Wednesday – June 25, 2013 – Moab, UT
Today was a driving day, with Moab, Utah as our destination. We left Las Vegas around 9:45 in the morning and made our way across the state and stopped in Mesquite, NV for lunch. Too bad we didn’t have time for me to play the famous Wolf Creek golf course in Mesquite. After lunch we quickly made our way across the north-west corner of Arizona and then we entered St. George, Utah.
Utah is a very interesting state. For one thing, it is very desolate. How desolate? At one point there was 120 miles between service stations. But what is really neat is how varied the geology and topography is as you make your way across the state. We stared at barren and bleak desert for a couple of hours before we started to make a dramatic climb up the mountains. (See photo 1). The highway was carved through the mountain. You can see the long cores that were drilled down the face of the mountain, packed with explosives and then blasted away. Then we were at 7900 feet altitude where we were now in forest and mountain terrain. Then we made our way down the mountain and found our selves looking at brilliant red mesas and monoliths. Then we were surrounded by grey granite outcroppings. Then it was back up the mountains, then back to high desert. It was eerily beautiful – however Elisa has proclaimed her preference for civilization. We stopped at the Salt Wash view point just outside of Green River, Utah. We also had a view of the San Rafael Swell geologic feature. It is gorgeous.
We finally made it to Utah 191, where we headed south toward Moab, Utah. We finally pulled into our campground, the Moab Valley RV Resort, which is located outside of both the Arches and Canyon Lands National Parks. It was about 7:45 PM when we pulled in (with an hour time zone change). We were hungry and wanted to prepare a quick dinner, unfortunately, we couldn’t get the gas barbecue that came with our unit to work – I’ll have to call the dealer to get some pointers. Undeterred, Elisa was able to whip up a great meal in our compact but very complete kitchen.
We are looking forward to visiting the two parks tomorrow and we will go explore. We hope the weather won’t be too warm. On Thursday, we will make our way to Denver via Utah 128, a national scenic byway, that follows the Colorado River before making its way back to I-70.
more later.
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