On Saturday, we arrived in Moab about 3 to get water, we had heard there wasn’t water available at the campground as they only get ten inches of rain a year. Our site was in the Kayenta Campground #14 with a nice view of the area. We arrived, set up and around 6:30 there was storm with a beautiful double rainbow and we began to enjoy the desert.
We only visited Moab briefly.
Double Rainbow! Double Luck!
In the morning after a quick breakfast and to beat the heat we hiked the West Rim Trail coming back the East Rim Trail. The views are everywhere! After a late lunch we headed over to Canyonlands and the Island in the Sky area. We toured the Visitor Center, drove to the Green River Overlook and then drove to the Mesa Arch and hiked to see it. The area is beautiful, and it is west of Dead Horse so you can look over the canyons and imagine you can see the campground. When we arrived back at camp, we called to make reservations for 9 am the next day on a tour of the Colorado River via a jetboat through Canyonlands by Night.
Stunning views!
A quick rock selfie
West Rim Trail portion at Deadhorse
East Rim trail portion at Deadhorse
Canyonlands Visitor Center has suggestions for hikes.
Green River overlook in the park.
Mesa Arch loop is 1 mile and worth the look!
There are a lot of roads that one can take.
Up the next morning we drove back to Moab and arrived for our boat tour. It’s a worthwhile two-hour tour and our guide was fabulous. Since backpacking in the Grand Canyon back in the 80’s we have enjoyed seeing the views both from the bottom and from the top of vista areas. After the tour we headed to the Red Cliffs Ranch Film Museum to get some lunch and look at the area. Good spot to learn more about the area and we lucked out with a river rafter lunch served buffet style as this is also a lunch spot for rafting companies. That night we watched the sunset from Dead Horse Point, noticing that there must be a fire somewhere as the sky had a haze to it. I get the reason so many are drawn to this landscape as the various textures in the rocks and vegetation mixed with the blue of the sky are inspiring. I would love to come back to this area, as we never really looked at Moab closely.
A wonderful way to see the Colorado River- its pretty unclear.
History and formations everywhere you look!
Another way to see the river and some of these trips are days long.
Coming to the Goose Neck Overlook
This is the Grotto Concert area that people boat into to listen to live music.
Museum in the Red Cliffs Lodge. In the late 1940s the legendary John Ford discovered the rugged beauty of Moab’s Canyonlands and filmed the first of many movies here.
Red Cliffs Lodge area
Sunset from the Deadhorse overlook
To get some miles on and not knowing were we would end up, but our sights on Great Basin we drove longer than any other time with the Airstream. Arriving in Great Basin around 6 we toured it’s two campgrounds, both pretty much full. We tried one site, but it was too steep and finally just took a handicap site with a small view (we have heard numerous times they can be taken after 5 pm if there isn’t a reservation on them). We decided that night to come back to the park when we felt we had more time.
Views off of Highway 50.
A quick 15 hours in Great Basin!
On the road early Wednesday morning our next spot was Eureka, Nevada. John had heard about this town and we wanted to check it out. The only place to stay was the Silver Lodge RV Park, and although there are a lot of permanent residents it was quiet and interesting. We wanted to check out the town and after setting up and disconnecting our truck we drove the short way into town. Eureka is the birthplace of silver-lead smelting. There are cool historical buildings and we even lucked out and got a personal tour of the Opera House. The town is like many small towns these days, contains beautiful old buildings but modernization looks better to some. The main grocery store once in town has moved outside of town and lacks character and is quite limited in supplies. I wish all knew the value of those old buildings before they abandon them.
Silver Lodge RV Park was found via AllStays and Campendium. They are actually adding more sites.
At the RV Park there are some cool historical features that are worthy of a photo capture.
Eureka Courthouse view of the Opera House
The floors had just been redone and we scored a tour!
Eureka’s old buildings are the best subject for photos!
Next stop was Carson City, Nevada to see family for the night and then on to Lassen National Park.
