North Thru Utah and More Storms Coming

I am not one of those who when expressing an opinion confine myself to the facts.

Our departure from Hurricane, Utah wasn’t quite as early as we had planned.  The planned departure hour was 7:00 AM when we went to bed Tuesday night.  That time was the goal since our favorite people – weathermen – had predicted strong winds were to hit a section of our travels starting about 11:00 AM.  We figured by leaving at 7:00 AM we would be just ahead of the winds.  However, you might as well figure it that my morning our favorite people – weathermen again – changed their predictions.  Strong winds were no longer in the forecast even as far north as Salt Lake City.  Yippee!!  Things would be good and we leisurely finished our departure tasks before we got on the road about 8:00 AM.

It may look like just rolling hills but we were still climbing.

Our route was I-15.  It had been many, many, many years since we had driven this road.  At that time we were heading south and not heading north. I'm not sure that matters though. Terry swears everything from southern Utah is UP.  We climbed, then we climbed some more.  After that we even climbed more.  The peak was close to 6500’.  Even though our destination was around 4200’, we still feel those roads never went downhill.  Our conclusion ….. Utah is full of mountains.

Don't let the flat look fool you!

Now the roads were good but they were mountain roads.  How can one say Utah and I-15 is not a mountain road?  The Siskiyou's and Grapevine summits in California don’t even reach 4500’.  Of course, if you're already sitting close to 3000’ feet as we were, climbing in Utah is only an additional 3500’.  I said ‘only an additional 3500’.  I’m sure you all know what climbing does to your fuel and there’s no reason even to mention it other than it drains it faster than going downhill.

Is this what a snow plow looks like?

The terrain changed from one type of high elevation with rolling mountains to another type of high elevation with mountain peaks.  Not much snow was visible in southern Utah but as we continued to move north, the mountain peaks were higher and the snow level seemed lower.  I’m sure it wasn’t lower.  It was just that we were higher and at the snow level.

Snow covered mountains were starting to come into view.

We did miss the winds.  However, my cousin who was traveling a few hours behind us got into the winds.  Now remember the wind forecast went away in the morning.  I guess it returned in the afternoon because now gusts were hitting 40 mph in the Beaver, Utah area.  

There are lots of mountains in Utah.

We pulled into Camping World ahead of the winds and ahead of the newly predicted rain.  The beautiful sunshine was now hiding behind many, many clouds but it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t raining … yet. The front parking lot was pretty empty.  We thought that strange for a Camping World.  Every one we had been to was usually packed with cars and RVs.  However, we visit most of them during their high season.  I think high season here is still just a little in the future.

Here are more mountains and more snow.

We thought we’d just boondock in the parking lot and be ready for the appointment on Thursday.  However, that wasn’t to be.  It was better.  This Camping World has four electric and water hookups in back on a first come basis.  Yippee!  We were first.  I wonder if we can work it out where we can stay the day before the appointment and the day after?  That wouldn't really work but it was certainly worth thinking about since the park we're going to is much more expensive than we like to pay -- (much more!).  However, it's best to get on the road before the weather turns again. 

More mountains and lots more traffic add to the fun of travel.

Just around the corner we discovered the Goodwoood Barbecue Company.  It was great barbecued brisket and it's not even in Texas!

Our RV park for the night -- can we stretch it to two nights?

Over Wednesday night the weathermen were busy at it again.  What was predicted to be a beautiful and dry next week or so in this area has changed.  We’ve got a snowstorm coming along with high winds that are currently supposed to include between 40-70 mph gusts!!  At least that is what one forecast is saying at this exact time. We aren’t looking forward to Saturday or Sunday if this is right.  We could run but we can’t hide since the whole western part of the States is going to have a similar experience … at least the area we would have to run to isn’t going to be in good shape either.  I think we’ll just dig in for a while and hope this storm continues blowing east.  In the meantime right now temperatures are expected to be close to 80 before it drops drastically and the Family History Library is close.

‘Tis life on the road!

Our Last Ride and More Winds

It's my view the  internet is not an information highway, it's an electronic asylum filled with lunatics.

A couple fishermen are out trying their luck.

My last blog told you what the forecast was for this area. It was predicted to be windy with winds blowing at 30 mph Sunday evening. It was windy alright and by the time I went to bed which was around midnight most of the winds had died down – just like the weatherman had predicted. The weatherman was right-on this time ………….. or, was he?

