Tag: Moab

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 3 – Monday, 12/21 – Canyonlands

The Plan

Visit Canyonlands National Park.

The Reality

Got the call from El Monte in the morning and dropped the Behemoth off at a local repair place.  While the RV was being fixed, had brunch at Sweet Cravings.  Fortunately, the Behemoth was repaired by noon.  We saw my father and Susan off and headed out to Canyonlands.  Just in case, we decided to stay at the Moab Valley RV Resort again instead of the more remote, and waterless, Dead Horse Campground.

The Good

Canyonlands is stark and beautiful and exceeded our expectations.  It is like a smaller Grand Canyon, but frankly more beautiful with a more varied topography.  We visited the Island in the Sky district which was the one most accessible from Moab.  It was cold and windy and we had to navigate some snow and ice covered paths and trails, but it was worth every moment.  Hiking the trail from the first to second viewpoints at Upheaval Dome with the snow, ice, cold and wind was a thrill!

We had a terrific dinner at the Sunset Grill in Moab.  The specialty is prime rib and it was excellent.

The Bad

Only the lost time due to the RV repair.  Otherwise, a great day.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 2 – Sunday, 12/20 – Family & Arches

The Plan

Visit Arches National Park with my father and Susan and have dinner together to celebrate my birthday.

The Reality

We drove to a private RV park, Moab Valley RV Resort, to fill our fresh water tank which they were kind enough to let us do for free.  After filling up, we drove to the Hampton Inn where my father and Susan were staying and we all piled into his car for a trip to Arches.

The Good

We took a ride up Highway 128 which is a gorgeous scenic byway and managed to get in some photography before having lunch at Sweet Cravings Bakery + Bistro.  After lunch, we drove through Arches, which was spectacular!  My father, as I mentioned elsewhere on my site, is a fantastic amateur photographer, so having him along (and his having pre-scouted the trip) allowed us to maximize our viewing and photographing the amazing Arches.  We had a great time hitting each of the major viewpoints and taking tons of pictures.

We had a lovely dinner at Jeffrey’s Steakhouse in Moab.

The Bad

At the Hampton Inn, we noticed that the fresh water was leaking out of the Behemoth.  I called El Monte’s roadside assistance and they told me that they would make an appointment for the next day to get it repaired.  We decided to move to the Moab Valley RV Resort so we could hook up to the continuous water supply (“city water” in RV parlance).  Unfortunately, the problem was located in a part of the water system which leaked regardless of whether the water came from the tank or city water, so we had to be careful and only turn on the water from the outside when we needed it.  It was a better situation than Dead Horse and, again, we made do.