Around Cottonwood Pass(Buena Vista) then Moab,UT

Went to see the fall colors then on to Moab to try out our new Jeep. We towed years ago, a '98 Ford Ranger hauling our kayaks and bikes,  but when Carol had her stroke and then broke her hip,  we stopped. Ten+ years later we're towing once again. This time its a bright red Jeep Willys Edition.

 Goose Island BLM campground. Moab.

 Moab. Onion Creek trail. We crossed Onion Creek 31 times. A truly beautiful drive.

 Cottonwood Pass near Buena Vista,CO.

Happy camper 😊

Roses

Late Spring and they are all in bloom.

Camping along the Blue River

Near Silverthorne,  CO.
Nearby is a parking area used by rafters and kayakers.
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A beautiful Spring day

Heading home and one more disbursed site.

On our way out of Moab on Hwy 191, we looked at one more disbursed area. The ones we've stayed in already, can get busy with ATV'ers.  If someone wants more privacy and quiet, Darby Wells Road is a good choice.
38 42 57.72  -109 41 32.06

Ran into some snow around Vail  Pass and again, near Dillon/Silverthorn.

Dillon Reservoir. Frozen and snow covered.

The Heaton Bay campground on Dillon Reservoir is one of our favorite not-far-away places.

We're planning on heading out again towards the end of May. Most likely staying in the CO mountains.

Rocked out for now

It rained most of last night and today. Nature must love it. Pools of water formed in the rocks for the animals to drink and the plants got a good soaking. For us the plus was keeping the dust under control.

We headed into Moab this morning with the intent of staying around for another week. After talking about it, we decided we had about seen enough rocks for a while so decided to head home in the morning. We're at the BLM Goose Island campground tonight. It's the closest BLM campground to town making it a very convenient place to stay. Good VZ coverage is a bonus.

A number of years ago, some friends took a trip to Italy, Greece and Egypt to see old stuff. Bob commented that after a while, one pile of rubble pretty much looked like the other. Rocks are like that too.

The most spectacular view was from Dead Horse Point. Our favorite camping area was the disbursed area off Willlow Springs Road.

Dead Horse Point State Park

On Saturday, at our disbursed camping site on the mini 'mesa' off Dubiky Road, we sat through a dust storm. The weather stations said a steady 35-40 mph wind with gusts to 50+. In the morning there was fine red dust in all the window tracks, on the counters, cabinet trim, etc. The stovetop was covered with a thick layer of red dust. I'm guessing it blew in through the range hood vent. Next time, I stuff a rag in the outside part of the vent.

Sunday morning we left our nice disbursed site and drove to Canyonlands, NP.

We took a driving tour of the Island in the Sky part of Canyonlands. There are two other parts of Canyonlands; The Needles and The Maze. The Willow Flat campground is $15/night. First-come, first-served. There were vacant sites when we drove through.
Dead Horse Point SP is very, very popular in the "season". We lucked into a two night cancellation a few weeks ago. There are  electricity and toilet facilities, and a dump station but no showers. Water is hauled in from Moab. $30/night for camping. The main overlook trail is paved. From her wheelchair, Carol got a good look at the canyon and distant river.
The park brochure says that the view from the overlook is one of the worlds most photographed sites.
Here are a few of mine. There were photographers with $1,000+ equipment. An iPhone suits our  needs.

Reminded us very much of the Grand Canyon. The road below is accessible by 4 WD vehicles via the Potash Road in Moab. Another time perhaps?

That's the Colorado River some 2,000' down

Got a little rain today, accompanied by some hail. The water is surely needed plus it helps keep the dust under control.

Tomorrow we head back to Moab.  The Parrot Guy I met, told me about some areas he thought we would find interesting. We'll check them out.

Disbursed camping off SR 313. North of Moab.

UT 313 runs west off of US 191 north of Moab. It leads to both Canyonlands NP and Dead Horse Point SP.
The general rule along 313 is that camping is only permitted in the 'regular' campgrounds.

There are popular disbursed camping areas along 313.

