So, we continued north to Green River, UT, found a reasonable RV park
to spend the night, and decided to skip going in to Arches National Park.
Thursday, we headed northwest, continuing to stay off the interstates and
driving through some beautiful country in northwest New Mexico and southwest
Colorado. We had lunch at the Durango Diner, in Durango, Colorado (more
Roadfood!) and decided that Durango was a beautiful town and we’d have
to come back for a longer visit. But, Utah was our goal, so we continued
west through the mountains to Utah.
Once we arrived in Utah, and headed north towards Moab, the scenery was
expectional -- canyons, bluffs and even a few arches. We had planned
to spend the night in Moab, Utah, and explore Arches National Park, but
when we arrived in Moab that evening, we found that we were just in time
for the 37th Annual Easter Jeep weekend -- a long weekend event where everyone
brings their jeeps and other four wheel vehicles to Moab to do lots of off-roading.
We had never seen so many jeeps in one place! Needless to say, there
was no place to stay anywhere near the town.
So, we continued north to Green River, UT, found a reasonable RV park
to spend the night, and decided to skip going in to Arches National Park.
Leaving Green River, we got breakfast at the Wagon Wheel coffee shop/truck
stop/Sinclair gas station. (We like Sinclair -- it's Dino Gas!) We also
got gas, bought postcards, bought stamps, and got cash from an ATM, so that
we'd be prepared for a long day driving across southern Utah.
Our trek to find the RV park in Green River had taken us back to an interstate
(I-70), which we have continued to try to avoid. So, we quickly jumped
off the freeway and onto a route along Utah State Routes 24 and 12 that
would take us through Capitol
Reef National Park and Dixie National Forest and into the Grand Staircase Escalante National
Monument. The roads looked just fine on the map... Unfortunately,
our map left out a crucial detail...
The scenery changed as we headed into Capital Reef -- high cliffs,
deep canyons and red rock. This was a beautiful National Park, and well
worth driving through. We stopped a few times and Kasie even got to wet
her feet in the Fremont River. We stopped at the Visitor Center, where
it started to snow and rain.
Then, we continued south through Dixie National Forest. Here the scenery
changed quickly as we climbed in altitude. We found ourselves in evergreen
and aspen forests. The trees were very pretty and it continued to snow
as we climbed higher. We stopped at a few viewpoints, but the views were
mostly rather limited. They did give us a chance to let the engine cool
down a little -- we hadn’t realized that this road would take us over an
9400 foot pass! This was the highest elevation that we had yet traveled.
At that rarified atmosphere, Chuck the Truck had to work really hard to
pull Taylor the Trailer. And, considering the scattered snow showers, we
mostly moved at about 15-20 mph.
After going over the high pass the road becomes even more interesting.
It was built by the CCC in the 1930's in order to bring daily mail service
to the little hamlet of Boulder, UT. 
It was a wild road -- narrow, windy, steep, and no guard rails! At
one point, the road was on a knife edge (known as "The Hogsback") with no
guard rails but hundreds of feet straight down on both sides! Quite a
trip!
But, we made it through uneventfully and came out the other side and entered
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Here, again, the scenery
changed abruptly to canyons and mesas. We had chosen to spend the night
at an area called Calf Creek Recreation Area. When we got there, we were
excited about the choice because it turns out that this campground is right
along the river at the bottom of a steep canyon. However, we neglected to
realize that we were coming into Easter weekend -- this campground was full!
So were all the other campgrounds we tried. Finally, we turned to dry
camping out in the boondocks (called "dispersed camping" by the Bureau of
Land Management). We were glad that this National Monument is administered
by the BLM instead of the National Park Service, or we might not have been
able to camp this weekend. (Brian's personal diatribe: until a few years
ago, a "National Monument" was a unit of the National Park service and therefore
a place mostly dedicated to the preservation of natural and historical resources.
