Lower Onion Creek Campground, Utah

October 27, 2020.

Back to Utah, down Hwy. 128 following the Colorado River. This land is mostly all BLM but they don’t allow boondocking, which we find unusual. They also charge $20.00 a night ($10 for seniors), which is also unusual for BLM (often free or very cheap). The other unusual thing is the amount of people here! The Arches and Canyonland National parks were very crowded, as bad as Jellystone! We are herded into the campgrounds and charged mainly for parking (they had dumpsters, nothing else). This valley is dotted with campgrounds but the Onion Creek was furthest off the road and somewhat less crowded, being about 30 miles to Arches. We parked here for a week while we toured the area.

And what a beautiful area it is! Stunning! Our campsite was between Onion Creek and the Colorado River with a view of some rock formations called the Fisher Towers. It was a full moon on Halloween (a blue moon, even) and we watched the moonrise over Fisher Towers several nights in a row.

Moonrise over Fisher Towers — La Sal Mtns, from Onion Creek

We first explored the Onion Creek canyon and Castle Valley, all the way up to the La Sal Mountains.

Then we went up Kane Creek Rd along the Colorado River just west of Moab.

Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, CO

October 22, 2020. We went past Grand Junction down hwy 50, then a couple of miles down a terrible dirt road to perch on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Gunnison River.

My (Nancy) brother Jim, lives in Grand Junction, so he took us on a personal, guided tour of the Colorado National Monument.

After two nights hanging off the cliff over the Gunnison, the wind came up and almost blew us off. We actually had to get up in the middle of the night and put the slides in. (Kinda like the anchor drag alarm going off in the middle of the night in Calliope!) Sitting at the top of cliffs gives a great view, but the wind can be murder. Also, it was supposed to get really cold, so we packed it up and high-tailed it to brother Jim’s to plug in to his electricity. Ha! Started raining, then snowing. Then branches breaking and his power went out. Was out for the entire time we were there! But we had fun playing with his two sweet grandaughters and playing cards with Jim and wife, Sue. Also enjoyed biking and walks with Sue. I like riding on flat terrain! Thanks guys.

Grand Junction (“But this never happens here!”)

Juniper Hot Springs, CO

October 21, 2020. As we were leaving the Dinosaur National Monument, we saw several fields packed with sandhill cranes, with a few Canada Geese thrown in. Those guys seem to make it to every party. These cranes are big and loud. We heard them long before we saw them.

We found a great USGS website that shows a map of all the hot springs in the US, along with their temperatures. But that’s it. We have to then try and find them, determine whether they are on public land, private, or commercial. This one had a temp of 103 degrees F, commercial, with a campground. Well. We drove about four miles down a washboard dirt road and found a run-down hot spring. It had five or six different pools of varying temperatures, but the hottest one was barely warm enough to stay in. We figured 103 degrees is about the temperature of your standard hot tub. Should be pretty good. Now, we figure that 103 degrees is the temperature of the water as it comes out of the ground. Fill a concrete pool open to the air and it’s probably in the low 90s. I guess we look for springs with temps above about 125 degrees from now on. We stayed one night. It was tolerable but we wouldn’t have gone 60 miles out of our way for it (which we did).

Dinosaur National Monument (Scenery), Utah

October 20, 2020. The scenery here is stunning, with amazing rock formations showing various layers of different colors: red, turquoise, yellow, black and brown.

At the end of one of the dirt roads was an old cabin. Sign said it was built in 1914 by a woman named Josie Morris. She moved there when she was forty years old and lived there by herself for fifty years! She built a cabin, chicken house, barns, gardens and corrals. She used a box canyon for one of her corrals (only have to build one side of a fence)!

Dinosaur National Monument (Petroglyphs), Utah

October 20, 2020. We spent this day hiking and driving around looking for petroglyphs. We wonder how they managed to do this. Hanging by their toes, maybe?

Dinosaur National Monument (Dinosaur Bones), Utah

October 19, 2020. We spent a couple of days here looking at dinosaur bones, petroglyphs and the scenery. Because I have so many awesome pictures, I’m splitting this one up also. We wanted to stay here an extra day and hike a canyon trail but the temperature was heading down toward freezing so we left early.
The first place we stopped was at the quarry. The dinosaur bones that have been taken out of this quarry are found in museums all over the world. Sorry, didn’t write them down, but I do remember there are a couple in the Museum of Natural History in Washington DC (I remember this because I have seen them there). They left these bones in situ, about half uncovered, so we can see how they are found in different layers. It must be a real trick to put these back together into one animal!

Little Hole, Green River, UT

October 18, 2020. On the other side of the Flaming Gorge Dam, the Green River Continues. About 5 miles down the road is a charming place called Little Hole. We wanted to stay the night, but it was a day-use only place. The nearest campground was dismal, so we spent the afternoon at Little Hole, then continued south. Right now we are boondocking at a trailhead with a nice view of the valley and 3 bars on Roger. So I figured I would continue the update. Next stop is Dinosaur National Monument and then some hot springs in Colorado. Stay tuned.

Flaming Gorge, Wyoming and Utah

October 18, 2002. After boondocking in our mud hole, we continued south along the gorge. The further south we went, the more gorgeous it got. We went all the way to the Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah. It’s hard to get good landscape images with our equipment. They always seem less than the real thing.

After leaving WY, we passed through Manila, UT, and into the Sheep Creek Canyon. Oh, my! So beautiful, and must be where it takes the name, Flaming Gorge.

Weeping Rock Campground, Green River, Fontenelle Reservoir, WY

October 16, 2020. We reluctantly left our little oasis at Salt Creek and wandered south and east to Fontenelle Reservoir. The landscape has changed to high prairie, we are still at over 6,000 feet in altitude. You can see for a million miles. There really is a weeping rock at the Weeping Rock campground, but the really marvelous thing was the Great White Pelicans we saw as we were leaving. They are HUGE. We’ve never seen these before. Except for the yellow-orange beak, and black at the wingtips, they are pure white. The small black ducks in the distance are Canada Geese. Which aren’t small.

It was very windy here so we only stayed one night. We are now in the middle of nowhere in the Flaming Gorge with four bars on Roger. Go figure. We haven’t had a decent cell signal since the Bitterroot Valley. It’s still very windy and we had to go down into a small gorge to get somewhat away from it. There is no view here and the reservoir looks like a mud puddle in the middle of a sandpile. Not worth recording.

Ok, so sunset came and things improved a little. Wind has died down too.

Palisades Reservoir, Snake River, Idaho

October 12, 2020. On our way to Idaho Falls for Alan’s root canal, we passed Palisades Reservoir. It was so beautiful that I took many photos, which I share here.