One  is along Spring Canyon Road and Dubinky Road. These are 'official' BLM disbursed camping areas. Spring Canyon Rd is easily found  by turning north at the sign for the Big Mesa BLM campground on the north side of 313. Probably 8-9 miles from 191. As you drive along either of these dirt roads, you will see numerous smaller red dirt roads leading to disbursed areas. There are dozens of camping areas. Good VZ signal in most areas. Ted is adding some to his campground database.
Teds public campground site

Parrots in the desert?

I was sitting outside with my early morning coffee when a large bird came flying by. At first I thought it must have been a hawk of some type and the early morning sun had distorted the colors. Then it landed in a shrub near me and it became clear that the bird was, in fact, a blue parrot of some type.
It seems that early this morning, a guy from Texas pulled into the area.  He puts on parrot shows and is a professional parrot trainer. Interesting profession. He also does cliff diving and dirt bike racing. He uses the mesa we're camped on for parrot flight training.

He lived in Moab for five years and was a great source of local driving and hiking information.

The large blue parrot

A much smaller orange one.

He drags a 4 door Jeep Rubicon with his dirt bike mounted on the Jeep behind a very large Class C. Must be a real challenge to stop that combination of a steep downgrade.

The more we look at the jeep trails in CO and UT, the more we talk about getting a Jeep to tow.  We'll see.

Moving on

Today we left our nice campsite on Willow Springs Road. I got to do a lot of short hikes. By myself, of course. The lazy dog stayed with Carol.
Photos from our campsite on  top of a huge slab of slickrock. With binoculars we could see the arches in Arches.

The La Sal mountains

Us

Still trying to figure out what this green rock is.

Today we went into Moab for water, propane, groceries, etc.
There is a new Maverick Gas station in town located at 985 S. US Hwy 191. Free dump and free water. Both located on the north side of the building. Easy access plus a nearby RV lane.
Last week we had breakfast at the Eclectic Cafe. Today we went back for lunch. A very popular restaurant with a very diverse menu.
Eclectic Cafe Facebook page.


After taking care of in-town stuff, we headed for the Dead Horse Point area. Tonight we're at the Dubinsky Road BLM disbursed camping area.
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Pretty but I don't know the name.

From tonights campsite.

Sunset to the West

And a full moon rising in the East over the La Sal mountains.

On Sunday, we have reservations at the Dead Horse Point State Park for two nights. We're here until then.
When we left home we had planned on including SW Colorado in this trip. Since its still cold and snowy at the higher elevations, we decided to head home next week then take off for the mountains in mid to late May.

Disbursed camping area north of Moab

If anyone is looking for a nice disbursed camping area about 20 minutes north of Moab, the Willow Springs Road is very nice. Good access road, great scenery, good VZ.

A 4wd vehicle will take you into the Arches NP.

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-109.68343

Arches NP and the La Sal Mountains are in the background.

A cold, windy and rainy and snowy weekend

It doesn't rain much in Moab. On the average about 9.5" per year. Friday was one of those rainy ones.
We took a ride along a canyon road , SR 279/Potash Road, and then went into town for lunch at the Sweet Cravings Bakery and Bistro. Carol has a strawberry salad wrap that was very, very good.
I walked around the campground and came up with enough firewood for one chilly night.

Keeping warm.

You feel like taking a walk? Fine. I'm happy right here.

On Saturday we drove the Kane Creek Road. It's on the south side of the Colorado River just across from the Potash Road we drove yesterday. There are some nice BLM campgrounds along the river on both sides. Kane Creek Road is a narrow, winding dirt road. No guard rails. At one point there is a sign indicating a 10% grade following that is a corkscrew type curve leading into the canyon bottom. The turns are so tight you're hoping no one is coming the other way, or if they are, the driver is sober and not texting.

Along Kane Creek Road

The winds have been a steady 20-30 mph with gusts to 50mph. Fortunately, Saturdays rain has kept the blowing dirt under reasonable control.

Sunday morning we went in town and had a very good breakfast at the Eklecticafe and then took a ride to the BLM Ken's Lake campground located south of town. It's on a pretty, clear water lake. Then we decided to try the La Sal Mountain Loop Road. I asked the campground host about the road conditions and he said the road was opened all the way through to Hwy 128. Off we go. First there are scattered snow flurries, then harder snow then this

We hoped a car would come towards us so we could inquire about road conditions up ahead. None did so we turned around. 

