A Trip to Canyonlands

Arches National Park

Over-view of Canyon Country..Robert behind tree.

Camping Spot behind the Reef

We left home to go "camping" for a few days
in our Van.  The first stop was in New Castle
to spend the evening with my friend, Betty.
We go way back; we both worked at NCAR and
when she retired she moved to New Castle where
her husband, Jack, had been spending his
retirement building their retirement home.

We arrived there about 6:30 PM and had brought
a long a lovely piece of salmon and parchment
bags to bake it in.  Betty fixed a salad and
thawed some twice-baked potatoes her daughter,
Janice had prepared.  A tasty dinner.  We were
tired from having packed the Van just before we
left.  We retired to our Van quite early.

During the night the temperature dropped to
18F.  We hadn't expected that.  In the middle
of the night Robert got up to turn some heat
on the  water pipes.  While he was up he
grabbed my down jacket from the back.  I was
freezing.  I put on socks and with the jacket
over me I was comfy again. I had forgotten to
pack a down comforter; it's hard to remember
When the weather is in the high 70s.

In the morning we had breakfast with Betty and
she and I continued talking..we can do a lot of
that without ever running out of things to share,
or so it seems.  While we were talking Robert
was thawing out the Van's plumbing.  He came in
about lunch time to say everything was OK. After
lunch we were on our way.

At 3:30 PM we stopped at James Robb-Colorado River
State Park, for the night.

I started taking Aleve, which is a no, no.  I decided
that if it helped it was worth the risk and it does
make my life much less painful.

By now it's Friday and we visited Arches.  It is 80F,
what a change from 18F!!  I'm still not up for much
walking but we did a little.

We spent the night at Pack Creek Campground.  It is
off the beaten track in Moab.  We have camped there
in the past.  It costs $20 where as most of the RV
campgrounds in Moab are $40-$42 per night!

Moab is a mess.  It is wall-to-wall people and has
grown so fast that it is unreal.  I hope I never
have reason to go back there.

The next day we drove to Grand View Point and Moon
Flower Canyon.  Moon Flower Canyon was another
shock.  It is an established BLM campground and
it was full of people!  I remember when we used
to be the only people there, but the last time
we visited,  there were no people, at the moment,
but there was garbage and toilet paper every
where.  At least there are out-houses and although
it is sad to have it be an established campground
it is better than the last time we visited.

We then took UT313 and drove off of that and
discovered, even as close to Moab as we were,
there was dry-camping about 10 miles in and
it is, of course, free.  We spent the night
there and much of the rest of the day.

We ended up at the San Rafael Reef and that
was not crowded at all.  I guess everyone
is in Moab.  We drove through the reef and
found a lovely place to camp across from
Temple Moutain.

On Monday it was very windy, but despite the
wind we decided to take a walk.  I was feeling
pain-free enough to try walking and we were
able to walk a little more than a mile.  Yea!!

In the afternoon it clouded over and looked
like we were in for some thunder storms.  We
decided to move out of the canyon and away
from the creek.  We are "gun-shy" about flash
floods.  We found a good spot to camp outside
the reef, although the BLM has fenced off a
large portion the area.

Tuesday, after a leisurely morning we headed
east and for Betty's house.  I had called her to
let her no when we'd be heading home.  She is
a gracious hostess and makes us feel we are
always welcome there, at any time.

We spent most of Wednesday at Betty's, but
finally felt we should head home.

We arrived home from our "camping" trip on
Wednesday evening, the 7th.  I unpacked the
frig, but the rest had to wait until the next day.

It is always great to head out in the Van for
somewhere but it is always good to get home, too.