An Amazing Trip!
Plus a sale for Nook users!
Happy St Patrick’s Day, Gentle Readers!
I hope your March is going well. We’ve had so little snow, we decided to leave. We just returned from an amazing trip to Moab, Utah, known for their dramatic red rock landscapes, slickrock mountain biking, and multiple national parks, like Arches and Canyonland. We didn’t do any mountain biking, but we took the dogs on three fabulous hikes—on Bureau of Land Management land, because dogs aren’t allowed on national park trails.
But the BLM trails are much less crowded and wilder, both of which appeal to us. Our first hike was up Grandstaff Canyon, with Morning Glory Bridge and a waterfall at the end. The dogs had a great time playing in the water, and we enjoyed the hike, too. (Many more pictures on my Facebook and Instagram pages!)
Our second hike was up Hunter Canyon, with Hunter Arch, and a lovely creek. The trailhead is on the famous Moab Rim Trail, which is very popular with mountain bikers and off-road vehicles, and also features petroglyphs, many canyon hikes, and a very steep but well-maintained gravel road. Rhino, our conversion van, didn’t have any trouble with it, and we saw quite a few regular passenger vehicles too, which surprised me. I imagine the road gets rougher as the traffic increases over the summer. After the arch, which is only a half a mile up the trail, we saw very few people.
We spent the first three nights at Dead Horse State Park, which was lovely and quiet; it’s know as a Dark Sky park, and the stars were indeed fabulous. The final scene in Thelma and Louise was filmed on a cliff just below Dead Horse Point, where we’re standing in the photo below.
But it doesn’t have showers (they have to truck in water), so we moved to Green River State Park, which is farther away, but had great bathrooms and huge RV spaces—there was plenty of room for the dogs on long cables. The commercial parks in the area jam RVs so close together; it looks terribly uncomfortable.
Our third day we drove through Arches National Park, “Chevy Chasing” our way through. (You’ve seen National Lampoon’s Vacation, right?) The park is impressive, but even in March, quite crowded. Arches has the famous Delicate Arch—it’s on most of Utah’s ads. We looked at it from the parking lot.
On our fourth day, we hiked Fisher Towers. You might recognize them from several movies, such as City Slickers, John Carter, Comencheros, and others. There’s no water on this trail, so both The Amazing Sleeping Man and I carried lots of extra for the dogs. Even so, we ran out just before we got back. It’s an amazing hike; we watched climbers at the top of one of the towers, and found a slot canyon workaround rather than failing to carry our dogs up and down the ladder that’s on one part of the trail. Both dogs were completely exhausted after this hike—poor Zoe’s back legs cramped up in the night. Fortunately, we had a anti-inflammatory for her and for Shepherd Book.
The next day, we drove through Canyonlands National Park. Very dramatic—I’d love to come back and drive the dirt road that starts there (behind me on the picture below), but it will be on another trip.
The dogs were happy just to sleep in the back of the van. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Scott trip without having to fix something. Coming out of Canyonlands, we heard this terrible squeaking and investigated. The door latch at the top of one of the van’s back doors had come loose. The ASM fixed it right away, but when we got home, we found that both bolts from that door’s upper hinge were gone—the door came off in the ASM’s hands! He’s ordered new bolts, and will use locktight to make sure that doesn’t happen again. We were lucky not to lose the door or break the glass.
Of course, while we were gone, Lost Trail got a huge dump of snow, and we missed it. But that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
I took my iPad along, but didn’t do any writing. I was too tired, too!
Barnes and Nobles tells me that Bitter Haven is part of their Fill Your Nook! promotion. It will be free March 17-22, 2026, along with many fine books, so check it out!
I hope your St. Patrick’s Day is lovely and green, with no pinching! Stay safe out there!
Cheers, Anne