We arrived in South Fork CO late in the afternoon. We hadn’t really had much in the way of lunch, and being Sandy’s birthday we decided to go out for dinner. There wasn’t a lot in the area but the best option seemed to be a Mexican a restaurant under 2km away. We decided to hop on our bicycles and quickly discovered how tiring it was to cycle any distance at over 8,000 feet above sea level. Not to mention the cold! We enjoyed our dinner and drinks, but it started snowing while we were eating. Luckily it cleared up before we finished and the ride back to the campsite was downhill and much easier.
Overnight more snow fell and our motorhome was covered with a light dusting of the white stuff by morning. We hung around the RV park for a few hours, getting work done and waiting for it to warm up. Around lunchtime we bundled up and headed out on the bike and rode to the next town about 20 miles north. The scenery was beautiful but the temperature kept getting lower the further we rode, and the wind fierce. We opted to have lunch in that town (??) and turn around before conditions got any worse.
Being still fairly early in the afternoon we decided to pack up the motorhome and take a one hour drive over the Wolf Creek Pass to the town of Pagosa Springs. We shelled out the rather steep fee to go into the hot springs which was quite enjoyable. We really should have looked a map beforehand though as we realized once we got there we’d have to come back the same way the following day!
We left the next morning, crossing Wolf Creek Pass for the third time, stopping once again in Pagosa Springs only briefly for a short walk before continuing on to Durango. The weather overcast and the forecast for the next few days. We had originally planned to stay for a few nights, but we decided to cut it short. That afternoon we went for a short ride up to the top of Coal Bank Pass which was covered in snow. Once again the wind proved to be challenge as it picked up on the way back to town.
Before we left Durango the following day we checked out the historic steam train as it left on its journey. We had opted not to do it due to the lousy weather forecast and exorbitant cost. The forecast proved to be right, it was pouring rain. We filled up the gas tank and stocked up on groceries for our journey to Grand Mesa about 45 minutes away. Just as we were about to leave town however, the rain turned to snow.
As we got further out of town and higher elevation the snow got worse and worse. The 45 minute drive probably took well over an hour. When we got to Grand Mesa, we found out they had closed the park due to treacherous road conditions. While we weighed our next move, the snow cleared up and the park road reopened, so we were able to make it to the campsite we had reserved ahead of time.
It snowed a bit more that evening, but we had a more serious issue which was we realized we had run out of propane. Luckily the campsite had electricity and we had added an electric heater module to our air conditioner unit, so we had some heat although not nearly as effective as the propane furnace. Plus it was super loud and ran constantly so Sandy had to wear earplugs all night.
Job one the next morning was finding propane, which we did just outside the park. Sandy took a conference call from the visitors centre where we had cell reception before we headed into the park. We had booked a one hour ranger guided tour of the Cliff Palace that afternoon, which was pretty neat. We drove around the park the rest of the afternoon checking out the various sites. Overall it was pretty cool, however more snow awaited us that evening once we returned to the campsite.
There was probably six inches of snow overnight, and we genuinely wondered if we would be stuck in the campground. Just after 7am however the plow came by, so we quickly packed up figuring this would be the time to make our escape. We didn’t get further than the camp store however where the ranger told us the road out to the highway would be closed for at least a few more hours while they plowed it. Luckily by 9am the snow had mostly stopped and the road reopened as planned so we got out of there. Once off the mountain we stopped for some supplies in the town of Cortez, before making our way to the Utah state line.
We continued to run into a mixture of rain, hail and snow as we drove west. Since we had cut our visit to Durango short we had a few extra days before our reservation in Moab. We decided to take the long way around, heading South when we got to Monticello and West on US 95. We were glad we did as the drive along US 95 was spectacular. We stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument for a quick visit, which was hampered by continuing rain which made the rocks slippery. We had been there on our last visit to Utah in 2012 under much nicer conditions.
We decided to camp for the night at a free public land site next to the Dirty Devil river just past Hite.
Our night there was peaceful with only one or two other campers in the area. However we woke up to the sound of rain, and were immediately concerned about getting stuck due to the mud. We packed up quickly, but sure enough got stuck pretty good and had to work at freeing the motorhome from the clay-like mud. We eventually got it out and up the hill the highway, which was quite a relief.
We continued on US 95 to the town of Hanksville where we had cell reception again, so we hung out there for a bit to have some lunch and get some work done before continuing on another 40 minutes or so to Goblin Valley State Park. We had for some reason passed by this place on our last visit to Utah. It was pretty cool with some very unique rock formations scattered around a valley that you could hike through. We opted to settle in for the night in another free public land campground near the park since we had been up quite early and were tired.
We got an early start the next day and started heading for Moab. On the way there we decided to detour into the northern section of Canyonlands National Park, “Island in the Sky” as well as a visit to Dead Horse Point State Park.
It was getting late leaving Canyonlands and heading into Moab there was a lot of traffic. We made a quick stop for groceries and arrived at our campsite at the KOA about 5km south of Moab.
