31 May - Welcome to Willard bay State Park near Ogden UT

31 May
We departed Grand Junction at 08:27 am and arrived at Willard Bay State Park campground near Ogden UT at almost 3:00 pm after driving 330 miles.  This is the seventh campground on this trip,

This was a really long day for us as we try to shoot for about 200 miles per travel day.  That may not sound like much, and it's not if you are motoring on down the road in your little sedan.  But when you are pulling an RV that is nearly 42 ft long and weighs right at 15,000 lbs, and you are driving a one ton long bed dually pickup that eats Prius cars for lunch, you have to be "on your game" 100% of the time.  Then compound that with heavy traffic that is weaving in and out of lanes, 6-8 percent grade through the mountains, needless to say I am emotionally drained when we get to our destination. Then we spend the next hour getting the RV set-up.  Ah, finally it is cocktail time! Thankfully Doreen got some intel on an alternate route that cut about three hours off our planned route.  I would have been toast at the end of a nine hour drive!  Six was long enough.

Not considering the length of drive, scenery really varied as we drove from Colorado and through Utah to the Ogden area.

Desolate?  Miles and miles of nothing.  The terrain reminds me of Iraq.

More nothing.  Little vegetation, and if there were critters, they did not make themselves known!

Some rain coming in over the mountains

Some more mountains with a different look that others we've seen.

The snow really makes the mountains look beautiful.

 We are north of Salt Lake City and Provo, closer to Ogden.  I did not realize it was almost 100 miles from Provo to the campground!

So we arrived at the Willard Bay State Park campground and got checked right in.  There are several different campgrounds within the state park, but we chose the one with full hookups for our RV, called Cottonwood Campground.  I can attest it is accurately named!!

Looks like snow, but it is cottonwood seeds!

Cottonwood seeds everywhere.

The campsite is really nice, especially compared to some that we've had so far.  We actually have grass and Liberty is very thankful!  Here are a few shots of the campsite:

Pull-through site is welcome.  Electric hook-up is only 30 amps so we will load-manage as needed.

Old Glory flying high and proud.  Nice shade trees in the grassy area,

Each campsite has it's own pavilion on a paved slab with a picnic table. 

Fire ring will be nice.  We have yet to have a campfire on this trip.

Grill set-up for dinner.

After dinner we headed out for a walk and found the trails that lead to Eagle Beach.

Wild roses, the State of Iowa flower, along the path to the beach.   

We are very close to the Great Salt Lake, but this beach is on the Willard Reservoir which is fresh water. We brought some inflatable inner tubes for floating and they should get some use here!  Very short distance from our campsite to the beach.

Nice beach and park area.

No dogs allowed, so Liberty will stay in the RV when we visit the beach.

A view away from the beach, across I-15 to the east

 We have not finalized the complete list of sights to see while we are here, but we plan to visit the Great Salt Lake, take the Mormon Tabernacle tour, visit Hill Air Force base and a museum there and possibly visit the winter Olympic training center.  The RV needs a thorough cleaning, I need to spend some time scrubbing the bugs off the front of the RV and the truck is filthy.   We are also looking forward to take a couple down days and just plain relaxing.

30 May - Arches National Park UT, Canyonlands National Park UT and Packing Up

30 May
Last day at Grand Junction CO, so lets make it a big one!  We departed about 0900 hrs, drove about 100 miles to Utah and Arches National Park where we sat in line for over 45 minutes to check in.

Welcome to Utah sign on the Interstate

The double line entering the Arches National Park.

 The temps were in the 80's and the sun was beating down hard.  No complaints here though as we were in an air conditioned truck. We finally reached the visitor center and parked to use the facilities and pee the dog.  A group of motorcyclists pulled up next to us and they were roasted having waited on the hot asphalt for nearly an hour with the heat of their bikes and little air flow.  I provided them some bottled water and they peeled their road gear for tee shirts to cool down.

After the visitor center we headed up the windy road

and through the park past the great wall,

We passed sheep rock,

Looks like the head of a sheep

the court house towers,

balanced rock

Amazing this rock stays put!

and then to the delicate arch view point.

