Day 29 Sunday September 7, 2025
It is a sunny and breezy 50 degrees this morning at 8am. Today is travel day as we move on to Moab Utah about 162 miles away.
There was an optional stop along the way Goblin Valley where there were Hoodoos but they were only a few feet tall and you could walk out among them and it you had a dog they could go also which is very rare to be allowed. The parking lots were small and we would have had to unhook the Jeep to get parked and then to turn around. We elected to not stop due to the parking issue and it was a 22 miles trip in and out.
The scenery this morning went from stunning colors in the hills and rocks to just plain bland, almost just plain old grey. Then back to stunning views in the Moab area. There were a few people living in the area we drove through before we got to the interstate. How they make a living out in the extremely remote area we don’t have any idea. To even get to a grocery store would almost be an all day trip. I would guess they do some careful planning before driving to get supplies.
We got on I70 for several miles. The first time in over two weeks we have been on an interstate. We stopped at a Mavericks Fuel stop to fill up in Green River Utah, a small town. I pumped in 100.004 gallons. We had about 50 gallons remaining but she was a tad thirsty. You don’t want to run out of fuel in this remote area. That would be bad.
I always try to remember when we stop for a break or get fuel to check around the motorhome, the Jeep and check the tow bar connections. In all the thousands of miles we have traveled in the motorhome I never found an issue until today while I was pumping fuel. I found the air line that connects the motorhome to the Jeep that activates the Jeep brakes when I press hard on the motorhome brakes was disconnected from the motorhome but still attached to the Jeep. The motorhome end had dragged on the pavement enough that it was scuffed up a little but still usable.
I know I checked it this morning to see if it was attached and Lena also said I had checked it when we connected the Jeep but I must not have got it clicked in tight enough. We carry spares of several items and we have two unused spares for the air line so we will use one of them and just keep the scuffed up one as a spare. I rarely have to hit the motorhome brakes hard enough to activate the Jeep brakes to assist in stopping. When we have to go down a steep decent the motorhome engine brakes is usually all that is needed to keep a safe speed going down the hill. Rarely need to even use the regular brakes.
We drove through Moab Utah and pulled into Moab Koa Holliday RV Park about 12:40 and was escorted to site 110. We will be here 5 nights. There is a lot of activities planned for us here, the most of any stop so far.
After we ate lunch and rested some we drove to Spanish Valley Winery that was on our handout. They are a small winery. They have a Riesling wine that is supposed to be like the German Riesling. We decided we didn’t need any when we saw it was $28.95 a bottle.
Then we drove back into Moab to pickup a few groceries before returning to the campground.
Day 30 Monday September 8, 2025
We had to rise early this morning so we could board the bus at 8AM for a guided tour of Arches National Park. We stopped on the way to pick up our guide Richard. He has been living here for 35 years and working as a river guide and National Parks guide.
The bus stopped at the Visitors Center for a bio break for anyone that needed it as this was the only flush restroom in the park before climbing up the twisting road into the park.
Like all the parks we have visited the scenery in this one is different than all the rest. The park got its name from all the arches scattered throughout the park.
The bus stopped a few minutes for us to take photos and then we had an hour stop where Richard took us on a hike along a trail up to two large arches. He asked everyone to please not stray off the trail so we wouldn’t damage what he called live soil. Along the way he demonstrated what live soil is. He plucked a small piece of what looked like dirt with tiny fibers in it and showed it to us. Then he put it back where he got it and poured water on it and another larger patch of it and it turned a light shade of greenish brown proving it was in fact alive.
We made a couple more stops and then took a short hike to see the Delicate Arch. An image of this arch is used on a lot of things in Utah including their license plates.
Some good news. The couple that was having trouble with their almost new truck arrived here about 5pm. The GMC dealership was able to get their truck running good enough they can continue with their trip. Not totally fixed so at some point they will have to take it in for more work.
Then we rode back down the twisting highway to the main route to Moab and returned to the campground for a lunch/rest break until 5:30pm when we board the bus again. On the caravans we don’t normally stay out all day because the majority of RVers it seems travels with dogs and they need to have bio breaks occasionally. If the schedule is for an all day excursion Fantasy usually helps arrange dog walkers for those that want that service.
