We departed from Ruby’s Inn, RV Park & Campground at 11:00AM MDT and headed Northeast to Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, UT (114 miles). We stopped in Escalante, UT at the Family Dollar to pickup a Father’s Day card for the greatest Dad in the whole wide world.
We elected to take UT-12 because I had read in several places that the drive should be on everyone’s bucket list. I will have to agree. I think this is most scenic drive I have ever taken particularly because there is incredible scenery for almost all of the 100 miles. The most spectacular being East of Escalante where we encountered an 14% grade. Fortunately for us, it was downhill. We went up some steep inclines, but they don’t seem to advertise the grades on the uphill side.
We arrived at Thousand Lakes RV Park at 2:15PM MDT. For the first time in our camping career it started to hail (very small) while I was leveling the camper. Once we got it leveled we immediately put the slide-out room out and relaxed inside until the storm passed (20 to 30 minutes). This is a fairly large park with great mountain views in the background. It’s mostly gravel (cause grass doesn’t grow well in this part of the country), but nice. All sites are full hookups. We will visit Capitol Reef National Park from here tomorrow (it’s 12 miles to the entrance).
We visited Capitol Reef National Park the day after checking in at Thousand Lakes RV Park. Unfortunately, the main drive known as “The Scenic Drive” was closed due to construction within just a couple of miles. The beginning of that drive includes the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center parking lot was also closed off (due to construction) to vehicles over 20′. So we passed the Visitor Center and went down to a spot where we cold turn around and came back and parked in an area across the road from the Visitor Center parking lot where RV’s and pickup trucks were parking. We have been collecting pins and coins from each of the National Parks for the grandchildren. Once we parked, Beth went into the Visitor Center and purchased the Capitol Reef coins and pins. Then we went down the UT-24 a bit and found a place we could turn around so that we could go back and traverse the bit of the Scenic Drive that was open.
After our quick tour of the national park we stopped in at Slackers Burger Joint for a late lunch. We both had burgers and shared our fries and onion rings. The onions rings were excellent. The burgers were average, but nothing to write home about.
| Device | Download Mbps | Upload Mbps |
|---|---|---|
| Campground Wi-Fi | Weak Signal | Weak Signal |
| Starlink | 389 | 19 |
| AT&T Hotspot | n/a | n/a |
| US Mobile – Brian (AT&T) | 109 | 46 |
| US Mobile – Beth (AT&T) | n/a | n/a |
| TV | Quality |
|---|---|
| Antenna | 42 Channels (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) |
| Campground Cable | n/a |
| DISH Satellite | n/a |