Day Three
Saturday, June 1st, 2019
Rockport State Park, Utah
Our neighbors stayed up late the night before, making what seemed like as much noise as possible. We figured they might sleep in on a Saturday morning, but nope, they were up at the crack of dawn, shouting and burning the smelliest campfire I’ve ever smelled. I don’t know what they were burning, but we, of course, were right in the line of the smelly smoke coming our way.
This campsite was just a place to sleep for the night, so we packed up quickly and by the time we reached the highway, the sky let loose and it poured. Ahhh, karma for the noisy, smelly folks next door! But also…thanks to them, we got out while it was dry!
Back on the Road
Our next stop was the Whole Foods Amazon Lockers in Park City. A couple days before we left, I had ordered camera battery chargers at the last minute. Since I wasn’t sure what time they would arrive, I had them shipped to a locker instead. I have to say, that’s quite nifty! Amazon sent a barcode, and when you scan it, a locker door opens. Magic! We also checked out Whole Foods, just to see what we’ve been missing. We concluded that we had not been missing anything.
The drive on Highway 189 was beautiful with the mountains in the background. Someone had a Star Wars TIE fighter in their backyard, as if it had crash landed there. I looked it up to find out more information about it and learned that the owner had just put it together to celebrate May the Fourth earlier that month. Apparently, it disappeared a month or so later, so perhaps the pilot got the ship fixed and flew away. I’m glad we got a glimpse of it on our way by because it was very cool!
Deer Creek State Park looked like it would be a gorgeous place to camp if we came back through the mountains. This area was full of stunning scenery and the traffic was easy going, which might have been due to it being early on a Saturday morning. I quickly decided that I preferred this drive over any we’ve driven through Colorado.
There was a bike race through Provo Canyon, so the traffic was slowed way down, which was great because we could enjoy the scenery more at the slower pace. We stopped at Utah’s version of Bridal Veil Falls, but it was pretty tiny to see from the parking lot. Provo Canyon is such a pretty area. The whole morning drive had been gorgeous!
Our next stop was in Orem to check out the Bricks & Minifigs store. Joey and I packed a $20 baggie of LEGO parts as full as we could fill it, and an hour later, we were back on the road.
Nebo Scenic Byway
I planned to drive the Nebo Scenic Byway, but Mother Nature and the National Forest Service did not agree. Seven miles into the drive, we found a gate closed across the road. I’ve since learned from watching my favorite overlanders on YouTube, that it’s not unusual to come across closed gates without warning. At the time, it was pretty annoying to not have any warning that the road would be closed seven miles ahead. I’ve looked around on their website to find out seasonal dates, but it just says that the road is closed in winter. June 1st isn’t winter where we come from, but I’m assuming there was still snow on the road when we were there.
Luck was with us again, though. When we got back to the interstate, the sky let loose and it poured. I was so happy to not be winding around on high elevation switchbacks in the mountains in pouring rain!
I would wager a guess that this rare, mid-afternoon nap happened because of the pitter patter of rain on the truck. I hope she took one for me, too!
I’m not sure how I thought we had the time to fit Cedar Breaks National Monument into the day on our way by, but if it had been open that day, we would’ve went there next. Thirty minutes after the Cedar Breaks closed sign, we saw the sign for Kolob Canyons and decided to check that out instead.
Zion National Park - Kolob Canyons
I’m pretty sure I had not planned to visit the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park after our unenjoyable visit to the crowded Zion Canyon section in 2018. However, since both of our previous afternoon plans were a bust, and it was right off the interstate, it made a good Plan B. I purchased our America the Beautiful pass at the visitor center and then we took the scenic drive.
Needless to say, the Kolob Canyons section of Zion was gorgeous! We drove all the way to the end of the road and hiked a portion of the Timber Creek Trail. Best of all, you could actually drive on the scenic drive and take in the scenery at your leisure! Very few people were around when we were there. It was a much different experience than the main area of the park.
Had I known we could have a more positive experience in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park, I think we would’ve dedicated more time to it. There are a couple other trails in that section of the park that we did not check out, so if we’re ever in the area again, I’d want to try one of those trails.
Somewhere along the day’s drive our CD player in the Durango started having issues with not wanting to play CDs, so we stopped in Saint George to look for a CD player cleaner. While we were in Target, they had this fun LEGO display. We also discovered that Saint George has a Culvers, which was a fun surprise that we totally took advantage of while we could, even though we just ate butterburgers a couple days before. We ordered kids’ meals to go.
Three States in Under an Hour
From Saint George, we had fun with time zones by losing an hour as we entered Arizona. We drove through the beautiful Virgin River Gorge, which has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of interstate in the USA. I wish I had photos, but the ones I have are all blurry from the evening light. Our time in Arizona was over in thirty minutes, and then we gained two hours at the Nevada border. At least I think that’s how those time zones worked! I would hate to live in that neck of the woods and have to figure it out anytime I wanted to be somewhere in one of the other time zones.
Nevada was a new state for all of us, making it number 31 for me and number 29 for both of the kids!
We took the route through Moapa Valley to Valley of Fire State Park and I’ve always wondered if that route was actually a slower route than if we had taken the interstate to the Valley of Fire exit. The Moapa Valley route is ten miles shorter and claims to be a few minutes less time, but it felt like a very slow route and we ended up arriving at Valley of Fire after dark.
Late Night Campsite Competition
We were not alone in our late night campground arrival. Somehow, it’s always comforting to know that we’re not the only ones who arrive at a campground after dark…except when the campground is first come, first served. We followed two Cruise America RVs into the Atlatl Rock Campground. With two campgrounds to choose from, I’m not sure why I followed the two of them into the same campground, but I did and none of us found a campsite.
One of the RVs turned left to leave and we turned right to follow the other RV into the Arch Rock Campground. Both of us circled the main loop, trying to determine which campsites were open and which were taken. Partway through our second spin around the loop, I spotted a side road leading to the rest of the campsites and went that way, while the RV continued around the main loop again. (I had quickly realized my mistake in following both RVs the first time!) That road was very bumpy going up a steep hill, so I was glad we had a capable vehicle. We spotted an empty campsite and immediately snapped it up without looking any further.
We set up the tent and decided we’d pay in the morning because I didn’t want to drive up that steep hill again in the dark. One of the RVs drove by a little later and we were really glad we had found the campsite before they did!
I’m not sure what we’d have done if we hadn’t found a campsite that night. There were some walk-in tent sites in the Atlatl Campground that I would’ve checked before giving up, but I had not wanted to waste time on those with two RVs ahead of us. The campgrounds were full of RVs, so it’s possible we could’ve scored a neat walk-in site, but it’s also very possible those were full, too.
We got lucky, for sure, because I did not have a Plan B for that night. In my mind, I had pictured us arriving in the daylight, finding a cool-looking campsite, and enjoying the changing colors of the beautiful red rocks as the sun set. Of the three parts in that scenario, I was happy that finding a campsite was the one part that worked out in our favor!
We covered another 400 miles and some beautiful territory that day. We’re almost to where we’re going, but if you’re new here, our road trips are definitely more about the journey than the destination. We’ll explore Valley of Fire next, so be sure to subscribe!