We thought this was just a beautiful place to be.

About 2:00 AM another wave of winds hit us. We didn’t know these were coming. They were coming from the SSE which was a good thing since we were angled just right not to be hit with them broadside. We’ve been in strong winds but these rank close to the very top. Gusts ripped between 60 – 70 mph. Our antenna was brought down as well as our large side brought in. We have slide toppers and we certainly didn’t want that wind to rip them off. The winds blew for several hours before it finally subsided and we could sleep.

Water level is up.  Care to have a picnic in the water?

In the morning we talked to several other folks in the park. Some weren’t quite as lucky as we were as they were hit broadsided with the winds and rocked much of the night. The good thing though is that most of us had already put away what could have been flying objects due to the earlier lighter winds. These winds weren’t just unique to this area. They were the same winds that hit southern California and shook my cousin in Las Vegas on its way here to us. Many folks pulled out of the park early in the morning on their way north. I hope they weren’t going too far or they would have been caught up in them again. I also hope we never see winds like that again.

One thing we did discover was that after the strong winds the sand was smooth again.  All the deep ruts caused by the ATVs and dirt bikes had been blown away.  That was a good thing.

We are traveling on Wednesday.  Weather looks nice, winds are farther north and the sun just may be shining.  We have an appointment for some service work on the motorhome at Camping World.  Our schedule was determined by their schedule and not ours.  They had only one appointment available this week.  We took it!!

On our last ride at the park.

Now I know a lot of people gripe about work done at Camping World. We all gripe about some of the work we have done on our RVs and have more than our share of horror stories. We have used Camping World for many different service items and other than a normal little glitch or two still rate it the best. This is our thought. If you have an RV technician do service work in Portland and something goes bad, you pay for the repair again in Phoenix. If you have Camping World do service work in Portland and something goes wrong, they redo it for free in Phoenix or San Antonio! That’s insurance.

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I think Murphy is busy with Murphy’s Law.  Before we made an appointment at Camping World and made a reservation at another RV park, I checked the wind prediction.  Wednesday was going to be a great day for a beautiful drive.  We paid for one more night, gave the ATVs a bath, loaded them on the trailer and hooked the trailer to the motor home.  This is where Murphy got busy.  I checked the wind prediction …. again.  There was a brand new forecast and the forecast was predicting high winds for about 200 miles north.  Guess what?  Instead of the planned departure time of around 10:00 AM, we’ll be pulling out of here around 7:00 AM.  I hope I didn’t say that too loud because we have a way around the current forecast as long as it’s not changed again. We just leave before the winds arrive.  That’s the plan but we’re not necessarily sticking to it.  I'll be checking the forecast at least one more time before we pull out.

ATVs were unloaded, Terry gave them a bath and we reloaded behind the motorhome.  We’re ready to go.

‘Tis life on the road.

ATVing on the Sand Dunes and Great RV Sites

You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.

 

I mentioned the other day we had moved to the Sand Hollow State Park. Well, it’s the weekend and all kinds of RVs and trailers are coming in.  In addition, there are many Jeeps, ATVs, OHVs, motorbikes, kayaks, canoes and boats.  I think you get the picture.  Friday was a pretty busy day for the folks at the park.   

 

The Sand Hollow Lake is fed by water from the Virgin River.  With the blue skies above, the water in the lake looked about as blue as blue can get.

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Picnic tables on the lake.

In addition to all the boaters and OHVs around, there were also areas where folks were having picnics and just enjoying a beautiful day at the lake.  Lots of picnic table surround the water.  Right now the water level is high.  We even found some tables that were in the water as well as the badminton net and fire ring.  I guess that’s more for summer fun or obviously lower water level times.

This is us!

There are many dunes to ride on the north side of the road but the big dunes and numerous trails are on the south side of the road.  There is access from the park via a tunnel underneath that road.  There is also a parking lot staging area.  

OHV tunnel from the park to the dunes.

Sand Hollow may be the name and there certainly is a lot of sand but there are also a lot of rocks.  They are flat rocks and some jut out making a pretty rough ride.  Some of the lower dunes are almost like being in a roller coaster as they are small up and down dips.