Telephoto lens on the big camera here.  You can see visitors inspecting the arch up close.

 We returned the same path and then headed to Moab UT to refuel

and then to Canyonlands National Park.

At Canyonlands after passing through the entrance station we stopped at the Island in the Sky Visitor's Center

We had packed lunch for the trip so we had a quick sandwich here and then crossed the street to view the Island in the Sky.

Even Liberty gets to enjoy the scenery!  She was not thrilled!

The rock formations and colors are incredible.

and then went to the Mesa Arch.  Pets were not allowed and we thought we better not press the issue with Doreen's knee, so Doreen stayed back and I headed up the half mile trail to the Mesa Arch.  This walk was like the Delicate Arch trail at Arches park - stone steps, sand pathways.

This is the namesake Arch

"Driftwood" marks the trail!

The scenery was unbelievable but so were the little things, like the cactus in bloom.

Even the sage brush had a unique odor

Artemisia Tridentata Big Basin Sagebrush.  Actually in the sunflower family. 

By the time we finished up at Canyonlands National Park it was probably 1500 hrs.  We then headed back to refuel and pack up in preparation for moving on to Ogden UT tomorrow and Willard Bay State Park Campground.  Next report from there!

29 May - Moved from Buckley AFB to Grand Junction CO and Colorado National Monument

29 May
To day we departed Buckley AFB FamCamp about 0814 hrs and headed west towards Grand Junction CO, our next stop.

Luckily traffic was not bad in Denver, likely due to the Monday holiday.  Once we got out of town and west of the Argo Mine, the scenery was new.  The drive across I-70 was breathtaking and amazing how it changed the further west we traveled!

Leaving Denver

Eisenhower Tunnel (2 miles long!!)

Snow dwindling the further west we drove

Snow gone.  Rocky with a few trees

Rocky steep cliffs with few trees

Colors changing, more reds here

Reds gone now, more desert-like

Most vegetation gone.

We arrived at Junction West RV Park at 1342 hrs after driving 274 miles.  This is a commercial RV park and the price was four times what we paid at Buckley, bit it is what it is!  It;s a nice place but little grass and little shade.  The entire park is rock, but it is very level and is full hook-up,

A couple small trees nearby

Our Nations Colors and our Air Force flag flying high and proud on Memorial Day

No grass at the site but there is a small patch at the pet relief area!

.After a quick RV unhook and setup and a late lunch, we headed for the Colorado National Monument.  I assumed this would be a granite monolith of some sort.  Boy was I surprised!!  This is unlike any "monument" I have ever seen!  It is a "big, bold, and brilliantly colored canyon with towering masses of naturally sculpted rock", covering 32 square miles of rugged up and down terrain.

To see the monument involves a 23 mile drive and a climb from 4690 ft to 6640 ft.

We took a lot of pictures as we toured the monument, but will just post a few here.  I is difficult to capture the beauty of the area with a camera.  As we headed up the windy road to the visitor center we were joined by a bighorn sheep that wanted to pace our RAM pickup. 

Balanced Rock - icon of the monument.  600 ton boulder perched on top of a pedestal

The visitor center had many displays and talked about the history of the Rim Rock Drive, the windy road that takes you all the way around the monument. The design for the road was completed in 1931.   Most of the road was constructed during the Great Depression with almost entirely manual labor from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.  Extensive drilling and blasting was required including three tunnels..  They stopped work on the project during World War II and finally completed it in 1950. The entire project employed over 800 workers.

Here are several other pictures to give you an idea of how spectacular the scenery is:

US Geological Survey Benchmark placed in 1934.  6106 feet

The next step is a doozie!!!

Doreen getting real brave!  It's a long way down!

Hand drilled holes for dynamite

Tomorrow we will visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

Stat update:

Point to point travel miles:  1310 miles

Vicinity miles:  1177 miles

Total miles:  2487 miles

Total point to point driving time:   26 hrs 34 minutes

Total fuel purchased:  204.8 gals

Total fuel cost:  $495.73

Average fuel cost:  $2.423

Average MPG:  11.802 miles/gal

Lodging cost:  $445.91

Average lodging cost/night:  $21.23/night