We got up this morning to a nearly abandoned campground.  There were still a tent and a couple of campers but no people.  Really quiet morning having coffee along the river with no noise but the river, and occasional jumping fish and a few birds – very peaceful.

Mary at work

We loaded up our chairs and rolled out of camp about 10am to a morning with no sun and no rain.  Our path along UT128 followed the Colorado River to Moab, UT.  We passed several more BLM primitive campgrounds (like ours last night) and saw a couple of Dude Ranches as well but the morning drive was generally just a slow meandering one that mirrored the river.

Then came Moab!  I’m not quite sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t the traffic, never ending No Vacancy (motel and campground) signs and dozens of stoplights that we encountered.

The Three Gossips

We quickly reversed course and headed up US191 to Arches National Park.  At the visitor center, we stamped our National Parks Passport and watched the informative film about the park and the forces that created this unique area then prepared lunch in the parking lot before heading up the mountain for the park itself.

Castle Rock

Beautiful, stunning, many wows, fantastic – then sensory overload began to kick in.  This park really needs to be viewed slowly rather than at our breakneck speed of 20-30mph.  Everywhere you look another spectacular sight awaits the eye.

Sandstone Arch

We left the park around 4 and had to drive 50 miles to Green River to find a campground that had some space (Shady Acres RV Park & Campground).  We barely got setup when the thunderstorms hit and we had a noisy 30 minutes.

Odometer: 79490   Miles Today:  199  Total: 2201