We boarded the bus again for a short ride to Canyon Lands By Night & Day where we will have Dinner and then a boat ride down the Colorado River. They had prepared a great dinner for us and another bus load of people plus some that were just finishing their boat ride.
After we ate we boarded the boat about 7:15pm. The Canyon Lands By Night & Day operation is a family owned/runned business. The captain of our boat and the lady that was the guide/narrator were brother and sister. I don’t know how all the other workers fit in but they sure put on a good meal. My guess is there were over 100 people in the dining room and we all got feed very quickly. It was cafeteria style.
The Colorado River is only about 2 feet deep right now which is at least 2 feet below normal. The guide was giving the required safety talk and said if we were to have an emergency and someone was to fall in the river to just stand up and they would be okay.
She pointed out different places in the rock wall that looked like different images. She also explained about some of the different shades of colors on the rock walls. We passed several beavers in the edge of the water. She said they didn’t even attempt to dam up the river since it is so wide and flows fairly fast it would be impossible.
When it got dark the sound and light show began. They have a pickup truck on the road that runs along the river and it has lights that put out 40,000 candle power of light. The lights are powered by a fairly large generator. The light operator directed the lights on the rock walls as the truck slowly moved down the road. The boat has a sound system that told the story about when creation began and light spread across the world. It was an amazing experience with the high powered lights moving along the rock walls and the story of time came over the sound system. I think everyone really enjoyed the experience.
We got back to the dock about 9pm and the bus took us to the campground.
Day 31 Tuesday September 9, 2025
We boarded the bus at 8:15 this morning. The Wagonmasters said we were so prompt about boarding the bus on time we could sleep in 15 minutes longer this morning. We have the same driver and guide as yesterday for our trip today to Canyon Lands National Park and Dead Horse State Park a few miles outside Moab Utah.
The scenery again is amazing and different from any we have seen before. This is some rugged country. The deep canyons are beautiful but scary for me to look over the edge of the rim. Sure glad they had rock walls built about waist high to look over.
We got off the bus several times to see down into the canyons better. Richard our guide gave us a lot of information about the canyons and surrounding landscape. We stopped at the Green River Overlook to take photos and see the strange amazing landscape.
Then we drove to Dead Horse Canyon where we had a lunch stop at the Dead Horse Point Overlook. The Canyon Lands by Night & Day business where we ate last night and took the boat ride had prepared everyone a box lunch. There was a nice covered facility right by the rim of a canyon where we had our lunch. There were several large rocks we used as seats and tables.
After we ate Richard told us the story about the filming of the last scene from the movie Thelma and Louise. The last scene had them driving their car off a cliff and landing in the river below. Richard was a river guide at the time and that morning he didn’t have a group to guide so his boss let some of the guides take a boat out to the location where they were filming. He got to watch them film the last shot of the movie. It took two shots because the first time the car flipped end over end so they had to reshoot the scene. The movie had them going over the cliff at the Grand Canyon but actually it was in the Dead Horse Canyon on Colorado River where the scene was filmed. Several films have been made in the National Parks in Utah but the parks service has stopped all movie making in the parks.
Moab was a busy town of Uranium mining back in the 1980’s. They cleared lots of their fruit tree orchards to build housing for the miners and then when the uranium ran out and the mines closed down they couldn’t rely on the income from the fruit tree orchards because it takes a few years for them to start producing fruit. Then the town turned to tourism. From the number of motels and RV Parks in town they have a lot of tourists. The National Parks in the area are a big draw for tourists. There are numerous businesses in town that provide ATV, Jeep, etc. tours.
Richard said when he moved here 35 years ago the tallings pile on the edge of town was over a 100 feet high and covered several acres. Tallings are the material that is left after the desired mineral is removed from the rocks, etc. We rode by the land where the tallings pile is today. The tallings are being removed and hauled 30 miles away and placed on land that is clay and they are lining the land with a material to keep the runoff from getting into any water supply. Where it is now they discovered the radioactive material in the tallings was seeping into the nearby Colorado River. The Colorado River provides water to several states in the West. The people that are moving the tallings have to wear special protective clothing and can only do that kind of work for 6 years.