Can you see the tunnel in the distance?  That's downhill.

The dunes go pretty high.  I found it was easier going up than down.  I had to do it a few times to get the feel of it before I went all the way to the top.  This may look like an easy climb and it may not seem as high as it really is but when you’re up there, it certainly looks like you’re way up there.

It's all downhill from here!

The view is spectacular.  Some of it is very spectacular.  We’ve done the ride several days now.  Riding at Sand Hollow has been one of the nicest rides we have taken on the ATVs.  The sand is very different than the sand on the dunes in Southwestern California.  Much of this tends to be pretty well packed which makes me happy.  It means I may not have to use that winch again to pull Terry out.  Some of the dunes are also very steep and rocky to get over.  The practice makes perfect and I've been pretty pleased that I've been able to do some of them.

It's all downhill from here too!

We feel pretty comfortable blazing our own trail.  At least we’re pretty confident we can find our way back.  You can almost always follow tracks back and if not, you know that down is where the lake is.  In this particular case we tried to do that.  We ended up in a dead-ended canyon.

Dead end canyon

Friday was a great day.  After riding the ATVs for a few hours, I sat outside in the sunshine and read most of the afternoon.  Dinner was a wonderful steak on the barbecue and a salad.  It was just a super relaxing day.  We need more days like this.

Duchess gives this park a 9* rating.  It would be a 10* but she has to wear a leash!

Only a few more days left on our reservations.  However, it’s been so nice.   The big question is should we extend? This area gets a lot of snowbirds.  The weather warms up in March so they are slowly making their way north and many are heading back to Canada.  The pull-thrus make it easy for folks wanting a lot of space to just pull into.  There are sites with full hookups, sites with partial hookups, some dry camping sites and some that are primitive.  I guess you could say there is a site for every type of camper or RVer.

Sunday will be a busy day.  We're off to Bryce Canyon.

cathie - to your question about putting all your motorhome's weight on the jacks instead of the tires.  I have no idea of what is right and what isn't.  Personally, we're not comfortable with that but have seen others do it.  There have got to be some pros out there who also have an opinion but that still doesn't mean we'd be comfortable with it.  Thanks for your comment!

‘Tis life on the road.

Gorgeous Utah State Park

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half cracked.

What do you think about having a view like this right out your window?  Some folks would pay a pretty penny to be able to enjoy this 24 hours a day.  In an RV you can have many beautiful views.  This is just one.

Sand Hollow State Park

 

Tuesday the sun was shining and the temperature was expected to continue climbing this week all the way up to 80..  We had been in the same little park for over a week.  It was definitely a good day to venture outside.  We had also thought it was a beautiful day to check out a future move.  Now it’s not that we intended to move a long distance.  We didn’t.  It was just a short distance.  As usual we had started trekking north a tad early.  Well, I shouldn’t say “tad” because we’re really about a month early.  The farther north we head the colder it gets and there’s still a chance of snow up there.

At most state parks when we’ve asked to just drive through and look at it, we’ve been given a short time period to do just that.  However, that wasn’t allowed at this one.  We had to pay the daily rate of $5 to even get on the grounds.  What a beautiful park it is and we felt it beckoning us to move.

Full hook-up RV site

It’s not that we weren’t in a nice park. We were in a nice park but we’ve been corrupted by the people we hang out with. They have introduced us to something we just seem to like better than super duper RV parks or resorts. We’ve become rather attached to wide open spaces where we don’t have neighbors so close they can look in our windows. It wasn’t so long ago I didn’t really want to stay at state parks. We wanted the pool and the hot tub and the other amenities. Things have certainly changed. Sometimes we like those things but most of all we like the space and the freedom. 

There are two sides to this park.  One side is all full hookups with no ATV’s or OHV’s allowed. This side has a beautiful mountain view and partial water view. The other side has a few sites with hookups but most sites are dry camping.  The view on this side is where the top photo was taken … gorgeous!   Some of the RV sites can be booked online and some are reserved for drive-up only.  Then, there are others that are considered primitive.  In the primitive section you can just pull off the road where you’ll fit.  Even picnic tables can be found in the primitive section.

Lots of fishermen and OHV’s frequent this park.   The boat launch and trailer parking is huge.  I don’t know if these fellows were catching or just fishing.

