings, and then the mate bringing up the rear. All three pairs had this straight row, one behind the other. I hadn’t realized how protective Canada Geese were of their young, until this trip. This is a really nice State Park with wide spaces, ... read more