Escalante Petrified Forest State Park

Wednesday, October 11th

A relaxing morning and then started the "pack up". Had more things to put away as we have stayed here for 5 days and a more "permanent" camp. Not a problem, we're moving a whole 15 minutes away.  Here is a picture of the sunrise this morning showing the camping areas behind us.

Last morning at Hole in the Rock Road Boondocking.

While stowing inside I ran the vacuum over everything.  We endured 3 very blustery, sand in the wind days and as you all know it gets everywhere, especially when the dog helps by bringing it in attached to her fur!

We left Hole in the Rock Road by 10:30 and were all set up after dumping by 11:00 am at the Escalante Petrified Forest SP. Yeah such a long drive, yawn! lol The campsite was full as it had stated online, mostly tenting spots with only a handful of electric spots. No wonder it was hard to make a reservation.

They have a beautiful little reservoir here and Freya was able to go for a swim. The level is down quite low now though. This is the best way to get the dust out of her coat every now and again. The level is low and they had this funky moss growing everywhere but the water was relatively clear at the boat ramp. Fortunately she did not smell when she came out although I was prepared to shampoo her with the hose if that happened.

The moss is over 12" thick all along the shore of the lake.

Lots of flat walking area's around for Ray and Freya, where they encountered many deer. For other campers there is the Petrified Forest Trail. Other than that there is not much else to do here at this state park.

There is a marathon here in the Escalante National Monument starting on Saturday October 14th, thankfully we will be out of the area before that. Our stay here is only for one day, long enough to walk their short trail (Petrified Cove), dump, fill with fresh water and do as many loads of laundry that my grey tank will hold before dumping again tomorrow morning.

Ray and I walked over to the Petrified Forest trailhead and looked up .... way up. No way he could walk up the that cliff trail comfortably, so we bypassed it. On of our readers commented that the hike was steep and boy were they right. At the top of the mesa they is, apparently, a very small display of petrified wood near the trailhead for people to see and another log on display near the entrance to the trail. After seeing the Petrified Forest National Park near Hollbrook, their Crystal Forest 2 years ago, in comparison this is a limited display so we did not feel too bad. They had acres of petrified trees that were very accessible.

Below is a picture from google showing one of the logs you can see up on the trail.

From Google

Ray's picture of the Petrified Forest National Park in their Crystal Forest taken 2 years ago.

Ray's picture of the Petrified Forest National Park in their Crystal Forest taken 2 years ago. One of the largest ever found, I believe.

Here is a picture of the trail showing the reservoir where we are camped. Note he is not at the top of the hill yet!

From Google

Here are Ray's pictures of the petrified wood on the Petrified Cove "Trail"  (it's only a 100' walk).

Here's the display log at the start of the trail.

Ray and I had a little "toes up" in the afternoon as I was just plain tired as I did not sleep very well last night for no apparent reason. We all need lazy days every now and again.

Went to bed early and had a  great night's sleep. Ray was out the door at sunrise to get some pictures of the lake.

Off towards Cedar City to see Cedar Breaks National Monument, Brian's Head and Vermillion Castle.