Like I said, the park we’ve been at is nice but the spaces aren’t this large and the scenery doesn’t compare.  Thus, we’ve decided if we need to kill time while the northern temperatures warm up and the snow goes away, we’d rather do it at a place like this. Duchess will be happier!  We’re thinking we might just move the little ten miles.  At least that’s what we’re thinking.

‘Tis life on the road.

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.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Zion National Park

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Thursday was the day we had to move again.  It was the third move in just as many days and in the same park. The managers at the park went out of their way to accommodate us even offering us one night free!  Other folks had made reservations and the park was now full.  This is what can happen when you take off without any idea of where you’re heading.  We were without reservations heading towards an area that had several special events going on.  The first night we had one pull-thru available but it was reserved the following night.  Thus, we moved to another site which also was only available for the one night.  Then on Thursday we moved again to another site.  

Another view of the sand dunes

When you’re moving into a site that someone else is moving out of you’re on their time clock.  Check out time is noon.  They don’t have to move out until noon and on the third day that’s just about what the folks did.  We were hoping to leave early.  We wanted to take a drive to Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Kanab and make a circle so we could enter Zion from the eastern gate. That was the plan.  We all know by now that plans don’t always work out as we hope they will.

While waiting to move we decided to go to breakfast.  One of our neighbors suggested we try Triple TJ’s which is a family run restaurant.  We did.  We should have had a clue how the day was going to go just by my order.  I ordered ham and eggs – over medium-well.   I was served bacon and over easy eggs.  However, will we go back?  Certainly .. they bent over backwards to please.  We’ll try again.

Terry's yummy breakfast

It took us almost two hours to get moved this last time.   What normally takes less than half an hour took almost two hours!  First of all, we had a trailer to move and figured if we set it on the pull-thru site at the front end we could load it up with the ATVs and take off if we wanted.  We thought we’d park the Jeep in back.  It didn’t work like that.  In order to unload the trailer we had to raise the tires of the Jeep or the hitch wouldn’t release.  Then, we had to offload the back ATV.  Next was the satellite.  Usually we have no trouble getting satellite because it's automatic.  The trees we were under had no leaves but you might as well guess that the branches were perfectly positioned to block the reception.  So, we had to reposition the motorhome back at the end of the driveway, try the satellite again, move the trailer back and then reset back up.  What a zoo!  

East entrance to Zion

By the time we finally got on the road for our circle trip we were already pretty well stressed out.   Matter of fact, I was so stressed by the last three days it was hard not to keep the tears from flowing.  Traveling with a trailer is not quite as easy as traveling without it.

Beautiful views at every turn

We climbed up and out of Hurricane to an elevation of about 6500’.  I didn’t realize most of the trip was an uphill climb.  We had originally intended on stopping in Kanab but due to our late start we just drove on through.  We did stop and take a peak at the Pink Coral Sand Dunes.  There were a lot of places to ride and quite a few ATVs and OHVs on the trails.  We even saw snow spattered here and there.  Some of the prior snowfalls had completely melted but with the storms due in this weekend, I’m sure that snow will be replenished. 

Another view of the park

We entered Zion National Park this time from the east gate.  Pictures were really difficult since the sun was always shining where I didn’t exactly want it to but …. oh well.  There is a lot of difference in what you see on the lower level of the park and the higher level of the park.  Again, we saw a little snow on the side of the road.  The drive from the upper park to the lower park is definitely something that shouldn’t be missed.  The view is absolutely awesome.  

Zion and all it's beauty

There are two tunnels in the park.  Large vehicles need an escort to travel through the tunnels.  Traffic is stopped since the larger vehicles must travel in the middle of the tunnels due to height.  The roads are fairly narrow switchbacks with pull-outs for viewing as you descend the mountain into the lower part of the park.  Coming out of the tunnel on this narrow roadway we had another little mishap that just put the topping on our day.  We had another flat tire!!  This was the third flat tire in three months but what a place to have it!!  We had to drive down the road to the first pull-off so it could be changed.  Believe me … fun, it wasn’t!

A little snow in the park

The first two flat tires were definitely self-caused.  Terry was trying to four-wheel in the desert over some pretty sharp twigs.  He did that twice so that was our fault.  We aren’t sure what caused this flat.  It was a good tire but we may have picked up a nail or something.  We can’t get it fixed because we had to drive on the flat too far just so we could pull off the road.  I’m sure you get the picture and it’s not a pretty one.  Well, the picture of the scenery was pretty but not the events of the flat.

