We left Cortez going to Moab Monday. On the way to Moab on route 191 about 50 miles south of Moab we saw this unusual rock formation standing out in the field all by itself. I called it the bee hive. Note it looks like a door at the base.
About 20 miles further north on route 191 we saw the pull off for the arch shown below. It's called Wilson Arch. The funny thing about this arch is that at first we didn't see it. We pulled off at the pull off because we saw the sign and people crawling all over the hill. Peggy was standing in front of the sign reading about the arch when I walked up to her, she still hadn't seen the arch. I told her to just look up and there it was. She had been looking all around for it and couldn't find it. As you can see it's no small arch.
We had called ahead to make reservations at a campground for a week. We hadn't realized that it was Memorial Day weekend coming up. All the campgrounds were full starting Friday. So we made the reservation just through Thursday at the Canyon View RV Park. It's about 10 miles north of Moab but right at the entrance to the road that leads to Canyonland National Park (route 323). When we registered we told them that if they had a cancellation we would like to stay for the holiday weekend. 5/22/2007
Tuesday morning we drove into Moab and had breakfast at McDonald's and then stopped at the visitor center in downtown Moab. They gave us a lot of information on things to see and told us about several places where we could boondock. From there we went to the Arches National Park.
They have a nice visitor center and show a short movie about the park. As soon as you leave the visitor center and head into the park you start up a steep hill. The above picture was taken at the first pull off about half way up the mountain. You can see the entrance gate, the visitor center and route 191 north. Our campground is about 8 miles north up route 191.
This is the next pull off and is called the Park Avenue Trail Head. The trail leaves from here and goes down through the valley to a pull off further down the road. The trail is about one mile long. When we were there, there was a group of boyscouts starting off on the trail.
For some reason humans like to give things names, so here are the names that we were given for these rocks, from right to left, The Organ, Tower of Babel, Sheep Rock, The Three Gossips.
This is the back side of the Park Avenue Trail. The sign says please pick up your Park Avenue hikers here.
The sign at this pull off, says these are petrified sand dunes. This area was covered by sand dunes. About 200 million years ago, winds from the northwest carried tons of fine-grained sand into this area. Over time the sand drifts were covered by other layers of sediment, compressed and cemented by quartz and calcite into Navajo Sandstone. Erosion has washed away the overlying layers, exposing the "petrified" dunes. Note the La Sal mountains in the background. That is a new covering of snow just applied last night. Those mountain peaks are around 13,000 feet.
Here is a jewel the Balance Rock. I walked completely around it and you wonder what in the world is holding it up and more importantly when is it coming down. There are more pictures of it in the album from different sides.
This picture of Double Arch really doesn't show the second part of the arch right behind the first one. If we get back to it I will try to get closer and see if it will show the second arch. As you can see there appears to be other arches still forming.
This is the North Window Arch. There is a South Window Arch unfortunately the trail was to long for me.
This is called Mules-Ear. What a weird name for such a pretty flower. They almost look like small Sun Flowers. Also there are more pictures of them in the album. We actually only did half of the park but plan to go back again before we leave to do the rest. We were just worn out. That's what happens when you get old. You just don't have the stamina you had when you were young.
Tuesday morning we drove into Moab and had breakfast at McDonald's and then stopped at the visitor center in downtown Moab. They gave us a lot of information on things to see and told us about several places where we could boondock. From there we went to the Arches National Park.
They have a nice visitor center and show a short movie about the park. As soon as you leave the visitor center and head into the park you start up a steep hill. The above picture was taken at the first pull off about half way up the mountain. You can see the entrance gate, the visitor center and route 191 north. Our campground is about 8 miles north up route 191.
This is the next pull off and is called the Park Avenue Trail Head. The trail leaves from here and goes down through the valley to a pull off further down the road. The trail is about one mile long. When we were there, there was a group of boyscouts starting off on the trail.
For some reason humans like to give things names, so here are the names that we were given for these rocks, from right to left, The Organ, Tower of Babel, Sheep Rock, The Three Gossips.
This is the back side of the Park Avenue Trail. The sign says please pick up your Park Avenue hikers here.
The sign at this pull off, says these are petrified sand dunes. This area was covered by sand dunes. About 200 million years ago, winds from the northwest carried tons of fine-grained sand into this area. Over time the sand drifts were covered by other layers of sediment, compressed and cemented by quartz and calcite into Navajo Sandstone. Erosion has washed away the overlying layers, exposing the "petrified" dunes. Note the La Sal mountains in the background. That is a new covering of snow just applied last night. Those mountain peaks are around 13,000 feet. 
Here is a jewel the Balance Rock. I walked completely around it and you wonder what in the world is holding it up and more importantly when is it coming down. There are more pictures of it in the album from different sides.
This picture of Double Arch really doesn't show the second part of the arch right behind the first one. If we get back to it I will try to get closer and see if it will show the second arch. As you can see there appears to be other arches still forming.
This is the North Window Arch. There is a South Window Arch unfortunately the trail was to long for me.
This is called Mules-Ear. What a weird name for such a pretty flower. They almost look like small Sun Flowers. Also there are more pictures of them in the album. We actually only did half of the park but plan to go back again before we leave to do the rest. We were just worn out. That's what happens when you get old. You just don't have the stamina you had when you were young.When we got back to the motorhome there was a note on the door telling me they had a cancellation and if I wanted it to come to the office and let then know. I went to the office and they told me I could stay as long as I wanted but that I would have to move to site 52. I'm currently in site 50. I said that would be fine, so I signed up for another four days. Which means we don't have to leave until Tuesday the 29th. That is the first time I have ever stayed at a campground when they told me I would have to move to another site if I wanted to stay longer. I always figured that if I had to go to all the trouble of disconnecting and reconnecting and getting the motorhome ready to move I might as well move farther than just to another site in the same park. But in this case I knew I couldn't get a site any where near Moab so I accepted it.
5/23/2007
I didn't do any thing today but drive into town three times. First to get some groceries, then to try and pick up Peg's medicine, and finally to go back and get the prescription. Peg woke up with a bad sines infection and sore throat. I found a drug store listed on the Internet, so we called the doctor at home and he called in the prescriptions for Peg. The only other thing we did was watch the Atlanta Braves get beat by the Mets.
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