Category: 2025

We departed from Thousand Lakes RV Park at 10:30AM MDT and headed Northeast to Sunsets of Moab RV Park in Moab, UT (166 miles). On our way out of Torrey, UT we stopped at the local Phillips 66 station to top off our fuel and add a bottle of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF). This is the second 2.5 gallon bottle we’ve added since we purchased the RV which now has 4,770 miles on the odometer.

We took UT-24 East through Capitol Reef National Park for some more incredible scenery. There was interesting terrain throughout the trip. The mountainous curvy roads ended after roughly 40 miles and became a gray desert. It felt like we were on the moon. UT-24 heads North at Hanksville, UT and has several of the longest straightest sections of road I have ever seen. That road ends at I-70 where we headed East for 32 miles before heading back South on US-191 into Moab, UT. US-191 is where the chaos began. Moab is a very popular town in the summer being so close to the entrances to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

We stopped on our way through Moab at the City Market to pickup some groceries and then headed on to Sunsets of Moab RV Park arriving at 2:40PM MDT. This is a no frills RV park with no office, restroom, or laundry facilities, but it’s one of the few in the area for less than $100/night. It is literally the owner’s back yard, but we have full hookups, great scenery, and it’s very quiet.

On day two in Moab, we got up at 5:15AM MDT in order to be at the Moab Adventure Center in downtown Moab in time for our 7::00AM MDT shuttle bus tour of Arches NP. It’s warm here in Moab and we were a bit worried about leaving Phoebe in the camper while we were gone, but the weather predictions didn’t predict temperatures exceeding 90 degrees until we returned from our tour at 11:00AM MDT. We got there early 06:20AM MDT and parked the camper pointed North and put up all of our shades. Then we set our generator to come on and fire up the air conditioner when the temperature reached 80 degrees inside. When we returned the generator was running and the temperature was 79 degrees inside.

Our tour guide, Chris, was incredible. He pointed out things we would have never seen touring the park on our own. He thoroughly explained all of the geology involved in forming the rock formations and landscape.

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.

We departed from Zion River Resort at 10:30AM MDT and headed Northeast to Ruby’s Inn, RV Park & Campground in Bryce Canyon City, UT (135 miles) at 7,664′ in elevation. We stopped in Cedar City, UT at Home Depot (for a replacement GFCI outlet in our bathroom) and Walmart for supplies. After picking up our GFCI outlet at Home Depot, I dropped Beth off at the door of the nearby Walmart and went off and parked, once again, in the back with all of the other Class B & C motorhomes (a dozen or so). After parking, I looked to my right and saw the entrance to an Applebee’s which I considered an omen (we haven’t had a sit down meal out since May 10th). After shopping, we went into Applebee’s and had the 2 for $25 lunch (yummy!) and the leftovers for supper. We stopped to top off our fuel before heading back into the mountains at the TA in Parowan, UT where we could see snow capped mountains in the distance.

As we got closer to Bryce Canyon, we passed through Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest and stopped a couple of times to take some pictures.

We arrived at Ruby’s Inn RV Park & Campground at 3:35PM MDT. This is a fairly large and very well organized campground. They had three check-in clerks and they were all very helpful and busy while we were checking-in. We found out from them that Bryce Canyon National Park does not allow vehicles to enter the park between 8AM – 8PM (which was a surprise to us). Fortunately, there is a National Park shuttle stop just across the street from the entrance to the campground.

We spent the first day after arrival in the camper due to quite a bit of rain. The rain started in the middle of the night of arrival and was the hardest rain we’ve heard in this camper. We were concerned that there was hail, but apparently not. We are glad we reserved three nights. On the final day there was rain predicted, but we went on into the National Park, via the National Park Service (NPS) Shuttle, and only experienced a few sprinkles that only occurred while on the NPS Shuttle (between stops). We took the NPS Shuttle straight to the furthest stop (#8 at Bryce Point). We then took it to the next stop (#9 Inspiration Point). We climbed straight to the “Upper Inspiration Viewpoint” (about 1/4 mile) with many stops along the way, to ingest oxygen, on our way to 8,300′ in elevation. It was worth the trip and the views were incredible. From there we continued on to Stop #11, Sunset Point, which was the most crowded (probably because you could see everything without traveling far from the parking lot). From there we continued on to Stop #12 at the Lodge. We stopped there because they had a gift shop and we didn’t want to have to come back to it if the Visitor Center didn’t have the trinkets we were after. They did not have the required trinkets so we hopped the next shuttle to Stop #14 at the Visitor Center. We quickly found our trinkets (NPS coins for the grandchildren) and hopped the shuttle to the main shuttle station (close to Ruby’s Inn) and ate a delicious late lunch at the Inn.

We departed from Demotte National Forest Service (NFS) Campground at 11:00AM MDT and headed Northwest to Zion River Resort in Virgin, UT (120 miles). We stopped for fuel on the Kaibab Indian Reservation (where there are no fuel taxes).