This was it … what a place to have a flat.

No explanation needed here!

How did the day end?  We made it back to the RV park without any other tires going flat.  It was much later than intended and I wasn’t going to cook.  We hadn’t set up our little Weber grill yet.  We saw what looked like a small combination Mexican / steak restaurant on our way into town.  Actually, it was not one restaurant but two.  On one side was a fast food Mexican restaurant with a very limited menu.  On the other side the restaurant looked like a fast food inside but it had table service.  This was Barista’s.  If you decide to visit this place while in Hurricane, read the reviews on Yelp first … then, don’t go.  The prices are extremely expensive for the type of restaurant it is and the staff is a little intimidating.     After being seated and given a menu, we checked it out and then walked out.  A staff member let us know this was America and we could eat anywhere we want.  So, we did.  We drove down to Ted and Allen’s Sport Grill.  

Friday is another day.  The weather will be gorgeous --- the calm before the storm.  We have tires to buy ... again..

‘Tis life on the road. Sometimes that road can get bumpy.

Previous Post -- Entering Utah and Zion National Park.

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Entering Utah and Zion National Park

Nature is the art of God.   

West entrance Zion National Park

Leaving Las Vegas without any serious planning added a little uncertainly to our adventure.  Now I know many, many folks take off all the time without any idea of where they are going to end up that night or the next.  I usually like an idea and especially with a trailer and with Duchess.  Not every place will accommodate us.

We didn’t pull out until noon-ish but that was Nevada time.  By crossing over into Utah we would lose an hour but we only had about 120 miles to go. We knew where two Wal-marts were and thanks to a blog we follow, we also knew they allowed RV overnight parking.   Don’t you think that was a good start?

The terrain on Nevada I-15 was very different than what we had become accustomed to over the last few months hanging around Arizona and the flat deserts.  At times it seemed jaw dropping beautiful and especially as we dropped into St. George.  Oh my!! 

We arrived at the Wal-Mart early enough to park the motorhome and trailer and take off in the Jeep to check out  a few possible places to stay.  Most everything was pretty close together so it was an easy task.  I'm always amazed at how different a place looks online or on an advertisement than what it really looks like when you visit.  However, we did find an empty pull-thru site but discovered it was only good for the one night.  The next morning we had to change sites and the morning after that we had to change sites again.  Ugh!




It was kind of like musical chairs only it was RVs.  The manager of this park sure worked hard to accommodate us.   These people were absolutely, and I do mean absolutely, fantastic.  The problem was that there was a Tri-State ATV Jamboree in town and the place was packed with ATVs.  For us it was kind of exciting to find that out.

Once we’d moved on our second day we decided to take a little trip to Zion National Park.  We had another jaw-dropping experience in viewing the beauty of this park!  We wanted to go before the storm hit over the weekend.  The shuttle doesn’t start running until the 1st of April which meant we could drive past the lodge to the end of the lower road.  At places it was hard to find parking spots.  The place was packed with cars. 

WOW!  What else can I say about Zion just WOW, WOW, WOW.  Next we plan on viewing the upper level of the park.  This day it was only the lower level.  The road signs indicated it was the scenic route.  We'll see about that.

Sand Hollow State Park was beautiful too.  We did a drive-by to check it out.  The park was pretty empty at the time but it’s full over the weekend.

Can you imagine moving three times in three days and all in the same park? That’s what we had to do.  However, check out the size of this RV site.  Our park in Las Vegas would probably have turned this into four sites!!  You'll definitely hear more about our moves in a day or two.

We finished the day off with a meal in St. George at Cracker Barrel!!  I love their catfish!!  St. George is another very pretty town with a lot of red cliffs in the background.  We have discovered many snowbirds come to this area as the weather is normally pleasant during the winter.  However, we've also discovered that it is probably quite early in the year to plan on spending much time in other  areas of Utah unless you don't mind cooler (or is it colder?) temperatures and even a little snow.  Thus, we're not sure what our plans are but that does seem to be the norm.  What we do know is that it's colder north and warmer south.

‘Tis life on the road.