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We got up early again today so we could head into Canyonlands National Park. We drove to the Island In the Sky visitor center. This is the northern end of Canyonlands. The views from this park are really amazing with very high and long distance views of the huge canyons. The first stop was the iconic Mesa Arch. The hike is only about ½ mile round trip, with a well prepared trail, and moderate elevation change. The arch itself is really cool but the most amazing part is the stunning view through the arch. Again we drove all of the pave roads and stopped at each of the overlooks. Most of the key sites area easily accessible from the paved turnouts. The scale of the canyons is amazing. Unfortunately like Arches and most other National Parks Maverick is not welcome beyond the parking lots.

After completing the drive around Canyonlands we drove the additional 4 miles to the Dead Horse Point Utah State Park. This park gives a view of the same canyon as the National Park but with a very cool view of a horseshoe bend in the Colorado River. Unlike the National Park, Maverick we welcome on-leash so he got to enjoy the park as well. We did have to pay $20 for the car to enter the state park for a pass good for two days.

We made it back to town for lunch around 2pm. I was hungry for steak so we chose the Josey Wyatt grill at the Hoo Do hotel. Josey’s is the best rated steak in town. It was pretty fancy and expensive but very good. After lunch we stocked up on supplies at the grocery store.

We got up early today to head to Arches National Park. Temperatures were really great today and we were actually a little cool hiking this morning. Last week Moab hit about 111 deg, but today it stayed mostly in the 70’s or below. We lucked out on the weather this week. Arches is full of really dramatic geography including…what else… arches. The park was very busy and we had difficulty finding a parking spots at the major attractions. We did the relatively easy hike to the Double Arch and to the North/South Widows Arches. Really impressive. We drove to the Delicate Arch viewpoint but weren’t adventurous enough to take the hike to see it closer. We drove all of the paved roads in the park and enjoyed all of the scenic turnouts. We completed the park by 1pm and headed back to town for lunch. We ate at the Moab Brewery for lunch. The steak sandwich was excellent.

We headed out to Moab UT today. This was less than a two hour drive. We are staying at the Spanish Trails RV resort South of town. The drive into Moab is between dramatic sheer cliffs. The RV resort is just OK. We were worried about the heat since last week it was very hot but today is in the 80’s so its pretty nice. Donna fixed lunch so we could enjoy the fresh Palisade sweet corn Donna had bought in Grand Junction. Lunch was delicious. After lunch we drove back through town and stopped at the Arches National Park Visitor center. Arches has one of the largest and nicest visitor centers we have been in and it was very busy. Today, I finally got my computer fully restored to full functionality with all of my data recovered. We are also excited because Utah is the one state West of Texas we didn’t visit in the RV last year. Today we get to put the Utah sticker on the coach and fill in the hole.

Our destination today is the Colorado National Monument. We really enjoyed the drive through the national monument. This is a really scenic 20 mile drive and a must see if in the Montrose area. We had fast food for lunch and then drove to Grand Mesa National Forest. Grand Mesa is the largest and highest mesa in the world with a top that is 500 square miles with a peak elevation of 11,332 feet. There are many small beautiful alpine lakes. We stopped in one national forest park with 4 lakes. The park is so serene, peaceful, and beautiful. The high temperature today on the Grand Mesa was 57 deg F. Super nice and really a stark difference from the mid 80’s down in Montrose. We made it back to the RV Park about 4pm where we chilled, and I fought the computer while watching a movie.

We left Monstose about 10:30 today and headed to Grand Junction CO and yet another KOA RV Park. The RV park is nice but we have poor phone, internet, and no satellite. Donna found the Edgewater Brewery on the Colorado River where we had great Fish and Chips. After a great lunch we walked the riverside park with Maverick. He got to lay down and cool off in the Colorado and really loved it.

First thing this morning I checked the computer to verify that my encryption changes completed. I was dismayed to discover that I could no longer access ANY of my computer data. The rest of the day Donna shopped while I worked desperately to recover my messed up computer. I did take a break and went with Donna to eat tacos at Taco Johns. It was average fast food fare.

First thing today we headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The park has a nice visitor center with a nice view of the canyon. The canyon depth runs from 1000 to 2300 ft deep with the Gunnison river at the bottom. This is mainly a driving park with short walks from the road to overlooks. By lunch we felt we had seen it all and headed back to town. We chose to eat at the Horsefly Brewery just a block from the RV park. We had a BBQ, bacon cheeseburger and tater-tots that were excellent. Next we drove the few blocks to downtown and checked out a few stores. The rest of the day we chilled at the RV and watch a movie. I also decided to change the encryption configuration on my computer. I only mention this because a later discovered I made a BIG mistake.

