Beautiful drive to Moab

9/13/2018 – Moab

We got a late start this morning to Moab due to a problem with the hydraulic lifters. I was about to call a service center when Bob from next door came over. He looked upfront where a lot of the electrical connections are and wiggled some of the wiring around a relay (?) that he thought might be the problem. A few sparks flew but thankfully Bob survived and it fixed the problem. Thanks Bob- you saved us some frustration and a few bucks too! Apparently I have a loose connection that we will need to have repaired when we can get to a service center.

Bob and Rae gave us some great advice about the best way to go to Moab. Glad they did…..the drive was absolutely stunning. Once we got to Heber City, the road becomes the Provo Canyon Scenic Byway. It goes along the Provo River and Deer Creek reservoir. The mountains surrounding you as you meander through this 26 mile drive are incredibly beautiful, especially when you have a clear blue sky as a backdrop (at least for a while). We took a few pics from the car and posted them below. But as I have said before, pics just don’t do these beautiful area’s justice. When we got to the other side of the canyon and got closer to Provo, we encountered a big wild fire. We could see the smoke from miles away. In fact, when we first left Park City and got on Hwy 40/189 and looked off in the distance at the horizon, we thought we were seeing the first clouds we had seen in quite a few days. But as we got closer, we could see the “clouds” were getting darker and it was obvious it was smoke from a large wild fire. When we got south of Provo, the horizon above the mountains was orange and the sky got very dark with smoke. It seemed like we were fairly close to the fire but we never saw any flames. Rt 89 was closed but fortunately Rt 189 stayed open….so we were able to get through to the other side of the mountain range and continue on our way. Utah, like many of the other western states, has had a tough fire season this year due the extremely dry conditions.

We got into our site and were setup at the Portal RV Resort by 3:30pm. Glad I’m not superstitious…..today is Sept. 13 and we got site 13 in the Portal Resort ….and Nancy’s birthday is August 13. Hmmmmm……. Anyway, this is a fantastic resort with very nice amenities. I’m sure we will really enjoy our stay here. Moab seems like a very cool town. The surrounding landscape is very different, and absolutely stunning. Rather than try and describe Moab myself, I cheated and found this on google:

“Moab is a city in eastern Utah. It’s a gateway to massive red rock formations in Arches National Park. Southwest Canyonlands National Park features mesas and buttes carved by the Green and Colorado rivers, plus Native American rock art. Dinosaur tracks can be found at sites like Bull Canyon Overlook and Copper Ridge. In the city, collections at the Museum of Moab include dinosaur bones and archaeological artifacts.”

We are really looking forward to exploring the town of Moab, renting a 4-wheeler, and doing some biking to explore the surrounding national parks (Arches and Canyonlands). Of course, this is a big area so we will use the truck too. Based on what we’ve seen so far, this has the potential to be one of our best locations yet! There is a ton to do here…not sure where to begin… but of course, we’ll figure it out and keep everyone posted with daily updates!

Here is a progressive series of pics of our trip through the Provo Canyon Scenic Byway, the fire/smoke we encountered and the rest our journey to Moab…..

We thought we were seeing clouds on the horizon