9-20-16 - Heat Escape - Day 40

We left Outlaw Trail RV Park this morning a little later than we expected because we were enjoying shooting the bull with the campground owner. 

Our destination today was Moab.  We went the long way around on Highway 191 to avoid Douglas Pass.  Everyone, including Fernykat, was happy that it was a much easier ride across this 9114 foot summit.  We finally ate lunch around 3 pm at a nice roadside park.

                                                      some color on the mountain

Lauren and I hate to plan too far ahead of time.  About an hour before Moab, I started calling campgrounds and found that the private ones were full.  We decided to try the BLM campsites with no hook ups for $15 a night.  After going through the 2 campgrounds at Ken’s Lake, finding all the sites taken, having a really hard time turning around our big rig in the “big rig friendly campground,” and seeing all the traffic and people in downtown Moab, we headed south to get away from all the congestion.

We found a couple of campgrounds about 60 miles around Monticello that were not to our liking.  We stopped at the Conoco station.  Lauren inquired and found out we were welcome to camp in their parking lot.  We shut her down.

I consider this boondocking, Lauren said it is parking lot camping..  There was a subway in the Conoco store, so there you have it, supper.  As we were eating our delicious subway sandwiches, we watched 7 deer at 7:30 pm go back and forth across the road, as the cars were dodging them.  The deer and the cars all made it safely. 

                                                          deer look like ghost in the pic

I am conserving our battery power tonight. So I am typing using my Etekcity LED Lantern. Thanks again to my St D family.

We sat inside for a while people watching.  After traveling 300 miles in 7 hours, we will be calling it an early night tonight.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/DjoYPnNskmfy6dwv9

9-19-16 - Heat Escape - Day 39

                                                            Campground Fire Pit

We lazed around again this morning, We ate lunch around 10;30 while watching The Young and The Restless, then headed to Vernal to stock up at Walmart and fill up the truck with diesel.

When we got back from town, we thought it was a take it easy kind of day. We went through our brochures for the area and decided to ride to the Indian Petroglyphs Dry Fork Canyon. We thought this would be a good way to spend a couple of leisurely hours.

We stopped and admired the American Flag on the cliff remembering the victims of the battleship Maine in the Havana Harbor.  It was beautiful.

We thought we were going to see some easy accessible Petroglyphs at the Sadie McConkie Ranch .  We donated the $5 as requested, and went on the main trail.  We thought for a little while that we had overpaid, then we saw the sign to walk an additional 3 blocks to see more.  It was a little more work, walking up the hill than we expected, especially being we were actually sweating a little.  It was a hot 82 degrees, I had to pull off my sunglasses because my eyes were sweating.  Wasn't expecting this.

After hiking the main trail, we saw the sign for 3 Kings Trail.  We went through the cow pasture, watching deer, and dodging cow manure, praying there was not a mean ole bull out there, to another area that had even better petroglyphs.

                                                    End of trail (3 Kings)

                                                                    Zoomed in

We were kinda tired when we returned to where Amber, (motorcycle) was parked..  We had a snack at the picnic tables, and continued our ride to the lower Dry Fork Canyon.  It was a beautiful ride through the canyon  where there was plenty of BLM land.  We turned around after a little while on the dirt road, Red Cloud Loop.  After we turned around, we realized that the dirt road was smoother than the paved.

                                                          Tiny House for sale $49000

We got back 4 hours later, woke up Fernykat, and sat outside for a while.  This is the warmest evening that we have had in quite a while.  It may be a little warmer, but not nearly as bad as the hot humid weather we have escaped from.

It has been a great week at Outlaw Trail RV Park, but we will part tomorrow and continue on our Happy Trail.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/REKgq4mqLoPVH7EE6

9-18-16 - Heat Escape - Day 38

We took the back roads to Jones Hole Fish Hatchery.  We, (at least me,) enjoyed the back roads.  We saw a deer within a half mile of the campground, saw several golden eagles, (didn't get a good pic.,) and some more deer.

The little country bumpy roads turned into awesome.  We were all the sudden going up the hill. slowly around the curves, when all the sudden we had beautiful views of Diamond Mountain.  Not what we thought we were gonna see today.  Again. AWESOME!

                               

We walked around and saw the fish being fed at the fish hatchery, we took a stroll down the banks and saw a few fish in the stream on a nice trail, talked to some fishermen, then made our way back to the Harley.

                                                             
We had our picnic lunch overlooking Diamond Mountain.  It was less than 80 degrees and a beautiful view.

Lunch spot

                                                     

We made it back to camp early and got the dreaded washing of clothes done.  This is the best laundry that I have ever been in. It makes life so easy and simple to have good washer and dryers.

We had Parmesan chicken on Zucchini tonight.  Another awesome meal.

We talked with the owner of the campground for a while tonight.  She is very enthusiastic about the park and so are we. We would't mind another visit here.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/FpB4p5qaFKfpyv9L9

9-17-16 - Heat Escape - Day 37

                                                                   Good Morning

We ate steak and eggs for breakfast, then packed our picnic lunch and headed toward Flaming Gorge Dam.  It was a beautiful ride, with 8% grades and lots of curves. We took our time stopping along the way taking pictures.  It got cold, 56 degrees on the summit.

We continued on our beautiful ride to the dam.  We decided to take the walking tour of the dam.  Awesome dam tour guide.  She was very informative, not only about the dam but about other things in the area to see and do.

                                                    Best Dam Tour in Utah

                                                          Feed the fish at the bottom

We left the dam and drove to the Wyoming state line, only about 10 miles. We went back across the dam and went to Red Canyon.  Gorgeous!, and we saw big horn sheep and turkeys.

We continued on our journey to the Sheep Creek Geological Loop, this was an amazing drive.  We made it back to Highway 44 to look at kokanee salmon.   It was 4:30 pm and we hadn't ate lunch yet.  We stood by the Harley and ate our lunch then went to look for the salmon.  We found a few.

We took highway 44 to highway 191 to Vernal then home.  We saw at least 10 mule deer on the way back across the pass.  It was still in the 50's across the summit.  We scooted on down  the 8% grade, 10 curves in a mile, or whatever the sign said.

Of course, when we got home, Fernykat was ready to go outside.  She got cold and went in earlier than us.  We took a few sunset pics and called it a night.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/Eqmw5aZEcyruYTog9