Trip to the Utah Deserts
(and nearby)
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
There are many possible starting points, but what I want to do is lead you one day at a time from one terrific bit of scenery to another all the way to the end of the trip, where you will meet the sublime. And if you need a mid-point mailing address: General Delivery; Post Office; BICKNELL, UT 84715-9999.
However you get there, start at "Four Corners" a mile or so off US160 at the common corner of NM, AR, CO and UT. There you will find the site encircled by Indians selling jewelry, baskets and rugs. If you are interested in getting some really good buys, get some books on the subject before you arrive there. Some of these Indian sellers might be a few of the big names in that 'cottage' industry.
Next go to the town of Gouldings in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The route there will be a bit circuitous, but it is for a reason that you will discover later. Take US160 west from Four Corners to Kayenta AR, and then northwards on US163. Gouldings is just across the border into UT. The campground and the camp store are spartan - but what do you want in the middle of a desert. Ask the natives about how this town in a middle of an Indian nation has such a germanic name. You'll know they're telling you the truth if it pertains to a newspaper reporter.
Continuing northward on US163, pass between some of the magnificent buttes of Monument Valley and go on into Mexican Hat (why that name? keep your eyes open). Just past town there will be a turnoff onto UT261 for the Goosenecks of the San Juan River State Park, which is on a side road UT316. When you pull into the parking area, don't drive near the edge - park near the middle where the toilets are. Don't question my directions! Just do them! Then walk to the 'edge.' Without giving much away, let me tell you that the San Juan River you see is one of the three tributaries that converge to go through the Grand Canyon a few miles downstream.
If you think that you have really seen something up to this point, let me say that you ain't seen nuttin' yet!
Get back onto UT261 and drive northwards towards the escarpment. Keep going. This road is not the worst - by far!- you'll encounter. Actually this one will only be mildly exciting! Soon you'll have wended your way up the switchbacks and be atop the plateau with its trees and a nice paved road. You'll soon run into UT95; turn west and go for a short distance to Natural Bridges Natural Monument Park. Camp there for the night. You'll be early enough to pitch your tent and then be able to wander around quite a lot.
Take UT95 east to Blanding for breakfast and then northward on US191 to Moab. You might want to stop along the way and drive up Abajo Peak (11,360 ft) near Monticello. All the mountains that you can see in this area are called lacolithic as they were formed when magma intruded between bedrock layers, pushed up the upper layers, which then eroded away leaving these huge mountains of solid lava. Today, flakes of rock form "talus" at the peaks and slowly move downhill.
Moab will now be a center of operations for several days. This town is set in a delta valley that is formed by the Colorado River. One thing you might like to do that is a bit civilized is have a meal at The Old Ranch House, which is a little north of the center of town on the east side of the road. It was here that Bobby Kennedy had his honeymoon. Ethyl's relatives were from around these parts - in the uranium business
This paragraph is a day-trip. Somewhere in Moab buy a map of "Moab East." Go south on US191 from the center of Moab for two or three miles and turn left onto one of the side roads, to get to Spanish Valley Drive, which runs parallel to US191. Turn right onto Spanish Valley Drive. Take the left fork in the road, which then becomes the La Sal Mtn Loop Road. Follow this road for much of the remainder of the day. Along the way, stop at pullouts, look back to where you have come from; note the contrast - up from Hades to a cool paradise. Keep going. However at one point you will turn right onto a 4WD gravel road (don't necessarily believe the 4WD part). This is the road to Oowah Lake (truly: "Oo! Ahh!"). Have lunch at 8,800 ft elev. Enjoy the high mountain lake nestled among tall pines and other trees. Even a little snow has been seen in the woods in May. Go back to the Loop Road, turn right and continue. As always, stop often and gawk. Soon you will start down, and be heading in the direction of the Colorado River. You will enter the Colorado Canyon in a stretch known at Castle Canyon - presumably because of the geological ramparts, which run as shear vertical walls to the sky. You might see rafters, and you might see cars running westward now on UT128. The cars will look midget in this scenery of the ultra-large. After a few more pull-offs you will reach the Moab valley and turn left on US191 to get back to the center of Moab.
