Utah (STR-2022-22)
Wednesday, 10 August
We started the day by playing golf at Sunbrook Golf Club, one of four city golf courses in St. George, UT. We had a tee time for 10:30, but decided to arrive early to make sure we could get a parking place for Sprinty as the satellite view indicated it might be a challenge later. By arriving early, they had us start early. The course had beautiful views of red rock formations and nearby alpine mountains - we had to work at not being distracted.
After golf, we stopped by Pioneer Park to check out the hiking trails. One of particular interest was the Pioneer Park Narrows, a slot canyon. Actually more of a narrow passage between rocks. So narrow, even Darrell had difficulty entering the crack sideways. As it was over 100 degrees, we decided not to try and hike the narrows.
Our campsite for the night was at Snow Canyon State Park near St George, UT.
Struggling with a usable cell signal in our campsite, we broke camp and moved to the Sand Dunes picnic area where the Ranger said most people got a better cell signal. Sprinty even provided air conditioning without being plugged in for the hour, courtesy of his lithium house batteries and 3,000 inverter.
Thursday, 11 August
With marginal cell in the campsite, we decided to break camp and have breakfast at the Sand Dunes picnic area. Not a bad place for breakfast.
After breakfast, we hiked the 1.2-mile Petrified Dunes Trail. Most of the trail was on sandstone, a.k.a. slickrock. Being near the center of Snow Canyon State Park, the views were amazing in every direction.
After a stop at the hair cuttery for Kris, we headed to the Kolob Canyons district of Zion National Park, located at Exit 40 on Interstate 15 about 17 miles south of Cedar City.
Zion's Kolob Canyons section is like a park within a park- a series of deep, narrow finger canyons at the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The five-mile scenic drive ends at a high viewpoint, with a short nature trail and panoramic views as far as the Kaibab Plateau at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The drive up was as epic as driving in the main part of Zion National Park or in Arches National Park. We positioned Sprinty with a great view
We stopped at a couple of the overlooks on the way down. Just plain awesome - pictures just cannot do the scenery justice.
On the way back to the campground at Snow Canyon State Park, we stopped at the scenic overlook again for photos as the lighting had changed.
The afternoon was spent on doing some small maintenance shores and cleaning as we prepare for our next adventure.
Friday, 12 August
We left the campground before sunrise to make our way to Hurricane, UT for an 8am tee time at Sky Mountain Golf Course to beat the heat and afternoon thunderstorms. We were paired up with Andrew who could drive the ball 280-300 yards. For most of the round, the sky was partly cloudy making the temperatures pretty bearable. The scenery was amazing.
On the 18th tee box, you could see a waterfall in the canyon below.
After a bit of rain, we headed out to explore. We checked out the Visitor Center, and as expected, the place was jam filled with people. We later learned that they had closed The Narrows due to flash flooding, so the shuttle buses were bringing people back down as quickly as possible.
What a contrast to Snow Canyon State Park. We decided to hike the Pa'rus Trail which follows the Virgin River. We chose to hike from Canyon Junction back to the campground, riding the shuttle from the Visitor Center to access the trail at the north end.
After dinner, we walked through the campground. At least a third of the RVs in the campground were rentals.
Saturday, 13 August
We headed out early to walk into Springdale, UT, for breakfast at Cafe Soleil - using the pedestrian bridge to cross the Virgin River from the park to town. We got an early start anticipating it might be crowded on a weekend. It wasn't.
After breakfast, we broke out the eBikes to ride the Zion canyon. We disconnected the throttles to render our Rad eBikes as Class 1 (vice Class 2) to make them park legal. Zion National Park only allows Class 1 eBikes on their roads and trails.
We rode the Pa'rus Trail to Canyon Junction, then the main road to Temple of Sinawava.
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| Temple of Sinawava |
The only traffic was the shuttle buses and a few cars going to the Zion Lodge. Park rules are that shuttle buses cannot pass a moving bike, so bikes are required to pull over and stop for shuttle buses to pass. We only had to pull over twice in the seven miles going up the canyon.
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| The Great White Throne |
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| Angel’s Landing |
We enjoyed a cool-ish morning with overcast skies. Overall a 17-mile bike ride from the campground. An absolutely epic way to experience Zion National Park. If you don't have an ebike, there are several places to rent them in Springdale.
After some rest and lunch, we set out to hike the Watchman Trail, a 3.1-mile hike from the Visitor Center. Starting from the campground added about a mile to the hike.
And the skies were sunnier and temperatures warmer than this morning. The views of the canyon were just gorgeous.
The Watchman Overlook at the end of the trail offered beautiful views of Zion canyon.
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| Watchman Overlook looking northwest |
In the distance, you can see Sprinty in the Watchman Campground
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| Watchman Overlook looking southwest |
With a full moon, the campground was aglow.
Sunday, 14 August
Another early start to be in front of any departing RVs through the Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel. Large vehicles can only drive the tunnel 8am-8pm, and traffic is stopped so large vehicles can drive down the center of the road. Last time we exited the east entrance, a Class C was in the queue for the 8am opening - and we had to wait behind it.
The drive in/out the east entrance is as stunning as Zion canyon, and worth the price of admission. As we passed on some available hikes, we told ourselves, "next time."
Our first stop was to hike the Toadstool Hoodoos Trail, off UT 89, in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, about 30 miles west of Page, AZ. We learned about it from the YouTube channel "From She to Me".
We continued on to Page, AZ where we did the Beehive Trail. The trail starts at Bee Hive campground. We learned about it from another YouTube channel, "Catherine Gregory." A pretty cool hike on sandstone.
We continued east. As we left Page, AZ, our weather apps warned of flash flooding in the area - even though there was hardly any rain cloud in sight. As we traveled along, we saw evidence of recent flash floods in the form of dirt and mud on the roads.