This morning at the Ouray KOA we saw two deer and two fawns right next to our coach. How cool is that. Today is a travel day to Montrose, CO (pop 41,800) a little over an hour away. Montrose is much hotter, arid, and flat. We arrived so early that we again had to kill time before going to the RV park. To kill time we shopped Target, Marshalls, and WalMart. We ate Chili’s at lunch and really enjoyed it. There are definite advantages to having more businesses available. We are staying at the Montrose KOA located not far from downtown. The site is spacious and provides 50-amp electric so we can run both air conditioners and we have pretty good internet coverage. Once settled, we drove the main street to see what we might want to visit. We stumbled across a really nice dog park for Maverick so we gave him some time to run free.

We started the day with a short drive back up the highway towards Silverton to visit the Bear Creek Falls Overlook that is right on the highway. The view is very nice and worth a stop if you get a chance. After the overlook we headed back toward town. Just before getting into town we turned off on the Yankee Boy Basin road. This is the easiest of the 4×4 trails in the Ouray area. We followed the road nearly to its end and the drive was pretty easy and really beautiful. We passed one active Silver Mine and on the way back stopped in the Thistledown Campground to use the restroom and enjoy the nearby creek where the Weehawken Creek runs into the Canyon Creek. It was really beautiful and Maverick really enjoyed getting out the car and getting to get his paws wet.

As we left Yankee Boy Basin road we turned into Box Canyon. Box Canyon is a canyon with a powerful waterfall. You have to pay to take the trail and see the waterfall. It cost $5 a person. The trail to the waterfall is short and easy and you can take stairs down to the base of the falls. While very powerful, the water falls mostly in such a narrow cleft that you only see a portion of the falls no matter what viewpoint you choose. I chose to take the second trail to the top of the canyon to see if I could get a better view. Donna chose to stay behind and walk Maverick. The second trail climbs 200ft to a bridge over the canyon. From above you get a beautiful view of the canyon and the town of Ouray but not a better view of falls. If you cross the bridge you can go through a small tunnel that goes about 100 yards through the mountain. I should admit that I found this trail quite strenuous. With the high altitude I had to stop many times up to the top and was quite exhausted by the time I got there.

Once back at the car and recovering, we drove back into downtown and ate at the Ouray Brewery. We had a burger and pretzel bites and both were excellent. We ate on the third floor patio overlooking the main street through town and weather and temperature were perfect.

Now recharged, we drove to the nearby town of Ridgeway. Ridgeway is the town where the movie True Grit was filmed. We walked Maverick around the beautiful city center park.

Today was a travel day to Ouray, CO. I have laid out a route that takes us eventually up to Grand Junction then over to Moab UT to catch three different National Parks. I was a little worried about the route from Silverton to Ouray. About half of the people on the internet forums said they would never drive a big Motorhome that route and the other half said no problem they did it many times. Since the route was supposed to be tight and steep in some places I had Donna and Maverick in the Jeep follow me in the rig through the mountains instead of towing the Jeep. I have driven the Durango to Silverton route before and enjoyed the drive even in the big rig. I had not ever driven between Silverton and Ouray and this drive was even more stunning with massive sheer rock walls. This rourte is the famed Million Dollar Highway built in 1880’s. We traversed Coal Bank Pass at 10,640 feet, Molas Pass at 10,910 feet, and Red Mountain Pass at 11,018 feet. The coach did great and the roads were tight with no guardrails in a few places but not too bad. I wouldn’t hesitate to drive this again in the Motorhome even towing the Jeep. We driven worse for sure.

We arrived at the Ouray KOA about noon. We ate in the coach, and then headed into town to explore. We walked the downtown shops including a neat old hardware store. We then drove to see the Baby Bathtub Falls. The “falls” are just 50 or so yards from the pavement. There really wasn’t any water running so it wasn’t very impressive. It would probably be pretty during the spring thaw. A quick word about Ouray. This is a small town of about 1,000 catering to the 4×4 jeep enthusiasts. You can rent Jeeps everywhere and I think everyone here has one. There are many Jeep trails that you can take to the Continental Divide and through passes to Silverton, Telluride, and other small towns. This whole area is covered in active or extinct mines. The town itself is a cute and reminiscent of a ski town. It has about a 1 mile long downtown with local shops and restaurants. No chain stores here.