Oct 24 - Oct 28, Illipah to Cathedral Gorge,Nevada to Zion Park, Utah

Oct 24
Last post we had just made the turn for Illipah Reservoir and I must admit that at first I was skeptical.

The road wasn't terrible but it was rough with lots of rocks sticking up. We have a heavy rig here and I'm thinking it wasn't that bad, sometimes I worry too much :) 
My fears were gone as soon as we pulled into the gates of the BLM and we got a look at the site map. 

Good to see how big this place is.

We talked briefly with another RV'er and decided to pull into site 12 a little ways away from him. I parked the rig with the back window looking out over the reservoir and down the hill. We looked closer when we got parked and beside the few cattle that were grazing there were 5 wild horses, well we think they are wild at least. It was amazing to see them. What a cool place to camp and it's free!

View out the back window.

The horses in for a drink!

It's a great site. We walked over and had a beer with our neighbour, Crosby. He is older than us and traveling alone in his motorhome. Interesting fellow but we are starving and headed back for supper. 

There are worse places in the world!

From the other side.

Long view.

We made supper and played some crib for the first time in a long time. Leslie cheats, that's all I can say :)

Oct 25

Happy Birthday to my ol' buddy Mark. I remembered to send him a text later in the day. He's in his highway truck in California. Cheers buddy! We've seen a lot of birthdays since we were 12!

Leslie and I got going at a decent time and decided to try some higher altitude exercise. I'm really interested to see if I can run at 7000 ft elevation? She took Margaret for a little run and then did her own thing afterwards. I took off around the top of the area we're parked in. A mesa?? There's roads and quad trails to run on anyway. My first walk break after I started running was 0.6 km into it! I was sucking for wind. What a difference. I slowed my pace lots and managed about 5k before calling it quits. Altitude makes a huge difference. 

We hopped in the truck to take a little drive towards Ely and find cell signal. Within about 7 miles we pulled over and caught up on texts, emails and Facebook, etc with decent signal in a little valley. There is no service at our site which is okay for a while but we like to stay connected for various reasons. We drove back to the rig and relaxed a bit before taking Margaret for a walk to see the horses. They were out on the hills earlier in the day but are back at the reservoir this afternoon. So peaceful at this spot. Just perfect for right now. It's cold at night though at 7000 feet.

Oct 26

This is a beautiful spot but we want to move on again. Definitely we'll keep this in our minds if we pass through again. We are headed for Cathedral Gorge State Park in southeast Nevada before we head to Utah. The sandstone formations look amazing in the park and state parks are usually a little cheaper with water/electric and a dump station. Our first point of interest is Ruth Copper Mine, Nevada's largest pit mine and second largest open pit mine in America. It is massive and produces copper, gold and molybdenum.

A little about the mine.

There isn't really a good viewpoint to see the whole thing and we are towing the trailer which makes it even tougher to go looking. We drove up to the town of New Ruth. Old Ruth was overtaken when the pit got bigger so they moved the town and renamed it New Ruth. I snapped a pic of a cool mural on the wall of a building by the mine.

Looked more impressive in person.

Then literally across the road we took pictures of the mine, until 2 really big German Shepherds came running out to see us that is! They were tall dogs that obviously have seen tourists taking pictures before.

No doggie pics but this is the mine. Part of it at least.

More of the mine from the highway.

We stopped for fuel in Ely, Nevada and used the free sewer dump station. It's about the closest one to Illipah that we could find. We turn south in Ely on US 93 towards Cathedral Gorge Park. The highway is nice and flat and easy going with the stunning mountains on the left in Utah. Wheeler Peak was the standout by far at 13,062 ft. 

I love travel days for stuff like this. Beauty!

Around 1 in the afternoon we pulled into Cathedral Gorge State Park. I actually planned our arrival time based on what other bloggers have written. You want to arrive close to the time the other campers have to leave, 12 o'clock checkout normally, so 1 pm isn't a bad time to get a spot in first come first serve campground. We pulled in and lucked out with spot #13 ! A nice curved pull through with 30 amp power and water for $25 per night. Good enough. Lots of things to see and trails to hike. Yep happy campers.

Trail map.

Once we got set up etc we wanted to go for a short hike to check things out. The limestone is spectacular here!

We walked around for at least an hour and then back to the rig for a beverage. Our next site neighbours walked by and commented on Margaret which started a conversation. We sat and enjoyed some time together before supper. I totally forget there names but he is 80 and she is younger by a couple years and they are still traveling. Awesome! They want to go to Newfoundland next year from Seattle because they get a great deal. Good for them. 

