Finding Focus

That first night Dany and I relaxed and went on a little walk to watch the pretty sunset.

July 1, 2024 after work Dany and I walked around the campground. There is a whole area in the back that you’d never know was there unless you went exploring like we did (or I guess you could’ve read the map that the office gives you :)). There’s a pavilion with horseshoes and a dog park. Dany especially loved the grass at the pavilion area.

This dog loves to roll in grass and on carpet.

Arches National Park

July 2, 2024, I went to Arches National park which was only like 10 minutes down the road from my campsite. Arches is one of the national parks that is still doing timed entry. This means that you have to have a reservation if you’re going into the park between 7am – 4pm. If you go before 7am or after 4pm, no reservation is needed. I got in the park shortly after 4pm and was in utter amazement of the the views as I drove through the twisting roads beneath the towering red canyons. At my first stop, I walked a little ways down the Delicate Arch trail to see Wolfe Ranch and some petroglyphs.

Based on the the style of the figures on horseback, these petroglyphs could date back to the 1580s.

It was too hot to walk all of the way to the Delicate Arch so I continued to drive down the road the Sand Dune Arch. The Sand Dune Arch was one of my favorite parts of the whole Utah trip. To get to the arch, it was a short walk through a narrow canyon that had a cool breeze whipping through the pathway that felt amazing on such a hot day.

I got that wind swept look, yeah?? haha

As you continue along the path and walk on top of the red sand…

…you will soon arrive at the Sand Dune Arch. Between the lighting, the arch itself, and the red sand and surrounding rocks, it was one of the most amazing things that I’ve ever seen. It was like I had been transported to another planet.

It was also nice in that there was hardly anyone else there. A few people here and there, but that was it. If my time at Arches had ended there, I would’ve been completely content, but there was still so much more yet to be seen.

The next stop was to go see the Skyline Arch. This Arch was huge and you could walk from the parking area along the road right up to it.

After getting a closer view, I walked around at the base just exploring a little bit. I had decided to head back, but I turned around to walk back the way that I came, and I was face to face with a mule deer sitting (laying?) down. I stopped in my tracks, and we just looked at each other. He was probably only about 10 yards away from me. I gave him a little more space and took a couple more steps back. I must’ve been far enough away from him at that point because he went back to munching on some grass. I took my camera out and started snapping away.

A little closer now…

Even closer, you can see the rock formations and blue sky reflected in his eye.

Just one more funny one where I caught him mid chew.

After taking my pictures, I didn’t want to disturb him, so I went the long way around as I headed back to the truck.

I snapped a few more pictures of this little lizard as he scurried across the path in front of me on my way back. He looked mildly annoyed.

I drove to the end of the road to check out the only campground in Arches National Park. It would be beautiful to stay at the campground, but there wasn’t any cell phone service. Also its at the end of the road, so once you were in the campground, you probably wouldn’t want to leave the park because it would take a half an hour just to get out of the gate. It would be nice for a weekend stay for sure.

I drove back the main road and went to the Delicate Arch view point trail as it was getting close to the sun setting, and I had read that this was a nice view of the sunset. It was also a little bit cooler at this point in the evening so I felt like doing a little hike. It wasn’t far, maybe a quarter of a mile, but most of it was at a steady incline.

After making it to the top, you could see the Delicate Arch itself in the distance along with the beautiful landscape surrounding you 360 degrees. I of course, took lots of pictures.

When I zoomed all of the way in with my lens, I could see a bunch of people standing at the base of the Arch.

I decided at that point, that I was going to come back and hike all of the way to the Arch. It was categorized as a difficult hike, but I really wanted to see the arch up close. You’ll have to come back and read Part 2 of my Moab trip to find out how that went!

I walked back to the truck, and I had planned on leaving the park at that point, but as I was driving toward’s the park exit, I got to see round 2 of the sunset after driving up a hill. I stopped at one of the many pull offs and took a bunch of pictures of the sunset.

I finally left Arches and got back to the RV around 10pm and couldn’t wait to go back again later and see more.

Capitol Reef National Park

For the 4th of July, my plan was drive the 2.5 hours to Capitol Reef National Park, and this time, my trusty co-pilot Dany was with me.

Capitol reef started out similar to Arches with a cabin and some petroglyphs. The Behunin Cabin was build in 1882.

These petroglyphs were stylistically, very different from the ones at Arches. Very neat to see.

Here is a zoomed in picture so you can hopefully see them better.

One thing that was really cool about Capitol Reef, was that there were a bunch of orchards that you could go to and pick your own fruit. When I stopped to see the old school house, there was a little Orchard right next to it. I picked a few apricots.

