JUNE 2011

July 01, 2011 • Leave a Comment

JUNE 2111

We came to Salt Lake City to attend the Teton SW Regional Rally. We thought it would be a good excuse to get out to visit the National Parks in Utah. We stayed in North Salt Lake and in addition to the activities we posted in May's Blog, we got to hear the Morman Tabernacle Choir in the Tabernacle (they move to the Convention Center in the summer) and made a couple of trips to Park City. Our Rally Hosts, Manette and Arnie live in Park City and showed us around. We saw the 2002 Olympic Ski Park and we were able to watch the US Ski Team practicing.

Practice slope into the pool at Park City.

Arnie recommended a great restaurant, Cafe Terigo, for lunch in town at Park City.

Main Street in Park City.

Our next stop was Moab, in southern Utah.

In Moab, we found an RV park south of town called OK RV Park. It's a Passport America park, so we paid $20 a night (half price). This park offered the PA rate for the two weeks we were there. Since PA parks usually only offer a special rate for weekdays, so we were very happy with that.

We spent the first few days exploring Arches National Park. We enjoy hiking and there are many trails to experience. Fortunately we got a little practice in on a few hikes in Salt Lake City.

Climb up to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch, which is Utah's license plate symbol.

A lesser known park in the area is Dead Horse State Park. It's small, but the views are amazing. (The final scene in Thelma and Louise was filmed here.)

View of Colorado River from Deadhorse Point.

We took a back road (SR 279) from Moab to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands. It was one of those rocky 5 mile an hour roads which climaxed in a scary switchback.

Switchback at Canyonlands.

Another adventure was a scenic drive on the LaSal Mountain Loop Road. That was a beautiful drive through mountains and forests.

View from LaSal Mountain Loop Road.

Field of wild irises along road.

Grove of aspen trees.

Cowboys (and cowgirl) rounding up cattle along road.

Canyonlands National Park is divided into three parts - Island in the Sky (near Moab), Needles (south of Moab) and The Maze (no access roads). We drove to Needles and found several short hikes.

Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock in Needles.

View of Needles.

After two weeks in Moab we went to Torrey, which is a few miles outside Capitol Reef National Park. We found some great trails and back roads. An unusual aspect of this park is the town of Fruita (froot a), a historic Morman settlement, surrounded by bearing fruit trees. Though the settlement was abandoned years ago, the fruit trees are maintained and when the fruit is ripe it is available for anyone. Hikers talk about enjoying a juicy pear or peach after a long hike. We, however, didn't get to experience that, as we were in the wrong season.

Capitol Reef National Park

View from Chimney Rock Trail.

One of the many orchards in Fruita.

We took a ride on SR25 around Fish Lake.

Fish Lake attracts trout fishermen.

Cows with a white stripe.

A nice (but long) back road trip was Notom-Bullfrog Road to SR12. This route took us through the Waterpocket Fold and the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument.

Waterpocket Fold.

Views of Strike Valley from Dixie National Forest.

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