Moab, UT to Vernal,UT by way of CO

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Off by about 8:30 leaving Moab, UT. We drove up UT 128 to I-70 East. 128 follows the Colorado River about 2/3 of the way to I-70. It is a beautiful canyon with lots of red sandstone, high cliffs of monolithic sandstone, some towers, buttes, and other assorted shapes. The road is really close to the river, which was high and running dirty. Saw a couple busloads of people going to drop off points to float down the river - - never saw any boats actually on the river. Drove east on I-70 to Colorado National Monument. The drive up to the visitors center was a white knuckle drive for sure! Lots of tight turns, narrow road, and steep. One would not know what lurks in that area when looking at it from the valley to its north. Shear drop offs, Red sandstone, high wind, blowing sand, and grand vistas. From Colorado National Monument, we drove north on CO 139, a scenic highway. While not as spectacular as Canyonlands, it was none the less very beautiful and included a pass at about 8200 ft - - a long climb up and what seemed to be and even longer descent with lots of steep grades and curves. Passed lots of Bureau of Land Management recreation areas and camps. CO 139 ends at US 40 which we took to the HQ of Dinosaur National Monument. Bought patches there, but they didn't have a stamp, so we drove west on US 40 to Jenson,UT and then 4 mi north to a temporary visitors center where Gena & Charlie got stamped. Then drove on west on US 40 to Vernal, UT. First campground that we went to had no one in the office and no one answered our calls to the numbers listed on the door, so we left a note telling them that they had just missed collecting fees from two families and that we went to the KOA. Got finished setting up the campers about 5 PM. Tomorrow we'll drive through Salt Lake City, get a look at the Great Salt Lake and then camp somewhere just across the Idaho line.

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Photos

Colorado River canyon
Large erosion hole on the west face above the Colorado River

Lizard
A small lizard I saw at Colorado NM

Split Mountain
Near Jenson, UT