City of Rocks National Reserve, Oct. 19

City of Rocks was first described by California Trail wagon pioneers as "a dismantled rock-built city of the stone age".  "They are in a romantic valley clustered together, which gives them the appearance of a city." 
The City of Rocks became a landmark for emigrants seeking new lives in the west and by 1852 thousands had passed through on their way to California goldfields.  Names of some of those who passed through in the mid 1800s were written in axle grease on the rocks which were still visible to us on "Register Rock" and "Camp Rock". 
City of Rocks has become a western favorite for rock climbing rivaling Yosemite (that's hard to believe).  One rock was actually called "Practice Rock" where we saw several people waiting to climb.  We watched 4 climbers, two women and two men. Three scaled "Bread Loves" as we ate lunch in the picnic area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young looking woman climbing Bath Rock.  We were afraid for her until we saw through the telescope that she had a rope.  You can see the rope in the picture.

 

We dubbed this rock 'mushroom rock'.

 

 

 

 

See the 2 climbers on Bread Loaves rock?  There was also a woman climber that we didn't catch in the picture.  It's fascinating to us that people do this!  We watched until they all reached the top.  We wanted to know how they were going to come down, repel or climb?  But they stayed up longer than we wanted to stay at that site.

 

Stopping along the way, Oct. 17-20

After Canyonlands NP we stopped for the night in Green River State Park just off  I-70.  Nice clean RV sites with most hookups under cottonwood trees and on the Green River.  We woke up just before dawn to hooting owls...wish we could've seen them.  We stayed just one night then drove west on the interstate to Salina.

Boat dock on the River at Green River State Park

Green River State Park, Utah

Green River State Park campgrounds

 From Salina we drove north on UT-28 to Yuba state park on the Sevier Bridge Resouvoir. We were the lone campers in this park that looked almost brand new.

Yuba Lake State Park campgrounds, Utah

Yuba Lake

From Yuba we took I-15 up through Salt Lake City to I-84 and on to Idaho.  Found the Village of Trees RV park in the tiny town of Declo that took Passport America and had all amenities including wifi, laundry, convenience store, and cafe.  We stayed 3 nights to catch up with household chores and to visit City of Rocks which was about 40 miles south.

Canyonlands National Park, Oct. 16

Canyonlands consists of three areas, Island in the Sky, the Maze, and the Needles, separated by the Colorado and Green rivers. We spent our time in Island in the Sky which is a broad mesa wedged between the two rivers in the northern part of the park.  Views from the overlooks were awesome as you would expect.  We walked trails to Mesa Arch, Shafer Canyon and Green river overlooks.  We took the Jeep down the unpaved, very steep and narrow Shafer Trail road which was an extremely unnerving ride down for us both. When we reached the bottom of the canyon I was serviously thinking about walking back up!  Knowing it would be much too far I entrusted my life once again to our '97 Jeep.  Actually the ride up was a much better experience that I thought it would be.  We were even relaxed enough to notice the Bighorn sheep grazing on the mountain side. Whew!!

Shafer Canyon Overlook
 

Shafer Trail Road from the overlook

 

 

Mesa Arch

 

Mesa Arch

 

Shafer Canyon

 

Green River overlook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arches National Park, Oct. 15, 2012

The park was amazing, of course!  Many awesome spires, balanced rocks, and sandstone fins were viewable from roadside parking.  Arches for the most part could be seen only from the trails. When the day was done we were completely worn out from walking to several viewpoints!



Three Gossips

 

 

Turret Arch

 

The Windows

North Window

Petroglyphs on the trail to Delicate Arch

 

La Sal Mountains

 

On to Moab, Utah

We took off for Moab up through Grand Junction into Utah and headed southwest on UT hwy 128. The drive was slow but beautiful next to the Colorado river.

We came into Moab at the crossroads of UT 128 and 191.  Moab is a busy town in October sitting between Arches and Canyonlands national parks.  All RV parks seemed to be full including the NP campgrounds and especially OK RV Park where we were lucky to get an overflow space.  With beautiful weather, we stayed two nights while we visited the two national parks.