We continued along the main road and just stopped at our leisure at the the pull offs to take pictures of the surrounding landscape.

Capitol Reef had red rocks as well, and other rocks that almost looked like paintings with the different lines, swirls, and colorations.

It was about 1pm, and I was starting to get hungry so Dany and I found this nice grassy/shaded area with picnic tables. I had some lunch (PB&J) and Dany and I just hung out at the base of a tree and took a break from the truck.

Dany liked the grass of course.

It was nice and peaceful. I had made a good call coming on the actual 4th of July as there weren’t many people there.

After a while, we got up and stretched our legs a bit. There was little bridge across the creek that you could walk across to get to the campground, but Dany doesn’t like bridges so we did not even attempt haha.

After we walked past the bridge, I looked up ahead and saw a silhouette of deer. I just watched it, and it didn’t move. I actually thought that it was fake or a an archery target or something but then it finally moved! It had pretty big antlers, just as I reached for my camera bag, some other people got too close and scared it into the creek. I walked down to the creek to see if I could find him, but he was gone. Dany wanted to get in the muddy creek, and I told her no way.

The next viewpoint called Panorama Point had rock formations that looked like coral reefs.

I imagine thats why this national park is called Capital Reef, but I haven’t looked it up yet so I could be totally wrong on that. To me, they looked like coral reefs so that’s how I’m going to remember it.

The next place I went to was Goosenecks Overlook. This overlook was on a windy edge of cliff. I got close enough to peer down below a little, but not too close haha.

Our next stop was at Chimney Rock. The canyons and rocks in this area were really unique and cool looking.

One of our last stops was at The Fluted Wall where there was some more coral reef looking rocks.

Dany and I drove back the way we came in and I continued to see rock formations to take pictures of. There were a lot of nice big pull offs at this park which I liked.

We stopped at the entrance sign and got a bite to eat before we drove the 2.5 hours back to our home base in Moab.

Canyonlands National Park

Originally, Dany and I were going to drive out to Canyonlands the day after Capitol Reef, but we both needed a day to relax and not be in the truck all day so we big chilled on July 5th. On non-work days that I don’t have much planned besides hanging out in the RV, I usually make brunch. I’m on a big avocado and egg toast kick right now.

Saturday, July 6 I woke up rested and ready to go check out National Park #3! Canyonlands was only about 45 minutes away from my campground in Moab which was nice. I was thinking it was like 1.5 hours away so I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the GPS.

Canyonlands as you can imagine was exactly like it’s name suggests, canyons everywhere! Canyonlands is a huge national park with 3 different segments. Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. My understanding is that the Needle and Maze segments were more remote and more off roading/dirt roads would be involved, so Dany and I explored the Island in the Sky segment.

Our first stop past the visitor center was the Shafer Canyon Overlook. This was one of my favorite overlook’s of the day. It was so expansive and impressive to see. I hadn’t seen such a view since being at the Grand Canyon many years ago.

When I was heading back to the truck, there was a raven perched on a tree. Ravens don’t seem to be afraid of much as they let you get pretty close to them. That, or they’re just used to seeing people.

I got back in the truck, and we continued down the road stopping at overlooks.

We stopped at several different overlooks. It was canyons as far as you could see. At a couple of the overlooks you could actually see the river way down below, and it was cool to think that something that looked so small in comparison to it’s surroundings could help form all of these different rock formations and canyons. Here’s some pictures, but keep in mind, the pictures don’t do the canyons justice, so you’ll just have to go see them for yourself sometime!

We also stopped at whale rock. Can you see the whale?

One of the best overlooks was stopping at the Grand View Overlook. It was definitely grand let me tell ya 🙂

One of my favor parts of the day was stopping at Upheaval dome. There were some picnic tables and Dany and I managed to snag one all to ourselves. Even though it was a Saturday, on a holiday weekend in July, Canyonlands was not at all busy. Canyonlands is the least visited National Park in the country. I may or may not have planned that out 🙂

Anyway, Dany and I took a break from the truck and hung out for a while at the picnic table.

I ate some lunch (PB&J again, I really need to up my lunch game) and snacked on some popcorn. I was getting ready to go back in the truck, and I could tell Dany wanted to stay longer, so we hung out some more before getting back in the truck and heading back home to Moab.

Alright, that’s everything from Part 1 of the Moab trip. Part 2 should be coming soon and it will feature more fun at Arches including an awesome hike to the Delicate Arch and some astrology pictures of the milky way. Part 2 will also feature my hike at the Narrows in Zion National Park, and Dany and my visit to Bryce Canyon National Park. Here’s a little teaser for Part 2.

Check back soon for the next blog entry detailing the next leg of our summer trip. Thanks for reading! You can click here to go back to the home page.