THURSDAY & FRIDAY, SEPT 10 & 11

THURSDAY & FRIDAY, SEPT 10 & 11:

      Two days of 350+ miles each day. Hard days of driving with lots of 6-7% grades. It seems we were constantly seeing “Summit” signs of anywhere from 6-7,800 feet. Once again, the Lord had His engine and transmission angels on overtime duty – only had to pull over once to let the engine cool.

      We took U.S. 50 all the way to I-70 in Utah. This is dubbed “The Loneliest Road in America.” Not sure about that – but there surely were far fewer vehicles than we're used to. Especially coming from California! It was also labeled a Scenic route. We weren't so sure of that either, the first day. A lot of scrub sagebrush and stark rock formations across this dusty desert in the Great Basin. It probably would have been prettier had the mountain ranges in the background been more visible. But there was a lot of haze in the atmosphere. We weren't sure what was the cause – smoke from distant forest fires settling down in the Basin?

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            

        

     Stopped for the night Thurs in Ely, NV, almost at the Utah border. Was very warm when we stopped - had reached 85+ throughout the day. Woke up Thursday a.m. w/ the furnace on, and went to bed with the A/C on! Although we got cool during the night - had to turn on the furnace again Friday morning to take away the chill! But we soon warmed up once we were on the road -got up to 95 on Friday. And the truck has no working A/C. Probably just as well – would be an extra strain on the engine. But the strain was on us – we were feeling pretty wilted. It's a DRY heat, but 95 is still pretty hot, whether you're in a steam sauna at home or a baked oven out here.

 

 

     Started out with more of the same scenery on Friday, but after a couple of hours, as we traveled out of the Great Basin and into the Colorado Plateau, it morphed into red sandstone rock.

 

                                                                          

 

And after a while, it became absolutely stunning as we twisted and climbed our way through gorgeously colored rock canyons, chasms, and mesas. Absolutely breathtaking formations. Reminiscent of Sedona and Zion, complete with deep blue sky now. We availed ourselves of several scenic overview pull-outs to stop and take it in. We had no idea that we'd be treated to such spectacular scenery on our way today. 

 

                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
                                         I-70 snaking below the viewing area:

 

 

 
 
                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

     Reached our campground in Moab about 5:30, but took the better part of an hour to get set up. This is a brand new campground, and while bathrooms etc. are spotless, the sites haven't been leveled. The owner was trying to be helpful to Bill in getting the RV level, but apparently didn't have much experience, and made things worse than if Bill & I had just done it ourselves. Anyway - we crashed after finally getting set up and had a frozen pizza. Wi-fi here is very spotty.

      We're booked here for 3 nites. May extend a night or two, depending on how much time we find we want to spend at Arches. Had a hard time finding a campground here in Moab. Besides being right next door to Arches National Park, which is why we're here, Moab is a huge draw for outdoor enthusiasts of nearly every passion - mountain bikers, ATV riders, kayakers & rafters, rock climbers. So I had to call several places to find a campground which had vacancies. Of course, it didn't help that our timing was such that we arrived for the weekend. I'm pretty sure that if our stay were during the middle of the week, we wouldn't have had any problem.