Sunday (Oct 22)
Fucking Mormon Sunday, everything is closed. The Ace Hardware is closed! I literally could not find a cup of coffee in Blanding today. Blanding was already up there with Panguitch in my Hall of Shame for dining quality, so I wasn’t as disappointed as I might have been.
The hippies save the day! Yelp tells me that 40 miles north, the Peace Tree Juice Cafe in Monticello is open, the only open place in the 100 miles before Moab. I remember it from last time. I was sitting on their patio when I got a follow-up call from Dr Cicek at Anadolu Hospital to see how I was doing. This is when he put the idea in my head to return to Istanbul for a “free” echocardiogram. Anyway, this time I had a yummy Cuban sandwich, many cups of coffee, and the ATT phone reception was just good enough to run Personal Hotspot, so all in all, quite a success!
This is Sunday afternoon, and by the time I get to Moab it should be the middle of the third quarter of the Niners game – the debut of CJ Beathard as a starter! I certainly don’t need food yet but decide to invest in a beer at a sports bar. Yelp shows one a coupla miles off the highway on my side of town. I drive over there and it was a cool place. In the working class burbs, a prefab hut with two big rooms – a bowling alley and a mechanical bull in one and the sports bar in the other. The bathroom was in the bowling and bull side. They had crappy country music videos running at high volume, which pretty much nails the feel of the place. I liked it, but not the place for me to start talking politics. The Niners were unwatchable, so I just did my usual stuff on the laptop.
Now to find propane on a Sunday afternoon. All the home propane places are closed for the weekend. The first place Google sent me to only sold those tanks, but he pointed me at a Shell station at the far edge of town. It was the usual pain in the ass, but I got ‘er done. I will not freeze tonight.
By now it’s four-ish, so I follow the highway down Main Street and out of town north to the Colorado River. Take a right and follow Route 128 up the river till a campground with an open space.
WHUFU page for: Drinks Canyon Campground
Heading north out of Moab, take a left before the Colorado River and head upstream. There are a string of BLM campgrounds along the river. This is the third one, about six miles out. It is three sections, the pay station is in the middle. A campsite consists of a picnic table and a fire pit close to a busy road, that's it. But you are on the Colorado River!
tonight:
I took the middle campsite and was pretty happy with it. The butte across the road put me in shade till 10:30-ish. A gret thing in the summer, not so much on a crisp late fall morning.
The setting here is beautiful, but I am quickly developing an attitude about my fellow campers. First of all everyone on this part of the river and the town of Moab for that matter could be starring in an REI or Patagonia modeling ad. Everybody is so damn slick and pleased with themselves, and they’re so damn serious about their state of the art bikes and kayaks and slickrock transportation devices that it gets annoying pretty quickly.
The campsite I chose is terribly scenic, on a stretch of rough river – no rapids but enough turbulence to provide a nice sound. But it is also quite close to the road, and a steady stream of hyperactive SUVs keep pulling into the parking lot, looking around for a hot minute then pulling out. A Hummer (of course) went through at about 30, to execute a u-ey and speed back the other direction. Any asshat should know to cut their speed on very dusty gravel when someone is sitting at a picnic table 12′ away. He got the finger. A minute later he was speeding back the other direction that he u-turned from the first time. An opportunity to give him the finger again.
It sure is an amazing sunset here though. I didn’t plan it, but the river runs straight west from this spot for a long ways, giving me a straight shot for sunset. The next few campgrounds are around the bend. They have their own delights, but they won’t have this sunset.
Monday
Slept quite well, traffic and headlights weren’t a problem at all. I am more and more convinced that the noisy heater wakes me up at least a little bit every time it clanks on. I shut the heat off at sunrise because the morning sun usually heats the interior up very quickly, but not today because the dramatic bluff right across the road kept me in shadow till about 10 am. There was plenty of sunlight upstream and downstream, but my little stretch stayed in icy shadow for an extra hour or so.
Oh well… Right as the sun did peek out from behind the massive rock I had a brainstorm, and rummaged through the van to find my eclipse glasses which I still have. I watched the sun peek out from the rocks, it was pretty cool.
All my busy, active outdoor couple neighbors were long gone at 9 am.
Back to town, eat at the Red Rock Bakery. I Went Big and got the $10 lox and bagel, and a brownie and coffee. The vibe was a little touristy, but hey, it’s a tourist town. Not awesome though. If I was here longer I would try another place next time.