If you have time, you might want to take US191 northward for a few miles and turn left onto UT279 and follow it as far as you want/can/dare(!) - on the northside of the Colorado River. You will see very high cliffs and plateaus - upon which you will soon find yourselves in coming days!
Fill up with gas! Continue north on US191 over the Colorado for another mile or so to the entrance to Arches National Park. Camp in Arches. If you get there before 10 am you can usually get one of the choicer spots in the area called the Firey Furnace. Spend a day wandering around this park. Get relaxed. The next day will be one of the high points of the trip.
Leave Arches and your camping stuff behind for a day trip. Go back into Moab and get a 4X4 for the day. Fill up with gas! Have a panoramic camera with you! Get back on US191, go north for about a dozen miles and turn off westward onto UT313 and follow the signs to Dead Horse Point State Park. You will pass a sign to Canyonlands National Park. Go to the Dead Horse Point Info Center. Ask about how the park got its name. There are several answers. Now, with your wonder reserves full, drive and walk to the "Point." You see the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers - the only confluence of navigatable rivers in the world that has no human habitation. Wonder why, and send me a picture post card with your answer.
Can you see Mt Peale to the east, and Mt Abajo to the south? Can you see two symmetrical little round bumps of mountains slightly west of Abajo that are called Bear's Ears. The Ears are all the way south near Natural Bridges National Park!
Look down. Can you see the dirt roads that run parallel to the Colorado? How would you like to drive on one of them? Ah, ha! You've got a 4x4!
Take the road from Dead Horse Point and go back to the one leading to Canyonlands NP. Take it to its little Info Center. Ask the ranger for directions to the Shafer Trail, which is a one-way cattle trail to the River. It is a very bumpy unpaved road necessitating 4-wheel, as do most roads in Canyonlands NP. When the Shafer Trail finally meets UT279 just past the entrance to the big vanadium/uranium mines you will know that you have had a landmark day in your life! (Notice how little I say about this? You'll know why at day's end.) Besides, you will recognize that you have been to this stretch of UT279. Back in Moab, turn in the Jeep or whatever. (Of course, you have only touched these areas, and you may wish to spend much more time around these parts.)
You have now completed the first half of the overall trip to the desert.
Second Half of Trip
From Moab, go north on US191 up to I-70 and go westward, and stop at the Town of Green River.
(Here you WILL want to make a side trip up to the NE corner of Utah to see Dinosaur Natural Monument Park. You will see that about the only way to go is via US191 through Price and to Vernal, and then east on US 40 for a few miles. A great place to camp is north of Vernal on the south rim of Flaming Gorge Natural Recreation Area park: stay at the main campground, which is better than the others in both view and facilities. High and cool and serene. A good break from the deserts for here you will be surrounded by pondersa pines, and deer. Near Dutch John, a little to the east, is a good swimming hole. All of this area is in the Uinta Mts, which is the longest east-west chain in North America.)
Meanwhile, back at the town of Green River: Continue going west on I-70 until you pass a rest stop on your side of the road. This particular rest stop is a little way past the Great Cut up through the pass in the mountains. Go a little further and turn around (out in these desolate spots it seems alright to turn around by crossing the median strip - there's no other place!). Go back eastward to the rest stop just before you get to the Great Cut.
What you are looking at here is the San Rafael Swell, one of the classic bits of geology shown in many textbooks. Eons ago, horizontal pressures built up on the plate, and the crust exploded upwards forming this escarpment on the east side, with a similar one several miles to the west (called Coal Cliffs), but not nearly so spectacular.
Now go back eastward down through the cut on I-70 to UT24 and drive south. On your west will be the backside of the Swell. Before you get to Hanksville, you will have a sign to go west to Goblin Valley State Park. Go see the Goblins. Also visit the camping area that is situated among the knees of a small butte. About 30 feet up the side of the butte is a foot-thick stratum of jasper. Once jasper was a precious stone. Since this butte was discovered jasper has lost most of its value. You might find some reddish jasper bits in the small washes in the campground. Also imagine camping in this area - not very verdant, is it? But it is a great camping place when the moon is full, or to look at the stars when it is not.
