Bears Ears National Monument, Indian Creek Unit. October 9 & 10

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we woke to clear skies. A great night spent under the stars. It cooled down nicely overnight with the windows open so I slept well. :)

We were on the road by 8:30 am after showers. Destination, the Bears Ears National Monument off of Highway 191 onto Highway 211. Lots of curves and slow portions down to 35 mph. This area is managed by the BLM and further down the road is the entrance to Canyonlands, Needles District.

Once you drove up to the canyons the drive was very pretty with all the fall colours. Pictures I took on the way in did not turn out with the reflection of the front window, but we got great ones on the way out. 

First stop on the 45 minute journey down this back country road, is the famous Newspaper Rock. This is one of the best and clearest displays of petrogylphs we've seen.

I imagine they've been perserved so well due to this large overhang of a rock.

After stopping for some pictures, we continued on to Creek Pasture Campground, no way we could fit anywhere there. We left the MH at the group site and carried on scouting for a suitable spot. Hamburger Rock Campground is next. We didn't really fit there either, but further down the gravel road are some boondocking spots and we found a beauty, and it's FREE! Back to pick up the coach and within 30 minutes we were all set up at our home base for the next 2 days.

Once set up we headed back out in the car to Canyonlands. Wow the rocks are gorgeous. We actually found the scenery nicer on the drive through Bears Ears National Monument. Going through the Needles District of Canyonlands wasn't as spectacular.

Here is their Wooden Shoe Arch. The sun's way to bright and in the wrong spot ...

After touring the campgrounds in the park, which were full, we saw a gravel road down to Elephant Hill trailhead. A very narrow well-kept gravel road that wound around all the rocks, up and down. Beautiful vistas. Ray's in camera heaven. Tons of people parked at the trailhead. The road is much better for views.

Time to turn around and continue along. Next up is the short scenic drive to Big Springs Canyon Overlook at the end of the road.  Another gorgeous drive. There are two great short hikes (Slip Rock and Pot Holes) here, but we plan to come back tomorrow. This is just a quick trip to see what there was to see.

Back to camp for 2:30 pm. Time for a cold beverage as it's about 26C/78F outside. We have a lovely tree to sit under in the shade and there's a breeze, so it was much cooler.

I went back inside around 4 pm and WTF ... the inverter is off again, which means the fridge is also off! I'd nothing running so ?????  Fortunately, we bought a replacement fuse at the Home Depot in St. George just before we left, so Ray replaced it and everything is fine again. Fingers crossed. I think the fuse he replaced a week ago is an old one we were given in 2019 when the rv tech replaced the fuse block the fuse sits in. Hopefully that is the case and the new one will do. Always something. We will have to get a spare again along the way just in case.

I made beef pot pie for dinner ... I'd made the stuffing up a couple of days ago and just put the puff pastry on and cook. Turned out great, thankfully the convection oven worked after changing the fuse and turning on the generator. I dreaded using our propane oven as it would have heated up inside terribly. It's hot enough. Interesting though,when the inverter quits and you use the generator, you can still run heat pumps, just not anything that runs through the inverter.

After dinner, Ray headed back out for some evening shots on Lockhart Road where our campsite is. It is so gorgeous here.

Dry waterfall of 10m/35ft

Views from the top of the MH

Goodnight Lockhart Road.

I woke up at midnight and WTF. The inverter's off again!!! Once we woke we decided that we were "outta here" back into civilization and power hookups until we can resolve this issue.  So much for taking those two hikes!

Our destination after a 2 hour drive is the Sundance RV Park in Cortez. We were booked here anyways for 4 nights to tour this area and fortunately they had room for us tonight. We we will have to move sites tomorrow to the one we had reserved.