We made supper and just relaxed for the evening. Have some hikes planned for tomorrow to have a good look around.

Tomorrow we will really get out and explore!

Oct 27

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day with a predicted high to 27C/80F. We're planning on hiking the Juniper Draw Trail, about 4 miles. It does a big loop close to all the cliffs across the floor of this valley. Should be amazing! Our site is working great. It gets quiet early and the sun is in our windows early in the morning warming everything up.

Water/electric site with picnic table, firepit & a bbq stand. 

From the back of the site.

We headed out fairly early on the Juniper Draw to avoid the afternoon heat. It's a nice trail but does take some scouting to stay on trail. The trail is in and out of a wash with brown markers to keep you on track. 

Getting started on the trail.

Takes longer to walk the 4 miles because you stop so often.

Looks so cool ! You can see how the water level dropped slowly.

It was a fantastic trail to see! I'm going to try running it tomorrow because it's so great. We were hungry after our hike so we jumped in the truck to go out for lunch. There is a small town about 15 miles from here named Caliente.

Coolest town name ever! Or is it kinda hot ?

Just the name made us want to go see it. Scenery is back to black rock and trees with a few cattle ranches along the way. We drove the full length of the main street in Caliente and chose our lunch spot. Lots of vehicles outside this place so we hope it's a good clue.

A local gem for sure.

The food was great and lots of it. Lots of locals in the booths all saying hi to each other. It was a great spot and we were happy to have found it. So if you're ever in Caliente, Nevada look for the Knotty Pine. Oh and if you are wearing full camo with animal blood on the back of your arms that's okay too lol.

We drove back to Panaca and the State Park. We stopped for fuel on the way back because we are moving on again tomorrow.

Oct 28

We got going early because it's a travel day today. Not far but we have a full week in Zion River Resort outside Zion National Park. We're both excited about Zion.

I wanted to run the Juniper Draw and Leslie is taking Margaret for a walk and then she is trying the trail to Miller Outlook to see the gorge from above. For me it was an awesome run on sandy trail with so much to look at that it made it easier. Perfect. Leslie hiked a great trail and got some good pics of the gorge.

What a great start to the day for us both. Margaret too. We got packed up and hooked up and stopped at the dump station by the park entrance. A left turn at Panaca and we are on the highway to St George, Utah and then to Zion River Resort. We crossed over the Nevada, Utah border heading south on highway 18.

There was a place along the way called Mountain Meadow Massacre Site that we wanted to check out. 

123 people killed by Mormon militiamen. Only 17 children survived.

A real stop & think moment.

Parking and the trail to the site.

One thing that didn't work well was the small parking lot! Like my trucker buddy Mark told me "if you can get in, you can get out". My only choice was to back up onto the highway. Not a great thing but not much choice at that point. We pointed south again and headed for St. George.

We couldn't believe all the red rock and this golf course looked amazing.

There was a bunch of road construction in St George and our trucker GPS was beeping warnings about narrow roads up ahead.We fit but what a pain. We were slowed to a crawl in places. We were both hungry but it was crazy trying to pull off the road with the construction. We finally stopped at a Maverick Gas Station and Leslie bought us burritos. She said they actually make them there so she saw what went in them. They tasted great. We got out to I15 north headed for Virgin, Utah and the resort. Our GPS took us through a town called Hurricane and up a monster hill on highway 59 east. We got over the hill and the road flattened out and we could see The Watchman, a huge rock formation in Zion Park.

Very excited to get there. 

The GPS says we need to turn in a mile and I'm looking at the land in front of us but there isn't a road?? Finally it says turn left on the dirt road!! Oh no, I'm not turning on that road with my trailer! We pulled over to the right side of the road to figure this out. Our trucker GPS avoids anything that isn't tall enough or wide enough to get through. There is a tunnel beyond the resort but for some reason the GPS won't let us get to the resort. We called the resort and the nice lady on the phone gave us directions. Thanks Garmin 660 !! We had to go back down the big hill through another small town called La Verkin. We turned out of LaVerkin up another good hill and across the top of a flat plateau. Finally we see Virgin, Utah. 

Yayyy!

It was a short drive from there to Zion River Resort thankfully. We are tired and a little grumpy after the GPS fiasco but grateful to be here. Can't wait to hike a bunch of trails in Zion.

Our home for a week!

We found our site and got backed in and set up. Time for a nice frosty beverage! Next up is our week in Zion. Should be very picture intense. What an amazing place!!