Just after we turned off UT 98 on to US 160 conveniently located only a couple of miles from nowhere, Sprinty's Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) alarmed indicating 18psi in one of the tires. We immediately had visions of having to arrange roadside assistance out in the desert. After finding a semi-safe place to pull onto a shoulder, we checked tire pressures and all were fine. Maybe the TPMS sensor just needs a new battery. Whew.
As we continued northeast on US 160, we noticed the clouds all had reddish colors on the bottom from the reflection of sunlight off the red rocks.
Entering Monument Valley was interesting as we tried to align what we were seeing with various photographs and movies (i.e., "Forest Gump").
Checking into the KOA Journey Monument Valley Campground in Monument Valley, UT, there were but a handful of RVs there. By nightfall, the park was almost full.
Rain started moving in. At one time, we counted five large dust devils.
BTW, the rock formations may look familiar - they are the back side of the iconic Monument Valley scene from the movie "Forest Gump" when he ended his run.
Monday, 15 August
As we departed Zion National Park yesterday, Kris challenged Darrell and Sprinty to top our amazing time at Zion National Park. Well, if today did not do it, it was certainly in the same league.
The morning started with a beautiful sunrise backlighting the formations.
Today's main event was a tour of Monument Valley, specifically the 3.5 hr off-road tour offered by Monument Valley Safari (monumentvalleysafari.com/monument-valley/3-5-hour-monument-valley-tour/). We signed up for the 9am tour to do the tour before the worst of the heat. The tours (there are about 30 tour companies offering tours of Monument Valley) depart from the View Hotel, the only hotel inside Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
"Always buy the ticket,
Always take the chance,
Always make the memories"
The view from the Visitor Center provided but a small glimpse of the tour.
The other eight people on our tour were from Italy. One couple from Rome, another from Florence, and a family of four from Venice. And several others loading on other tour company vehicles were from Italy as well.
Our driver/tour guide was Ty, a Navajo who lives about an hour away but spent his summers growing up at his grandparents house nearby.
We departed the hotel area, and commenced down the self-driving route. The driving route is unpaved and not recommended for RVS.
As we bumped over the rough spots, we were glad we were not subjecting Sprinty to all the jostling.
Our first stop was the East & West Mitten Buttes.
We then headed to John Ford's Point, named for John Ford, the director of many John Wayne movies. There we saw the Three Sisters.
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| Three Sisters |
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| John Ford's Point |
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| John Ford's Point |
Some of the formations took more imagination than others, such as the Indian Chief:
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| Face of Indian on Thunderbird Mesa |
Note, not all tours are the same. Some were only 1-/2 hours, likely just taking you in the same route you could self-drive. As we left John Ford's Point, Ty took us into the Restricted Area, the part of Monument Valley only accessible by guided tours.
Our first stop was Sun's Eye Arch. Ty showed us several Anasazi petroglyphs on the rock at the base of the formation.
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| Sun's Eye Arch |
Next was Ear of the Wind Arch where we could walk across the sand to the base of the arch.
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| Ear of the Wind Arch |
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| Ear of the Wind Arch |
Next we stopped at the Big Hogan Arch. Ty took a group photo - he was obviously skilled at doing panoramic photos to capture the arch overhead in the photo
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| Head of an Eagle |
Our last stop was the Totem Pole. Clint Eastwood climbed the The Totem Pole, in the movie "The Eiger Sanction".
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| Totem Pole |
While we were there, Ty did a demonstration with sand and water to explain how the arches were formed from the erosive water and blowing sand.
Ty also shared information about the Navajo culture and was happy to answer all questions. There are 12 families live in the valley - we saw one drawing water from a spring in the valley. The tour was unrushed and we all had ample time to take all the photos we wanted.
After lunch, we headed north. We stopped at one of many scenic pullouts to get a photo of Sprinty with the formations and thunderstorms in the background.
Use extra caution when driving this section of Highway 163 just north of Monument Valley.
We made a brief stop at Goosenecks State Park where the San Juan River makes a series of horseshoe bends similar to the Colorado River's Horseshoe Bend near Page, AZ. Next to Bears Ears National Monument. Only the water was laden with sediment whereas Horseshoe Bend had clear water because Lake Powell acts as a settling pond for the Colorado River.
Geologists consider this part of the river to be one of the finest examples of "entrenched meanders" anywhere in the world. The meandering pattern originated several million years ago when the river was flowing on a relatively flat plain, much as the present-day Mississippi River. The San Juan became entrenched when the entire Colorado Plateau was slowly uplifted. Cutting downward, the river followed its initial pattern and thus created the canyon we see today. The process continues to this day as the San Juan River cuts ever deeper into prehistoric geological formations.
We decided to pass on doing the drive to the Valley of the Gods, near Mexican Hat, UT. It is 17 miles of dirt road, not recommended for RVs and with thunderstorms in just about every direction, we sure did not want to tangle with a flash flood on marginal roads so far from anything. Both Kris and Sprinty breathed a sigh of relief.
We outran the thunderstorms approaching from the south to our campsite for the night at Blue Mountain RV Park in Blanding, UT
Tuesday, 16 August
We left the campground early to play golf at Hideout Golf Course in Monticello, UT. We played this course about a year ago as we passed through Monticello on our way to Moab. We had the first tee time in case it was going to be hot and in the hopes to finish before the afternoon thunderstorms.
We went off a few minutes early, and finished the first nine in under 1-1/2 hours. Unfortunately, that caused us to bump into a high school tournament that started at 9am, which in and of itself is not a big deal. However, the kids were really bad at golf making it so slow we finally gave up and called it a day without finishing.
We turned east and crossed into Colorado.
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