Back going south on UT24 towards Hanksville. Once there was a National Weather Bureau pull-off telling you that this might be the driest place on earth. Today it will tax your imagination a lot to believe this was once so barren, because upriver water-control projects have brought water to this area. But before the water, you were instructed to go out into the desert and pick up a few of the pieces of gypsum. They were often about playing card shape and size. A drop of spit would dissolve the gypsum, which you were told took about 2,000 years to make a crystal the size of a playing card. Then you knew that not much rain has fallen here for a loooonnnnnnnnggggg time. But now with irrigation, the Hanksville area is a fast growing agricultural community.
Continue on UT24, now curving and going westward past Caineville. You will see a small river - the Fremont, named after the "Pathfinder", a renowned explorer of the area and later to become one of the North's top four generals - John Charles Fremont. Also you will notice lots of 'cannonballs' lying all around. What are they and where did they come from? (There is a small dirt road going northward off UT24 into the deep desert. The road ends at a stream (Muddy River) that incongruously flows all year. A neat place to cool off when the temperature is a crispy 120°F! Don't try to ford the stream in your car unless you have checked for quicksand - one of the two times I was there we got across, the other time we nearly lost our sneakers in testing it by walking it first! You'll probably be the only persons around for 25 miles.) UT24 finally reaches the Swell. You used to have to "STOP!!! Get out! Do not enter the gorge if you see any clouds in the sky. This gorge is the neck of a funnel draining thousands of square miles on the other side of the Swell." (Your writer narrowly escaped once. An hour after the rain stopped, the ranger showed us that the road you are about to take was piled high with boulders.) But with the water-control projects, that is no longer a problem. Alas, there is a downside to this, and that while once the canyon sported a couple of nice bathing waterfalls with little beaches, the water-control no longer lets flash floods flush through to scour the canyon clean. Today the waterway is jammed with willows and tamarisk.
Pull into the campgrounds at Fruita, the HQ for what will likely become your favorite national park - Capitol Reef NP. Stay here for several days. All around you are trees with fruit for your picking - the rangers will invite you to do so. Go see the Great Wash; the petroglyphs made by Indians and newspaper rocks made by pioneers. Supplies or mail? The village of Torrey is a few miles west (remember the mail-drop mentioned at the very beginning of this itinerary?). Lots of wonderful trails - out into the driest of deserts, or through marshes along the Fremont, and through environs anywhere in between. Mesa tops, gorges with natural bridges, small grottos filled with ferns, and on and on.
From Fruita, go west on UT24 to Torrey (any mail a little further on in Bicknell?), and then drop southward on UT12. You'll go from desert up over a high plateau with aspens and cattle, and back down to Boulder, and on through Escalanté, and onwards some more eventually ending up at Bryce Canyon NP, where you'll probably want to stay for the night after tiring yourselves in wandering through the flamingly brilliant formations.
Next you might want to take a sidetrip to Cedar Breaks NM to see the flowers and other scenery. To do this you see from your map that you go west on UT12 to US 89 and south to UT14 - or somewhere in that area.
Your next stop will be in Zion NP. (Alas, your author has never been there.)
Now you have a major choice to make: south of you is a great barrier called the Grand Canyon. You have just come from the north. You must decide whether or not you want to go see the west or to go see the east. You cannot go south unless you're a bird.
GOING WEST. Going southwestward on I-15, you come to the town of St. George, which is a big retirement community, and one of the last sane communities for many miles ahead.
Continue southwestward on I-15. Soon you will be in the Virgin River Gorge (and just nicking the NW corner of Arizona). You may wish to backtrack several times on this short bit of highway so that you can take it all in - there are few places to pull off on this busy highway connecting Salt Lake City with L.A. and Southern California. What you are really seeing on this road is the transition between the uplifted Colorado Plateau and the volcanic lands to the west. In a sense, the Virgin River Gorge is a parallel to the Grand Canyon, smaller but nonetheless magnificent.
