Arches National Park

Arches National Park is very popular. I did not care for it. They  have really smelly pit toilets which in this day and age of pit toilet technology is not acceptable. I think I was also affected by rock, sun and desert overload. We had been watching the temperatures in Moab and picked this week specifically because the highs were in the high 60s and low 70s. Thankfully that was the case so the dogs were very comfortable with the windows down.

Ranger led activities that we didn't do but I would have liked to. When your not staying on site it is harder to do these sorts of things.

1st stop on the tour. We rented the CD tour. It wasn't that great but better than nothing.

Nice rocks.

Pretty rocks.

Dogs are not allowed except on paved areas, picnic areas and dirt roads.

Rock that the boy scouts fear will fall on someone so they will probably have to come knock it down.

Dogs on dirt road near first restroom stop. Single pit toilet available.

One of many arches.

 It wasn't too long before I was tired of arches. The visitor center had nice displays on how they were created and the usual national park service movie. I always enjoy the visitor center at a park.

 We should have split the park into two days as we did not have the time or energy to see everything.

Dogs at a picnic area.

Very pleased that they get to do something.

Underside of an arch.

As it got toward dinner time we called it a day and headed into Moab for dinner where we had a spectacularly bad meal. All in all Arches and Moab were ho-hum for me but I loved our campground and the scenery along 128. If your coming in from Colorado or going out to Colorado take 128 for the scenic drive.

Utah Big Bend Campground

The next day it was raining so we headed toward Utah.

 I had read that it was impossible to get into the Arches National Park Campground but that there were many BLM campgrounds around. I only remembered 1 and it had the name Goose something. I had a vague idea where it was so we drove there and found Goose Island was full. I figured there would be some more along the river so we kept going along 128. There was a spot at one of the campgrounds that border the road and river but I didn't like it. I wanted a proper campground with campground roads to walk the dogs on. We came to Big Bend Campground and it was perfect. They even had a pull through spot available with plenty of room to walk the dogs right on the site.

Big Bend Campground

Our site. The road is behind us but not right behind us. The site was spacious and had a spectacular setting.

The area to walk our dogs which was part of our site.

The campground had some nice sandy beach access areas. Many sites backed to the water but ours didn't.

Pretty view up the river.

Pretty view down the river.

Sandy areas to walk.

The dogs love the sniffs on the beach.

Cement walkway to beach area.

Rocks behind our site.

Same rocks illuminated by the setting sun.

For $15 per night with pretty good verizon signal and data access we were very happy campers!

Glenwood Hot Springs

After the hike we were ready to soak in some hot springs.

Since it is so famous it was quite crowded. The changing rooms were clean and showers were good. They provide lockers at $.50 each. It is a quarter to sit in the bubble chairs in the pool so bring some quarters. The hot pool was hot and the cool pool wasn't too cool. But I didn't stay in long because the slight sulfur smell made me nauseous. However my husband enjoyed a very long soak that went into the evening hours. That gave me time to check out the spa which looked to have some nice treatments at reasonable prices. Something for next time...

Grizzly Creek Trail

Like every other person visiting Glenwood Springs we headed to Hanging Lake. There was not only no parking but there wasn't even waiting room for cars looking for parking. It was all full with many people idling in their cars waiting. We immediately turned around and headed to the Grizzly Creek Trail exit (1 exit west). Since there is no Hanging Lake exit coming from the east this is the exit that they turn you around at and head back east to go to Hanging Lake. There is also a great rest area here.

At the trail head there is a small parking area but it wasn't that crowded. At Grizzly Creek we had a fabulous and beautiful hike. For some reason my camera didn't get the colors. I don't know if there was a settings problem but here is what I got.

The fall colors along this hike were spectacular. The yellows were brightly burning, the oranges were brilliant and the reds were flaming. The hike couldn't have been more stunning.

Glenwood Canyon Resort

I basically did no planning for this trip and relied on my memory for things I had read when researching other trips. For Glenwood Springs my recollection was that there were no camping areas so when we got there at dusk and saw Glenwood Canyon Resort I decided to check in no matter what. $60+ later  ($42 camping, $5 each pet, $5 car taxes etc.) I had a gravel spot surrounded by more gravel that was so narrow I couldn't walk around the RV without treading on the next spot.

The Resort has three rows of camping. One up by I-70.

The middle one that we took has a bar at the end of the row so you get to listen to cars and people on the very noisy gravel.

The one down by the river was the prettiest but if you are outdoors when the trains go by and apply their squeaky brakes it causes pain in your ears and probably the dog's too. I couldn't get my dogs to willingly walk back down there once they experienced it.

 

We arrived on a Fri. night which apparently is a very bad time to arrive. All night long vehicles continued to come in, probably from Denver. On a paved road this would have been OK but they have a very large gravel that is extremely noisy and the vehicles going by woke us up all night long.

From the bar area there is a zipline adventure. I imagine when it is operating it also generates alot of vehicle traffic noise but it wasn't going while we were there.

 

The big plus for this resort was that it is adjacent to the Glenwood Canyon Bike Path. Near the bar building there is a shortcut over to the path.

 The bike path is super pretty and goes along the river.

Based on the Colorado tourist materials we could find there was only one other RV camping place nearby so we stayed a second night, dreading the noise because there was a wedding at the bar building on Sat. night. However the wedding guests were not noisy and all cleared out by 10 p.m. The second night we got alot more sleep.

Check engine light and O2 sensor

To catch things up, after our Chatfield visit we dropped off our RV at Baldwin's Service Center in Aurora CO to get our check engine light checked out. They found a code that indicated the O2 sensor might be bad. They also checked things our for us and gave us a lube at my request since we have been changing our own oil the RV hadn't been lubed in a while. For about $395 in total we were happy with the service and I will use them again.

Our next planned trip was up I-70 to Arches National Park in Utah. I was a little nervous about the trip so chatted with the Baldwin's owner to get his thoughts and he thought it would be just fine so we decided to make the trip.