We got back to the campground about 2pm, ready for some rest. It was not quite as hot today as yesterday which was nice.
The state name Utah got its name from the Native American Ute Tribe. Ute means “people of the mountains “.
Day 32 Wednesday September 10, 2025
Today is a free day, nothing planned for the group, so we went to Sweet Cravings Bakery & Bistro in Moab for a pastry and Latte. That was a mistake. The lattes were just warm milk, the cinnamon roll was so hard around the edge the knife would not cut through it. But the pumpkin coffee cake was good. A couple in our group came in and they ordered regular breakfast food and said it was good.
Then we went to the Moab Museum to check it out. It was small but well done. Lot of the exhibits were about the Uranium mining that took place in Moab.
On our way out of town Friday enroute to our next stop in Dolores Colorado there are three Landmarks noted on our travel log in the first 35 miles. We decided to drive out with the Jeep to check them out. The Hole in the Rock was mostly what we call “a tourist trap”. There is a house built in “the hole in the rock”. You can pay for a 12 minute tour of the house, we didn’t. There is petting zoo that you can pay to do, we didn’t or just walk around looking at all the quirky things they have setting around.
We took some photos at the three landmarks and then returned to Moab for some fuel for the Jeep and some pizza to fuel our bodies.
Then we returned to the campground to do some chores. It is hot again today, 90 degrees and one of our air conditioners is not working but the other two are keeping us cool enough. One more thing to add to the list for Tiffin to fix if we have time before we have to head home. We can’t get a fixed appointment for a certain day with Tiffin Service Center so we will see how things go.
Well, we got some rain this afternoon. I think I counted 43 drops. Later we were setting outside when it cooled off and a grey cat with blue eyes came to visit us. Then all of sudden a strong gust of wind blew up, the cat took off, the dust blew and the pizza box I had set out for trash pickup went rolling off. We got back inside out of the dust until it calmed down. Never did find the pizza box.
On a sad note I am sure everyone has heard about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It happened about 170 miles from where we are staying.
Day 33 Thursday September 11, 2025
We only have one scheduled event today as a group and that is lunch at Red Cliffs Lodge just outside of Moab along the Colorado River from 11:30 to 2pm. The drive along side the Colorado River in both directions was quite stunning. This is the section of the river where we were on the sound and light show a couple of nights ago.
We were supposed to tour their onsite museum but it is closed. They are doing major renovations on the building.
They have a patio on the back of the building with a great view overlooking the Colorado River. They cooked us our choice of hamburgers, hotdogs or roasted chicken, plus a small salad bar and chocolate chip cookies for desert.
It was very windy today but not as hot as yesterday. We did get just enough rain on the way back from lunch to cause the windshield wipers to come on 3-4 times. And we got a few spotty clouds and some light sprinkles before our travel meeting at 7pm for tomorrow’s 115 mile trip to Dolores Colorado.
Day 34 Friday September 12, 2025
Since we only have 115 miles to drive today and checkin is at 1pm we didn’t leave until about 10:30. We had a good drive, some fairly strong side winds for a while and then about 50 miles before our destination we got into some light rain showers.
There was one stretch of road where it looked like we were riding on “top of the world”. The horizon on both sides and in front of us had high hills/mountains and there was a huge bank of white fluffy clouds all around the horizon. We could see probably 30-40 miles in all directions.
About half way of our drive we began to see green grass and farm fields that had been prepared for planting. Not sure what they are going to plant this late in the year unless it is Spring Wheat. After days of very dry dusty ground that was a nice sight to us.
We met some trucks with red/blue flashing lights coming right down the center of the two lane road so I slowed down and moved over and the trucks kept coming over on my lane, then I saw why. They were escorting a big truck hauling a humongous tank of some kind and it was taking the better part of both lanes. Sure glad there was a wide emergency lane to the right of the drive lane.