Finally on this day, drive the next 8 miles or so into Nevada. Very nice places to stop for the night in posh accommodations vis-a-vis camping are the casino motels both on the east and west sides of the town of Mesquite NV. Peggy Sue's dinner, the motel and the small oasis town of Mesquite are very nice. It was in this small bordertown (for NV) casino that this author's wife twice won $120 on 5˘ machines. Note: when you see a Nevada bordertown, think "cheap food, and cheap accommodations;" cheap, that is, if you don't pour too much into the slot machines!
Or you might want to drive another 70 miles for a really cheap stay and food in Las Vegas. $20 or $30 rooms are at many unexpected places - Imperial Palace, Stardust, Circus-Circus. Expensive rooms are at Caesar's Palace, the Mirage, and their even more extravagent successors. Remember that there are more than 100 giant casinos in this fastest growing city in the country - all trying to separate you from your money. Keep your money out of machines and off the tables, and it will be an amazingly cheap stay. An accepted practice is to pull off the highway just before you get to Vegas and pour glue into those pockets containing money. This is very effective in preventing withdrawals of cash for slot machines and table games!
From Vegas, take US93 southeastward over Railroad Pass (and its casino) and onwards over the Hoover Dam and Boulder City. Keep your eyes on the dam road. Watch out for the dam traffic. Take the dam tour: there is good parking on the Arizona side. Continue onwards towards Kingman AR. There is a truckstop on the NW corner of the intersection of US93 and I-40 that serves a good buffet lunch. Gas up in AR as gas taxes are 20˘/gal lower in this state that in either CA or NV.
Go back northward on US93 for 5 miles or so and take AR68 west towards Bullhead City AR/Laughlin NV. Make sure that you do this in the day if you haven't come this way before. You'll know why when you see it.
Stay the night in Laughlin - more cheap accommodations - at Gold River, Edgewater, Colorado Belle, Flamingo Hilton and elsewhere. This is essentially a one-street town consisting of nothing but casinos, cheap rooms and nearly free food. And the clientel is much different than that in Vegas. Here you will see parking lots with mom and pop's pickup trucks. Take the River Walk, watch for the loitering catfish, take the river taxi, just relax. A few miles further south of Laughlin, is the Indian Reservation of a tribe which renamed itself "Avi", which means 'money.' They have their casino also. Remember that state and federal taxes do not apply on reservations so lots of things like gasoline might be cheaper there - unless the tribe has levied a tax.
Take NV163 west up out of the Colorado canyon to US95 and then north to the little almost-ghosttown of Searchlight. It was once a major silver camp. Now it mines gamblers' pocketbooks. The little casino has fairly good and very inexpensive food. And the author on two occasions with only 4 quarters invested escaped with nearly $250. Very lucky indeed. Breakfast is still 75˘, OR LESS!
From Searchlight you might want to go west on NV164/CA164 over to I-15. Along the way, you will cross into California, in event that you have never been there. Welcome to territory that is sister to Death Valley! On I-15 go north to catch NV160 just before you hit Vegas. On the way to NV160, just inches beyond the border of California/Nevada, you will see three large casino hotels: Whiskey Pete's, Buffalo Bill's (big roller coaster), and Primadonna. In the lobby of Whiskey Pete's is the shot-up car of Bonnie & Clyde and one of Hitler's cars. Hot turkey sandwiches are great here. Beneath the huge sign is the tombstone of Whiskey Pete, the story of whom was once the theme of a Death Valley Days program on early TV. Seven miles further up the road is another pair of casino hotels: Nevada Landing and Gold Strike. In the latter you can get really good prime rib steak for only a couple of dollars.
Finally you have made it to NV160. Go west past Pahrump (past the state's most infamous 'Chicken Ranch') and take US95 west (probably designated as north) to NV373, where you will follow the signs to Death Valley. And that's where you'll be left to find your way home.
GOING EAST. Going east from Zion NP on UT9, to Mt Carmel where you'll join US89 and take the direction southward to Kanab, where you will then take AltUS89 south through Fredonia to a town called Jacob Lake, where you will take AR67 south to North Rim (of the Grand Canyon). This is a much more rustic part of the park than is the south side. Smaller, too. A great place for you to be left to find your way home!
I want to go to the TOP OF PAGE or ESCAPE! or go back to the Virology Home Page!
This trip will probably change your life.