Did a walk-thru on City Market, didn’t buy anything, but I am ready for tomorrow! Then did a walk-thru on Ace Hardware, which I thought would have the same lack of results, but on the way out I impulse-bought a grill lighter and an Xact-o knife off the checkout counter. In true impulse-buy fashion I bought the lighter, then noticed the knife while he was making change. After that I spent a couple of wonderful hours at the Public Library, then headed back up the river to find my spot for the night. The winner was:
WHUFU page for: Big Bend Campground
Heading north out of Moab, take a left before the Colorado River and head upstream. There are a string of BLM campgrounds along the river. This is the sixth one, about eight miles out. It is more deluxe than Drinks Canyon, it actually has a bathroom and a dumpster! Campsites here are bigger, RV sized, but equally Spartan -- a picnic table and a fire pit, that's it. But you are on the Colorado River!
tonight:
I forgot to bring quarters to the pay station ... my penalty: putting $8 in the envelope, leaving $.50 on the table. Here's to you BLM!
There are a few campsites with shade and a river view. Mine is un-shaded and you have to fight through a few feet of mesquite to see the river, but this time of year at this place nighttime cold is worse than daytime heat, so wide open is good!
As described above, my site is just a pad of gravel in a field 30 yards up from the river. The setting is just majestic, soaring red cliffs hundreds of feet high in all directions, so right now it’s working pretty well for me. In the middle of summer it would be brutal. There are a few clouds in the sky, so sunset was quite a bit more technicolor than it’s been the last few days. Really, really pretty … and no one else in sight has come out of their RV to enjoy it!
Tuesday
Very warm night by the standards of this trip, low outside was only in the high 40’s.
On my morning commute back to Moab, seeing all the happy, healthy hikers parking in the lot to hike up Nigger John Canyon (really…). I mused that a younger me would have used my free afternoon yesterday for an epic hike up on the slickrock rather than a few hours in the library. Oh well that was then, this is now.
At the mouth of the canyon the river road 128 meets the main north-south highway US 191. There is a lovely park, Lion’s Park, donated by the Lion’s Club. Its a perfect ;location to be the nexus of an extensive network of bike trails, up and down the river, north to Arches National Park, and so forth. It’s also a perfect place for all of us river campers to pull ourselves together before entering town. I empty the trash and recycling, fill water bottles, and … since there is finally phone reception here after none in the canyon, check devices and give Martha a call.
I vaguely remember eating at Eklectic on my last time through. What a great place. It has a hippy, dippy vibe, but seems sanitary and well-run, as many such do not. Good wifi and lovely outdoor seating and get your own coffee refills – my favorite! A perfect place for me to stoke up before re-entering the “wilderness”.
Cross downtown and revisit the City Market – sando, salad and another 12-pack. Beer this time is a sampler of three Uinta beers. I quite enjoyed my Uinta draft at the sports bar on Sunday. I re-traverse downtown for the final time and head up 191. Past my turn-off of the last two nights, over the Colorado River, past the entrance to Arches National Park, and up the hill to the top of the mesa. Take a left at the road to Canyonlands, and drive straight to:
WHUFU page for: Horsethief Campground
This is where you camp when Island in the Sky is full ... which it always it. The method is to stop here on the way in, nail down a site then continue on another 20-odd miles to the Grand viewpoint ... then come back.
tonight:
Site 2 is where the loop road turns a corner, facing out on the mesa with a good sunset exposure ... which wiill do me little good since I will spend sunset at Island in the Sky.
If I had stuck to my schedule I would have had a nice afternoon at the rim, but it was pleasant and peaceful at the campground and I must have been pretty tired, because when I parked I pulled down my bed and crashed out for most of the afternoon … oh well I must have needed it.
I’d forgotten what a long drive it is to the grandly named Grand View Point. It’s only a few miles to the entrance to the park, but then another 20-odd miles inside the park to the rim. In other words about the same distance as my drive from Moab to the campground. But I did take time back to marvel at the basic topography of the place – namely there there is this basically flat 400 square mile (20×20-ish) mesa with an access that narrows down to about 80 yards at some point. The ideal cattle pen back in the day.
I want two things that can’t both happen:
- I want to enjoy sunset at the Point.
- I want to enjoy sunset at my campsite.
Can’t really do both. It was really quite beautiful at the Point, so I stayed there till the sun disappeared on the horizin. Now I am speeding like a maniac to get back to my camping spot with at least a shred of daylight left to enjoy. I barely succeed. The last third of the trip was with headlights. When I pull into my site there is a still a little glow on the horizon, and it is warm enough that I can sit outside and calm down enjoy it!