The blurry area at the top of the picture is the clouds we were driving through.

They have four "wheel" drive. We don't.

The views were impressive. 

So we headed back into town. Deciding where to head tomorrow. North or South.

Moab

We headed out to Moab last Saturday. It's a six hour drive from home putting it at our outer limits for a day. By late Saturday, our choice of BLM campsites along CR 128 was limited. We looked at Dewey Bridge but it wasn't much.  Continued to Hittle Bottom and found one empty site. Camped next to us were two families with seven children and one pregnant wife between them. Carol thinks there must have been sets of twins because the oldest of the kids was probably six, or so. Very well behaved. This is Mormon country where larger families are quite common.
In the morning we continued on 128 hoping to get a site at Goose Island. Got the last empty site. Street side and not river side but that works for a day. Goose Island is very popular because it's the closest BLM campground to Moab. The BLM campsites along the Colorado River are $15/night and half of that with our Geezer Card.
In the morning, Monday, we decided to head to Arches NP in hopes of getting a campsite. These sites are typically reserved months in advance. The Campground Full sign was up at the Visitor Center and again at the campground. I inquired with the resident host and there were actually two sites opened for two nights!! One next to the dumpster and the handicap site.  Carols handicap placard got us a really nice site.

I went hiking to two of the different arches. 

A happy camper

After our stay at the Devils Garden campground in Arches we went into Moab for the first time. We stopped at the very nice Visitor Center and used their free wi-fi to upload all our pictures to the cloud.
We used Yelp! to direct us to the Quesadilla Mobilla food truck where we had an amazing lunch of burritos. Then the business of grocery shopping, tank dumping, and such.

Quesadilla Mobilla

We spent the night in the Sand Flats Recreation Area. It's a county administered BLM recreation area. Mostly ATV's and mountain bikers, but convenient to town. $15/night. There are some 120 sites and most were taken.

In the morning, we stopped by the Red Rock Bakery and Net Cafe. Great cinnamon buns and coffee. Then we headed to Goose Island again to try our luck. Site 17, a direct riverfront site, was available. We'll use this as our base for the rest of our stay in the area. We have reservations at the Dead Horse Point SP for the 24th and 25th.

Our Goose Island site.

Mostly it's me hiking by myself these days. Gopher is 12 and no longer has an interest in walking very far.  At home, three years ago, she and I would typically walk from two to four miles a day. Anymore a slow walk around the block and she then points me towards home. Overall, her  recent vet checkup went well. The vet said that older dogs, like older people, frequently get arthritis but there  is no test and the dogs can't say.  She recommended glucosamine.  I started her on that in February. No visible progress, but perhaps she feels a little better.


A few more pictures.

The LaSal mountains

Fisher Towers in front of LaSal mountains.

Our campsite at Devils Garden

Starting the old blog again.

 A disbursed camping site near Big Sur. Jim and Gayle told us about this spot. Very nice.

 Morro Rock in Morro Bay. We really liked this area. We'll be back. 

We spent late February and a good bit of March drifting around California. After attending the annual YAHOO! rally in Morro Bay we drove the coastal highway from Ventura north to Monterey. What a beautiful drive. I still think the drive through the Florida Keys is my favorite, but this would be right up  there. 

Right now we're getting ready for a trip to SE Utah (The Moab area) and SW Colorado.  We've never spent much time in these areas. 

I gave the camper its semi-annual waxing over the last two days.  That red color looks beautiful all shiny. Someone came up to us at Morro Bay and said they thought we had the best looking Lazy Daze there. :-)

Carol has a doctor appointment tomorrow then we head out early Saturday. We expect being out for a month or so. We really like traveling so close to home. Moab is just six hours from here.  We can easily go home if we chose then plan another close trip and head out for a month or so. That's the plan. No more cross-country drives for us. They just wear us out.

Still working on some blog posting issues. I'm not real familiar with the MacBook I'm now using.