Category: Camping

The winds were a little calmer when we woke Monday, April 14th in Cedar Mesa Campground in Capitol Reef National Park. We packed up and took Notom Road north to the park headquarters. I didn’t get any pictures, but the orchards in Fruita were just beginning to bloom.

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Back on the road, the rock changed from white to red, and spires began to march out of the mesas. At the end of the valley, we climbed the hill to the campground. The first ones there, we chose the spot with the best views.

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Before dark, a car from New Mexico, joined us in the campground. They were quiet campers who kept to themselves, so we worked to keep the dogs leashed and quiet as well.

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Unfortunately we missed the lunar eclipse. I remember waking up to realize the light was weird—darker than it had been with a little bit of an eerie glow that was not the sunrise. The moon had risen directly over the bus, and I was too tired to wake everybody up for a view. In the morning, Chris said he too noticed the occurrence of the eclipse, but decided to stay in bed.

The next morning, Sunday, April 13th was still overcast. As we broke camp, it started to spit snow at us. On the road, we quickly passed through aspen groves, and park-like meadows.

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Our goal was to take the Wooden Shoe Road to Hite. We got a little off-track and found the Wooden Shoe trailhead. Once back on the right road, we climbed to some amazing heights with canyons on either side. Then we descended down into the desert.

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The road was fine and we were probably lucky that it was snow and not rain. There were many washes, and a flash flood or downpour would have rendered the road impassable. We were pretty self-contained so we figured if it came to that, we’d just stop and wait for it to dry out. Luckily, it didn’t come to that.

Our first glimpse of sunshine was when we pulled off onto this sandstone to stretch our legs and grab some lunch. In hindsight, we’d wished we’d camped here. You’ll see why when you see what we decided to do with the rest of the day…

Getting closer to Hite, we saw the first signs of people since we’d left Blanding, including: bikers, other folks in vehicles and campsites. We’d been watching the flora throughout our trip and wildflowers like penstemon, indian paint brush, and cacti had already been spotted.

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A quick stop into Hite to top off on gas—we don’t have a gas gauge, and yes it’s on the parts list for…soon; across the Colorado in huge gusts of wind;

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…and another stop to take in the views.

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Then we braved the wind around to hwy 276 towards Ticaboo, took the shortcut at Star Springs, across the moon roads of the BLM…

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…to catch up with the Burr Trail. Only to be lured by sirens to this lovely, calm spot, where we sank into the sand.

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Once we got out, we hightailed it to Cedar Mesa campground where we spent a windy, cold night as the only residents—quickly darting out of the shelter of the bus to heat up elk spaghetti; and a final end to Day 2.

We had the most amazing adventure through Utah. It was so desolate, but so beautiful. I’m putting together a slideshow of all our pics, but here are more of the details day-by-day:

We left Pagosa on Saturday, April 12th. We’d hoped to leave on Friday, but ended up needing the extra day to finish packing and not feel so rushed. Pakak, Denver, and Aspen were the lucky dogs who got to tag along. While Dark Star & Duchess stayed behind—they didn’t seem to mind, and Duchess really hates to travel. Even though it took us about 6+ hours to reach/find our camp for the night—we were so excited about the trip, that it didn’t feel long at all. Driving an old VW bus with a top speed around 55 mi/hr usually forces us to slow down, take in the scenery, and choose the roads less traveled.

This first day we traveled to Cortez on HWY 160, then went through McElmo Canyon to reach the border. Once in Utah, we took Res roads towards Hovenweep, turning back West to take HWY 191 to Blanding. After a quick top off on fuel, we found Elk Mountain Road, which starts near Edge of the Cedars State Park. This was a crazy, winding dirt road, but in good condition with some nice views/peeks at some of the canyons that skirt it. It started in high-desert juniper/cedars, traversed through some washes, then climbed into a mixed conifer forest much like what we’re used to at home. We saw a sign for Hammond Overlook, took the best looking forest road we’d seen in a while, and made camp.

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