We arrived at Zion River Resort at 1:30PM MDT. They had a propane station right beside the area where you pull off to check-in, so we topped off our propane tank while we checked-in (we were down to 40%). We also reserved two seats ($15/each) on the 8:30AM MDT campground shuttle to the entrance at Zion National Park.

After boondocking (or dry camping) 5 out of the last 6 nights, we are both enjoying a VERY NICE RV Resort. Before I could finish connecting the camper to power, water, and sewer Beth had bolted out the door with TONS of laundry. After moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer she hit the campground showers where each private shower room includes a large bamboo bench, a large vanity with sink, a toilet, and a very large shower with incredible water pressure. Boondocking is fun and the privacy and views are spectacular, but sometimes it’s nice to relax and not deal with battery, water, and sewer anxiety.

The day after we arrived we took the 8:30AM MDT shuttle from the campground to the pedestrian entrance of Zion National Park along with a family of four. After making a quick stop at the Visitor Center we hopped on a NPS shuttle and took it out to the ninth and final stop. From there we walked the River Walk out to it’s end which is also where The Narrows hike begins. The Narrows hike requires walking through the river, which we had no intention of attempting. Unfortunately for those who did want to traverse The Narrows, they were stopped by a ranger by the time we got there. There was rain in the area and they were concerned about flash floods. The family that road the campground shuttle with us got there before they stopped hikers from going up river and had a good time going about 1.5 miles further.

We took the NPS shuttle back to the sixth stop, The Grotto, and ate our packed lunch in the picnic area. After lunch we hopped back on the NPS shuttle and got off at the fifth stop at The Lodge. We sat on a bench there and enjoyed the view and people watching. Beth went inside and bought a soda and convinced me to come inside and sit in a nice leather chair where I almost lost consciousness. Eventually we took the NPS shuttle back to the entrance and hung out around the Visitor Center until our campground shuttle picked us up.

We departed from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campsite at 9:00AM MDT and continued Northwest on US-550 towards Bloomfield, NM. From there we headed West on US-64 until it ended. Along the way we stopped at a huge Ace Hardware in Farmington, NM to see if we could purchase a short white potable water hose (we’ve needed one at a couple campgrounds with water connections underground). Unfortunately, they only had a 50′ version and we don’t need to store another one of those. The Ace Hardware was not that far off of US-64, but on our way to and from there we were reminded to never trust Google Maps in anything other than a four wheel drive Jeep. The roads it sent us down were ridiculous. We even got to a round-a-bout that had all kinds of flashing lights leading up to it saying no vehicles more than 46′ in length. When we got to the round-a-bout there was a tractor trailer (minimum 46′) stuck in the circle (he was probably following Google Maps). We had to take an alternate route which had Google Maps sending us through back alleys, etc. We also stopped in Farmington at an Allsup’s Convenience Store to purchase fuel. I picked Allsup’s because they were in our discount program, but our discount was only $1.68, so I got burned on that one. I’ll have to research better in the future.

Our route to Goosenecks State Park near Mexican Hat, UT took us past the East entrance to Valley of Gods. We didn’t enter because we weren’t sure about the back road terrain, but the view from the road was incredible.

We arrived at our campsite at 2:30PM MDT. This campground has no hookups, so you’re basically boondocking, but the view of the canyon that the San Juan river has carved out is incredible. It’s a little warm at 89 degrees (but it’s a “dry heat”). It is supposed to cool down to the mid to upper 50’s overnight. While we were grilling our dinner outside a decent wind stirred up (enough to cause our awning to automatically retract) and then shortly afterward we were amazed to watch a Dust Devil spin up no more than 5′ past our picnic table. It zigged and zagged out there for a few seconds and then started heading our way. I told Beth, “duck your head, put your hands over your head, and close your eyes”. It went right over us. We didn’t end up in a scene from the Wizard of Oz, but we were covered in Utah dirt when it was over. Very freaky! Fortunately our Toto (Phoebe) was inside (she came out later to check out the damage). We ended up with some dirt inside the camper too, even though all the screens were closed.

We were planning to stay two days at Goosenecks State Park, but after our morning walk we decided it would be nice to spend the night in a campground with full hookups in order to dump our waste tanks and fill our fresh water tank since we will be dry camping the next two nights near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. An additional factor in the decision was that the temperature was expected to reach 96 degrees. That’s more “roughing it” than we care for with no air conditioning. There is a little (12 sites) no frills campground in Mexican Hat, UT and we were able to get a site for $45 (total including taxes).

We checked into Valle’s RV Park in the town of Mexican Hat, UT at 12:30PM MDT. The campground is basically a gravel parking lot with fairly wide sites and full hookups. For those curious about the name of the town, there is a rock formation just outside of town that looks like a Mexican Sombrero from the road.