Zion National Park

From Brice Canyon, we traveled to a boondocking area on BLM-managed land located between Mt. Carmel Junction and Zion National Park. Our campsite was located at the end of forest road 71 in a large clear area. Although the campsite was next to and above state Rt. 9, road noise was tolerable. We stayed for about a week before moving on. Coordinates were approximately 37.260297 -112.77024.

On to Bryce Canyon

After our visit to Capital Reef National Park, we headed west and south toward Bryce Canyon. Along the way, we stopped for gas at a place I thought only existed in the old Burl Ives song. Big Rock Candy Mountain. It is indeed a real place with a restaurant, cabins, and rafting trips.

Fremont Granary Site

We arrived at the entrance of Capital Reef National Park in the late afternoon. Not wanting to risk failing to find a campsite in the park, I turned around and drove about three miles back to a parking area we passed. What we found was a pleasant surprise.

Capital Reef National Park

Approximately 150 miles west of Blanding Utah, beyond the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, lies Capital Reef National Park.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park was the second destination in our quest to visit all the National Parks in Utah. Being only about 25 miles from our campsite, the northern, Island in the Sky area is where we spent the morning. In typical Moab fashion, there is Jeep access into the canyon as well as the hiking and biking trails found in all national parks.

Arches National Park

Double Arch

It was my intention to write one blog post named The Utah Five and cover all five of the national parks in Utah. After visiting all five, I decided that due to the unique features of each, they all deserved their own post. There is no particular reason I am showing you Arches first other than it was the first one we visited. That trend will continue.

Blanding Utah

After leaving the Moab area, we traveled south a few miles to Blanding Utah and the Recapture Recreation area. This is another BLM area that allows free camping and just happens to have a small lake.

Moab Utah

We went to Moab because there are two National Parks in the area. Both Arches and Canyonlands are near Moab and will be covered in another post.

South Bound

Just south of Yellowstone National Park is Grand Teton National Park. After looking over the list of attractions at the later, we decided the only thing it had to offer that Yellowstone did not was the Tetons. So we basically did a drive by, spending one night in the campground at The Gros Ventre Campground at the southern end of the park.

Yellowstone

C &  L  On The Road left the Mt. Rushmore area on the morning of the third day heading west to a place called Yellowstone. Clara had never been there, it was high on her bucket list. I had been once as a teenager (yeah about 50 years ago) so I had some bucket left to fill on this one too.