Sand Hollow State Park, Hurricane, Utah

Saturday, October 21

Slow start this morning, finished the last of the laundry and did a good clean of the bathrooms in preparation for another 2 weeks of dry camping. Left the RV Park the latest yet, 11 am. We only had to drive 1/2 hour to our next destination, Quails Creek State Park.

Ray and I arrived, got our site pass and unhooked the car. I drove ahead to scope out the site that we had reserved.  Oh oh! Although the driveway is long, it is way too veed for us to get into. Ray tried a couple of times but was bottoming out, so now what. I drove back to the entrance while Ray pulled into a parking lot, and the lady told me that there were no other options for us. She did call over to Sand Hollow State Park, about a 15 minutes drive away, and they agreed to save us one of their few walk-up sites in the OHV area as we had paid the reservation fee already. Quail SP refunded us 3 of the 4 days we had paid for and said that Sand Hollow may give us today free and then we would pay them for the 3 days extra.

I hurried over in the car and left Ray to follow at a slower pace. As it turned out they gave us their last walk-up site, but I still had to pay the $18 for today. (I only paid for 1 day to make sure Ray was okay with this) So our spot cost $23 plus $18 .... not too happy. Ray will go see the supervisor tomorrow when he pays for the extra days and see about getting one free. (They did give us the full refund for Quail SP)

As we were served "lemons" today, this campsite we ended up turning them into "lemonade" with fabulous,views and much better site than at Quail Creek anyway. We are close to the garbage, water spigots and bathrooms which have hot showers if you need them. The site is gravel with sandy dunes all around. Lots of space for Freya and she love loves the sand.

I'd originally intended to go into town shopping, but with the screw-up over the campsites I just wanted to sit outside and enjoy the day. The only down-side to this spot is it's really noisy during the weekend with the OHV's. Fortunately, we seem to be out of the "dust zone" for the most part. There is also primitive camping for $15 instead of $18 down at the beach, but the traffic there is much worse and very dusty. We drove down to check the areas out and noticed a lot more bugs, and the soft wet sand was kinda smelly ... note keep Freya out of it. This area is at the end of the lake with lots of reeds etc and birds so it could be bird poop in the sand that smells???

We had a lovely campfire before dinner so I could cook our potatoes.  We then ate our pork roast and veggies outside at the picnic table enjoying the evening. Generator hours here are from 6am to 10pm and you cannot hear anyone's genie over the OHV noise anyways. Quiet time is at 10 pm although I still heard some OHV's barrelling around up until 11 pm. Overnight it was quiet though, which was great for sleeping. Ray needed to have a "quiet day" as his back is still quite sore from our touring in Zion National Park.

Sunday, October 22nd

Up by 6 am as usual. Ray's back is still giving him grief so instead of touring today, off to bed for him to watch Sunday football. I will go into town and do our shopping for several hours. They have a Costco here !!! yeah. Back home after getting the shopping and a hair cut by 2 pm. We spent the rest of the day sitting outside enjoying the view. Ray did snap a few pictures while I was gone.

The dunes behind our campsite.

View towards Zion National Park

The beach on the other side of the road from the campsite.

While we were sitting outside there was a comotion behind us ... a motorhome pulling a ATV trailer turned where he should not have and ended up with his back end in a deep ditch. After several hours of monkeying around with friends to get him out ... they finally took my suggestion they call road side assistance sooner than later as it was a Sunday afternoon. The tow truck came and he was out in minutes.

Notice his back end is touching the road.

 Monday, October 23rd

Ray went to town to pick up fluids for the coach and car and I spent the morning making bread and doing the dishes. Once he came back the wind came up so we decided to stay inside with the windows open on the leeward side for air ... mistake ... The wind kept ramping up all afternoon into the night, stronger and stronger, the satellite dish came down by 6 pm.  Had to close the windows, later in the evening on the leeward side due to the sand blowing into my house. It was hot inside all night around 75F with just the roof vents open for some air. Way too hot for me to sleep well even though I was using ice packs on my face. The wind did not quit until around 4 am.

Tuesday, October 24th

Managed to fall back asleep when Ray got up at 6 am until 7 am with my window open. It was finally cooling down in the coach. Last night was the first night I did not have to turn on the heat overnight and instead cooked. What a change. Once the wind died down the temps outside came down to around 60F. By 8 am the sand was blowing again. Ray and I decided to go for a drive and explore instead as there was no point just sitting inside with the sand blowing again. I need to get the vacuum out but will wait until tomorrow when the forecast is for minimal wind. Hate to vacumm twice. lol

We drove out to check the Red Cliff Recreation area. OMG the single lane tunnels you have to go through under highway I-15 were quite small. No way anything other than a small trailer would be able to access the camping area. A gorgeous place none-the-less.

First up was the "Orson House". It certainly explained why there was a settlement in the middle of nowhere.

Orson House

Other town remains.

View from the Silver Reef Trailhead.

One of the small campsites.

The next area we checked out was Snow Canyon State Park. They have limited camping options for larger rigs but if you reserve well in advance you could snag a site for a few days. The place reminds me of Valley of Fire State Park with all of the gorgeous rocks. We will put this on our list for another time as Ray said it would take him 2 days to get all of the pictures he would like. The area has lots of red rock cliffs with lava rock interspersed, limestone mountains and orange sand dunes. Very interesting.  We only checked the campsite and thus no pictures... but here's some from Google to get the idea.

Picture from Google

Thousands of moqui marbles, concretions of iron oxide minerals, accumulate in small troughs eroded into the Navajo Sandstone, Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

Snow Canyon State Park also offers visitors a 35-unit campground, modern rest rooms, hot showers, electric hookups, sewage disposal station and covered pavilion. Snow Canyon attracts many rock climbers and other adventure seekers to its towering cliffs. Also found in Snow Canyon are lava caves which attract hikers from around the park. The caves are located in a field of lava and are open to those who desire to explore their passages and cavernous rooms. Ancient Indian petroglyphs can also be found throughout the park.

As you can see we definitely want to spend some time there instead of just a quick trip like we took today.

By 3 pm the wind has finally died down to just a breeze so much more comfortable and I can open all of the windows again. Temps today should be around 80F. Tonight Pork Belly in my Instant Pot, Yumm. We are staying for one more day and then will move on and hopefully catch up with Steve and Dianne within the next couple of days. Ray and I drove to the beach to give Freya a chance to get her belly wet and Ray snapped these pictures. The sand has been blown into waves of sand again, erasing all of the foot and most vehicle traffic from the weekend.

Tonight I made Asian Pork Belly in my instant pot, served over rice and stir fryed veggies. Ray said it was one of my best meals. Definitely worth the effort.

Wednesday, October 25th

Woke up to another sunny (and not windy) morning. Today my job list is to vacuum the entire coach to get rid of all of the red sand. Tomorrow we are on the road again.