Kastle's Journey: BLM Near Arches National Park Oct 21

October 21st - Green River to Moab

We were packed up and left Green River at 9:30 am. We stopped on the way out of town for diesel. A little bit of a hassle as some of their pumps were not working and Ray drove around 3 times before getting to a working pump. The only reason we persevered as it was the 2.49/gal and the fuel prices in Moab are higher. So back on the road shortly after 10am for our short 1 hour drive.

It's pretty desolate continuing down I-70 to Hwy 191 south to Moab. Once we turned onto Hwy 191 the landscape became much more interesting. It'd obviously rained quite a bit in this area too. The first boondocking spot I picked out ended up being way too muddy. We were going to head into Moab and try some of the BLM campsites at $15/night but we saw some rigs on a hill a couple of miles down the road from the direction we came from and decided to go back and investigate where they were first.

This turned out to be a spectacular spot. It's a BLM area with posted signs for 14 day camping and the main use of this area seems to be for OHV with a variety of trails and, bonus, dinosaur tracks. The road is a well-maintained gravel road. The camping spot is 1 mile from the highway and rail line, and is located in a large gravel parking lot. Bonus! Mile 141 marker, Mill Canyon Road. Although our first chosen spot ended up a little sinky, we ended up in a great spot with great views. The only downside is there is a large wash we crossed at the beginning of the road and with all of the rain ????? Who knows, but we noticed it's recently graded so they seem to keep on top of it. There were a few other units parked here as well but there was good distance between units.

One cool thing is the short trail from the campsite to the dinosaur track exhibit .

What a view!

Dinosaur tracks with our rig in behind

Setup was a snap. Lunch was soon eaten and we were off to the Arches with me driving and Ray with camera on lap. The sun's shining as we drove up the scenic drive for the first half of the drive and stopped at the various viewpoints on the way.

Balanced Rock

The Garden of Eden pictures follow.

Petrified Dunes

Pothole Arch

The Great Wall

Another random arch on The Great Wall

Window Arches to the left and Turret Arches to the right

The last stop is at the windows area above. Absolutely gorgeous. The rain finally caught up with us so we headed back to the coach to hunker down for the rest of the afternoon. We will go back to that area specifically to do the short walks to get up close and personal with those arches. Ray is salivating for all of the picture possibilities. This evening the Klondike Bluffs across the highway and Courthouse Butte behind our campsite are all light up.

Courthouse Butte

Thursday morning the weather was still kind of cloudy so we decided to take a drive up Highway 128 to check out the other BLM Camping Sites along the Colorado River just outside Moab.

Amphitheatre with arches forming

Big Bend Campsite, the only one besides Goose Island that had any spots that would fit us.

Bike path along the Colorado above and below

Here's some further pictures of the trip along the Colorado to the Big Bend Campsite

We are at 5000 feet elevation and the park website's weather indicated that there would be some snow over 9000 feet. After I mentioned this to Ray he noticed that the clouds had cleared somewhat over some distant mountains and sure enough there was fresh snow. As long as it stays up there and not down here we are good. We set up the big buddy heater earlier in the day and it certainly came in handy at 2am when the inside temp of the coach had dropped to 60 degrees. Within 20 minutes we were much warmer. Boy does that heater work good. It allows us not to use very much power when boondocking.

Here's some pictures of the dinosaur tracks.

Ankylosaur Tracks

Brontopodus Tracks

Crocodile Slide

Dinosaur Highway

Iguanodon Tracks

Large Theropod Tracks

Thursday night around 7pm thunder and lightning began and within an hour the rain just pelted down for a couple of hours. Friday morning when we woke up to a heavy fog. We were concerned about the wash we need to cross with the rain, so Ray drove down and checked it out as our neighbours were gearing up to leave with a fifth wheel and quad trailer attached and another fellow with an R-pod and truck.

Ray came back shortly with the news that the road had been washed out as we feared. Yup we cannot go over that!

The neighbours called the local BLM office and were told their heavy equipment operators are off on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ????? They then called the Visitor Center who told them to camp here about the washed out road. They contacted highways and a grader they sent out and here by 10:30 am. It started to sound like the old song "the Ford got stuck, then the Chev got stuck and the Ford unstuck when the Dodge showed up" (Corb Lund Band). Yes this grader got stuck in the mud and is now waiting for the other bigger grader to come from Moab to tow him out. So I think our trip to Canyonland is off today and we will finish Arches if we get going this afternoon. We will visit Canyonland tomorrow and get out of dodge on Sunday before any more rain comes.

Well our decision changed and we decided to get going while the graders are still there in case the coach has difficulty and before any more precipitation. Fortunately the dishes were already washed and just needed to be put away. Within about 1/2 an hour we were on our way.

We noticed a parking lot on the way to Moab with a couple of units there overnight so that's where we went. A great deal for $5/night where we are on hard ground close to pavement! It is quite a staging area for bikes, quads and jeeps to go up into the mountains but is quiet after dark if you discount the trucks on Hwy 191. Although there is a rail line directly in front of us, we haven't seen a train in 2 days. The road up to Canyonland National Park is just 1mile up the road and the entrance to Arches National Park is just 4 miles down the road towards Moab, so a great place to visit those parks. Once we were all set up, which was minimal because we're basically in a parking lot, we enjoyed a sit down in the sunshine.

We are pushing it a little because the weather is getting colder and we do not know how much we will be able to see before getting much further south to get out of "winter". Temps are 46 overnight and highs of 55-60F during the day, but without the wind and sitting in the sun it feels like 75. So Ray packed up and went up to the Arches to get some evening shots as it's so close to us.