So Big

Mt. Ellen is seen from a distance with Steamboat Point in the midground at Offroad RV Resort in Utah.

I did all the reserving of campgrounds for this trip on a RV planning site we like, it is very helpful in many ways. It shows a radius of distance from the place you are at so you can see how far you want to travel in a day. But I was not totally successful with how far that camp would be from the things we want to see. I did not take into account just how big the West really is.

Utah is the best example. There are five national parks along southern Utah, and we wanted to get to all of them, other than Arches, which we visited years ago. The parks are very crowded. Campsites in the parks are very hard to get, so I looked to stay outside of them and drive to each. I read that St. George is considered a gateway city to Zion so found a cool state park around there to make our base for Zion and Bryce Canyon parks. Another perk the article mentioned was a ‘wine trail’ in that area.

One of the tunnels we drove through in Zion National Park

When we got to Snow Canyon State Park, we loved it. But started looking at how far to Zion and realized how I had not done my homework, it was 1 ½ hours aways. And another 1 hour past that to Bryce, so we had to skip it this trip. We did go to Zion and yes, had to wait in line at gate to get in. Didn’t look like the campgrounds were open yet so was happy with our place.

Headed east to a new campground that I hoped would be base to go to Capital Reef N.P. and Canyonlands N.P. The owners are still working on making it an oasis in the desert. All sites are pull-thru and face northwest so your camper provides shade in the afternoon for sitting. They have planted over 200 trees with drip irrigation so there will be more shade in a few years.

The Gifford Homestead is open seasonally as a museum and a country store selling pies and cinnamon rolls.

This campground is less than 30 minutes from Capital Reef N.P. This park was a step back in history, who knew the early Mormons settled and planted fruit groves in this area that was just barren desert a few miles back. The groves are maintained by the parks and in the fall you can come pick the fruit yourself.

An apple grove in Capitol Reef National Park

Again, my naivety on how big Utah is worked against us getting to Canyonland N.P. But, as we often tell other campers, we love going to State Parks as much as a National Park. There was a S.P. close (35 miles) to us that we enjoyed going to also.

Since we missed Bryce and Canyonlands national parks, we will definitely be going back in the future. But I will do better research on distance. Also, be sure to heed the signs we saw several times along highway that read “No services next 125 miles”. They are not exaggerating, get gas now.

Back in Florida!

Chores and Repairs