Arches National Park

Today was all about Arches. After thinking that the boys might go biking in the morning, they had a later than expected start, so we headed up to Arches National Park and spent the whole afternoon there. It was quite chilly -- only about 45 and really windy -- so the park was not too crowded. We made it to every stop on the paved road, and got out multiple times for quarter- to half-mile walks.

Seba and the husband enjoyed Skyline Arch the most, because they could climb the rocks in front of the arch. Since I'm afraid of heights, I took photos from down below. It was the first up close and personal arch we saw, though.

The other arch we were able to get close to was Pine Tree Arch. Here, we were pretty much right under it. We talked about how being under it when it decided to give way would be a very historical way to go. It's at the very end of the drivable roads in Arches. Seeing it and Tunnel Arch made for about a mile round trip walk -- not much work for so much amazing landscape!

 

We're in the house we bought at an auction for one more night, and then we'll be moving into the KOA in our trailer. There are so many commercial RV campgrounds in town. It will be interesting to see what the KOA is like. I have no idea how we would pick a commercial campground if it didn't have the KOA name, and I'm not even sure we WOULD pick a commercial campground again after having seen how beautiful the BLM sites are. We shall see.

On the way to Moab

We had a great trip down to Moab today, even if it meant battling high cross winds much of the day. Thank heavens for the husband who drove through all of it. At one point, we got out to take photos, and the wind actually blew me down the hill. Yes...it did! I couldn't even get the door open trying to get back into the car, since I couldn't get to the top of the hill to take the photo I wanted!

We geocached along the way, and we enjoyed sharing our hobby with Seba, our exchange student from Argentina. There's a photo here of him with his first cache. Another photo of him shows a building from a ghost town, Cisco, where we also found a geocache. And the third photo is the husband and the rig as we pulled out of Steamboat.

If you are heading to Moab from the east, we highly recommend that you take 128 rather than the more traditional and direct 191. Every single foot of the 45 mile drive is absolutely breathtaking! There is nothing commercial along the way and, at least today, very few cars! It was an amazing drive (if incredibly windy). There are many recreational areas along the way with trailer camping obviously allowed. No hookups, and we don't know if there are reservations required (or accepted). But when we come down this way again, we will check them out. http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/ut/moab_fo/campgrounds/recreation.Par.91896.File.dat/CampgroundListFeb2013.pdf
Hittle Bottom is in an absolutely beautiful 360 degree views area. We'll look into that in the future. And Granstaff is at the end of a great bike trail out of Moab, but while it seemed we saw trailers there, the literature says "no trailers."

I can already tell, we're going to love it here!

Un-Winterizing

It seems we've been getting ready, at least in our minds, for months. Over the last few days, we've (and I mean mostly the husband) have been un-winterizing the trailer and fixing and attaching useful items. My main job has been to decorate and stock it, and I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things. Fortunately, this first trip out will be well-supported. We're headed to Moab in two days, and we'll be staying at a KOA. We don't think KOA will be our style, but we figure it will be good to be close to folks who know something about trailers before we are off in the woods by ourselves!

At first, we thought we'd have to be incredibly careful about weight since we were pulling the trailer with a Ford Explorer. However, in March the husband decided that the Explorer as a tow vehicle was making him too nervous, so he traded it in on a new Ford F150 pickup with a tow package. Now we have weight to spare. It means we'll be able to take several bikes, kayaks, and lots of other toys along.

Husband has quote to add:  "So far, it's just been a lot of f***ing work!" That's after he was fixing a leak in the shower and had the hot water valve explode out toward him. Water shut down, trip to Ace, and back in business. Second quote, "Have I ever told you how much I hate plumbing?" We're very close to the end of prep work, though, so the fun quotient should be increasing rapidly.