Moab

Apparently Utah has five National Parks that are known as the Big 5.

1. Arches
2. Canyonlands
3. Bryce Canyon
4. Zion
5. Capitol Reef

We decided to stay in Moab so that we could visit two of them: Arches and Canyonlands. The other three we plan on visiting over the next few weeks. I will relay the two National Parks that we visited whilst staying in Moab under separate posts. I’ll use this post to relay other activities that we did in Moab.

We stayed at the Archview RV Resort and Campground just outside of Arches.

It was a decent place, but very dusty with a lot of live tumbleweed – no grass for poor Bear to play. Katrina booked us in spot 97 which was the last one at the far side of the park and it was closest to “wildlife”.

We took the truck on the Gemini Bridges Road and allowed Bear to come with us. This was a winding dirt road that lead to two arches (Gemini) that you could walk over.

Great views!

Gemini Bridges:

Since we were on a dirt road traversing around boulders, hills and fins, I did not expect to see this:

Really? A corner mirror? Cool reflection!

After dropping Bear back at the Busse Bus we ventured downtown and tried the dinner at the Moab Brewery. We got to eat at the bar. Good food!

The next day after driving into Arches (see other post) we went into town to rent 4×4 for the following day. For dinner we stopped at the Sunset Grill.

Interesting place poised up on a hill overlooking the valley. Apparently the original house was owned by a local who found Uranium in the area during the 50’s. He made $60M for the discovery. Beautiful location and views! Oh, and the food was outstanding although a bit expensive.

Rented a “Side-by-Side” fourwheeler to attempt the local courses.

We did “Fins & Things” and “Hell’s Revenge” before lunch.

Katrina got out of the rig a few times to watch me climb a boulder or come down one. What absolute fun! No wonder that we have friends from Palm Beach (originally Mundelein), the Hausauer’s, that have done several family trips with their Jeeps. Katrina got some great videos that you can watch on our RVTravelingwiththeBusseBus Facebook Page.

We had lunch at Milt’s – I had a burger, tater tots and a coffee shake.

Great little greasy spoon!

After lunch we headed out try the course that took us out to Hurrah’s Pass, Chicken Corners and ended at the spot where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff. When we got to Hurrah’s Pass our gas gauge was showing one tick left so we turned around.

We complained when we got back to the rental place (High Point) and they let us keep to until 9pm. We headed back out to try to make it all the way to Chicken Corners. After driving for about 1.5 hours and it getting darker we decided to turn around once we saw the marker for Chicken Corners.

We did see some Petroglyphs along the way:

Therefore, we never made it there nor did we see where the final scene was cast for the movie. It reminded me of the Road to Hana.

Ok, I apologize ahead of time for this one: After spending some time viewing these beautiful vistas of arches, red rocks, mesas, and rock fins – one could take them for granted, but don’t – it’s mostly sandstone! Sorry! Dad joke, for sure!

The following day we headed into Canyonlands National Park (see other post) to check it out. Ended up the day with an outstanding drive back to Moab.

On our final day in Moab, we headed into town to stock up on groceries. Not a lot of choices and expensive! We decided to try the Food Truck Park

and ate lunch at Quesadilla Mobilla, really good food! We ate outside near the food truck. Walked around a bit going into a couple of stores. Nothing worth spending money on, so we headed back to the Busse Bus.

We went back into town to watch the fireworks.

Check out the full moon in one photo. Happy Independence Day!

While we were packing up to head to Bryce Canyon we talked to a couple who were walking their two dogs. One was an Aussie!

Bear had a chance to play with them, but only briefly as it was hot!

Off to Bryce Canyon. By the way, we were able to add Utah to our map! But the sticker isn’t officially on until we come back in September and visit SLC and Jennifer Ehler’s who requested to place the Utah sticker.