Utah's Stormy Forecast with Snow!!

If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm.

The storm is on it’s way.  The forecast is for it to hit most of the western portion of the United States with varying degrees of intensity.  Wind, rain and cooler temperatures won’t hang around long but a lot longer than what we want.  Most of it should be out of our area by Tuesday.  We have a good place to hant out and we plan on just doing that so it shouldn’t be a problem.   The high temperature on Friday was about 80 degrees.  Sunday the temperature barely slide into the low 50's.  To top that off we're supposed to even see snow tonight. 

Elks Club overlooking the Red Cliff Hills Golf Course

We had quite a list of things we wanted to take care of on Friday.  We plugged addresses into our GPS and took off.  The first place we stopped was the BLM Office in St. George.  We knew there was lots of federal land around here and wanted to know where the dispersed camping was.   Arizona has lots of federal land too and with that came many places one could camp.  We figured Southwest Utah had places we just hadn't discovered.  To begin with there's a lot more flat land in Arizona.  Much of the federal land in Utah is not very flat.  There are lots of gullies and small canyons making it difficult to park an RV.  This BLM office had tons of material and maps on places to go and things to see.  It also had some very helpful personnel.  We spent quite a while going over maps with them  and walked out with a sack full of reading material.

  

Since we were close to the St. George Elks we thought we’d drop by and check out the RV parking. It’s a nice lodge and even overlooks a golf course.

RV Sites

RVs back into electric sites right at the edge of beautiful red rock cliffs.  The view is the neighboring golf course which shares the driveway with the Elks.  It’s a gorgeous place to stay.  We’ve filed it away in our memory bank if we ever return to this area.

We also had a task we needed to accomplish.  This task was getting new tires.  While we waited for the tires to be put on at Big O Tires, we walked across the street to Pancho’s and Lefty’s Mexican Restaurant.    We’ve not had a lot of great meals since we’ve been in Utah other than the Cracker Barrel but we were really pleased with our experience at this place.  The food was great and the service was top notch. 

Red Cliffs Recreation Entry

Tunnel

The Red Cliffs Recreation area is off of I-15 about 15 miles north of St. George.  Campsites are available but larger RVs cannot access the area due to two 12’ tunnels on the road to the area.  The internet indicates the height is 12’.  However, the signs on the tunnels give a height of 11’9”.  The area is beautiful but most sites are small.  There are some larger ones but there is also a dip in the road that a longer RV might have a little trouble with.  We noticed a lot of scrape marks on the roadway.

Camping site

And, another site

Sunday the weather started turning colder, the wind was blowing, quite a bit of hail blanketed the area and a little snow was hitting the ground.  More snow is expected overnight but no significant accumulation is in the forecast.  However, the mountains surrounding the area are now a beautiful solid white.  This is the same storm that is causing havoc in California and Arizona.  It’s expected to move on through fairly quickly and for that we’ll be happy.

Red Cliff Recreation Area

Storm coming in over Quail Creek State Park

There are many beautiful states in this country.  They are all beautiful in many different ways.  Utah ranks as one of the most beautiful states we have visited … and we have visited them all.  The only thing it’s missing is ocean front property.  There is so much to see and so much to do in this state.  It’s just our luck we decided to do it in March when the weather isn’t perfect.

'Tis life on the road.