As a result of various political pressures, the Grand Staircase Escalante
National Monument was the first "National Monument" that is not a NPS unit,
but rather is administrered by the BLM. It therefore is available for all
land uses, not just preservation, and so has a large amount of cattle grazing,
mining, and other uses. While this is probably a reasonable use of this land,
I would prefer that it had a name other than "National Monument", to make
clear the distinction between an NPS unit and something else. Since Grand
Staircase Escalante National Monument was created, there are now 14 other
"National Monuments" that are administered by BLM, the Forest Service, the
Fish and Wildlife Service, and other federal agencies, each with its own
agenda.)
When we found a dusty place to camp along the side of a dirt
road, we were very happy with our choice. We were in a large open area
that looked across to mountains and mesas. We only had a few neighbors
the whole time we were there. And, because it was BLM land, the dogs could
be leash free. They had a glorious time chasing balls in teh dust and
exploring dirt roads, bushes, rabbits, and the occasional steer carcass
or bones. As we were unhitching, Brian noticed that we had broken a weld
that attaches one of the shock absorbers to the frame of the trailer --
something not crucial, but that we’d have to fix next time we were in a town
of some size.
We decided to spend a second night camped here so that we could go for
a hike or ride our bikes. On Saturday, we road our bikes down the hill
into the town of Escalante and explored the town. We stopped at the Cowboy
Cafe and had wings and beer -- these wings were different -- very meaty,
breaded with a spicy breading and deep fried with no extra sauce. They
were very good. After this lunch, we rode our bikes back to the trailer
and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Easter Sunday morning, we headed west again, towards Zion National Park.
As we headed towards Zion, the scenery changed again to a little river valley,
with fields and forests. We breezed by Bryce Canyon, but did not stop (we
had both seen that park when we were kids) and headed into Zion. As we
entered Zion, the scenery changed abruptly again, to large steep canyon walls.
There are two tunnels carved into rock in Zion, one rather short but
the other over a mile long. Because our trailer is larger than the average
automobile of the 1920's (when the tunnel was built), we could only go
through the loinger tunnel if we were "escorted" -- this means that we had
to drive down the center of the tunnel while the rangers stopped traffic
coming from the opposite direction.
We spent three nights in Watchman Campground of Zion National Park. This
campground is along the edge of the Virgin River. Barney and Kasie got
to swim in the river and loved it.
The first day (Monday), Jacque had two board meeting conference calls,
so Brian went out on his bike and explored the towns of Springdale and Rockville.
Tuesday, the weather turned ugly. We wanted to do some hiking, but it was cold, rainy, and snowy. We saw some beautiful canyons and cliffs (including "The Narrows"), but we quickly abandoned hiking for some warm soup and a beer at the Zion Lodge. Although the beer was a good Utah microbrew beer, this was a little disappointing, as we had hoped to do some serious hiking in Zion.
Wednesday morning, we left Zion, and headed southwest to Las Vegas, NV.
We were heading to the CircusLand RV Park, associated with CircusCircus Casino
on the Strip in Las Vegas. When we arrived, we discovered that it was just
one big parking lot with hookups, but you can’t beat paying $25 per night
to stay on the Strip in Las Vegas.
The first night we were there, we had dinner at the Golden Steer with Brian’s
Aunt Kay and her husband, Allen. This is a great place to get steak and
prime rib and we really enjoyed it. After dinner, we walked a bit on the
Strip, but then turned in for the evening.
Thursday, Brian did the wash, while Jacque pampered herself with a manicure
and pedicure at the salon associated with CircusCircus. We treated ourselves
to dinner and a night out—we went to Drais in the Barbary Coast Casino. This
was a great restaurant—the food was wonderful and the ambience and décor
were superb. The restaurant was decorated in black shiny wood, red walls,
lots of mirrors and candles—the effect was very interesting. After dinner,
we went to one of the lounges in Harrah’s Casino and listened to some R&B
and Motown music. After midnight, Drais turned into an “after-hours” club,
so we went back there to check it out. Since it was Thursday, it was a little
slow. After another drink, we headed back to the trailer.