We got to Westview RV Resort at 12:45, checked in and was escorted to our site. Initially we were assigned to site 70 but when our escort got to the site there was someone in it. He went back to the office to see what was going on and came back and took us to site 81 which was on the opposite end of the same row. Not sure what the mix up was but as it turned out it was to our advantage.
We actually liked site 81 better, it was easier to get the RV level and site 70 was just across the street from the Bark Park. This is a nice RV park. It has paved streets, a concrete patio at each site and gravel parking pads for the RVs. And there is some green grass between each site.
After we ate our leftover pizza we got in Moab Wednesday we took a walk around some of the park before going to Walmart for a few supplies and then to a car wash to wash our filthy Jeep. We could barely see out of the windows. It gets a lot of road spray from the motorhome when we drive in the rain.
We got a few more rain clouds as the day progressed.
We heard today that the person that killed Charlie Kirk was apprehended near Zion National Park where we were at the end of August.
At 7pm the Wagonmasters/Tailgunners invited everyone to the patio behind the office for an ice cream social and a game of Singo Bingo. It is much cooler here than any place we have been so far on this trip. It was in the low 60’s at 7pm. But ice cream is good anytime.
We had never heard of the game Singo Bingo. You get a bingo card and a marker. Instead of numbers on the bingo card you have song titles and the group/person that sings the song for a certain era. Tonight’s song era was the 70’s. Nick, the Tailgunner, selected the songs from a playlist on his phone and it played the song through a small portable sound box. Both Lena and I left our reading glasses in the motorhome so we took a photo of our bingo cards and then expanded them so we could read the card and then marked the bingo cards if we had the song that was played. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game.
Day 35 Saturday September 13, 2025
Our group activity today was to meet at Far View Terrace in the hills above Cortez Colorado for a guided tour of the Mesa Verde National Park.
Lena and I got up and left the campground at 6:45 for the 45 minute drive up the mountain. We got a thunderstorm this morning about 4am and there were several places on the very crooked road going up the mountain where some small rocks and mud had washed out onto the highway. When we got to the parking lot we could hardly tell we had washed the Jeep yesterday.
There is a cafe at the terrace that opened at 7am that served omelets breakfast buffet and had a coffee bar. We didn’t have to be on the bus in the cafe parking lot until 8:45 so we had plenty of time. We both ordered a three egg omelet and they were very good and the best lattes we have had on this trip other than the ones we make in the motorhome ourselves. The temperature was 49 degrees when we got there.
Several in our group had also washed their vehicle yesterday but you sure couldn’t tell it when they got to the parking lot.
When everyone arrived we boarded two buses, each with a local guide and began our tour. The main focus of the tour was to show and tell us about the ancient cliff dwelling inhabitants of Mesa Verde back around 1000-1300 AD.
We saw several cliff dwellings that were built on the side of the rocky ledges up under an overhang. Some had dozens of room. I think our guide Holly, told us the biggest one had about a hundred rooms. The inhabitants cut hand and foot holds in the rocky sandstone to climb up and down to get to their fields and back home. I don’t know how they got all that rock and mud material down to the ledges to build their homes. At one stop we could stand on an overlook and look right down into the rooms of one of the multi room homes.
We saw one mule deer, two turkeys and three wild horses while on the tour.
After the tour was finished we drove to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument a few miles past our campground. When we got there three ladies were standing on the sidewalk and pointed out a tornado several miles out in the distance. We found out later that it had touched down but didn’t do any damage. We have never seen a tornado before and don’t care to see another.
The museum in the building was very interesting. Over the years all the artifacts that have been found in the cliff dwellings and the surrounding areas of Mesa Verde have been studied and preserved and some are on display in the museum.
Before returning to the campground we drove into Cortez and ate lunch at Denny’s. We both like their chicken fried steak and I like their chicken noodle soup.
A few minutes after we got back to the motorhome a bad thunderstorm came through and it hailed for several minutes. Our campsite, picnic table and car were almost covered in hail. Our guide this morning said she was glad to see the rain because it had been a very dry Summer.
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