Elks Lodge #849 - Provo, UT - March 22, 2016

Well, our first wallydocking experience is in the books. It wasn't bad at all. Several more rigs came in at night, maybe 8 RVs in all. But by 8 AM, we were on the road.

We headed toward Utah and the high country.

Welcome to Utah. This will be our 25th state that we have camped in.

We had to gas up in Montecello for $2.09 a gallon ... Boooo!

This state is loaded with cool rock formations. And here we start getting into them.

The Hole in the Rock is a home built into the mountain. I saw it as a kid and wanted to stop, but as we got close, there was no good RV parking close by. Just passing through this time.

We drove by Canyonlands National Park - next time. And we saw great boondocking spots between Moab and La Sal Junction.

In Moab, there were a million jeeps, quads, and other ATVs. All the campgrounds were packed as well as the streets. Turns out there was a big event going on. The week before Easter is the Easter Jeep Safari event and it looks like there is a well attended wild week instore.

We will be exploring Moab next time as well. Looks like a fascinating place.

Just beyond Moab, We passed by the entrance to Arches National Park. Looks like many of the Moab ATV crowd were in line to visit the park that day.

As we headed north, the red rocks flattened out a bit and were gone by the time we reached Interstate 70.

I was stationed TDY for a week in Green River, UT back in 1973. For a month, I worked in a lone building atop a bluff, monitoring frequencies during some missile launches. They launched from the Utah Launch Complex at Green River, and they impacted on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

And what do you know, I saw my old work site.

The big anntennas are gone off the tower, but that's it.

Then we drove through Green River.

And I didn't recognize a thing! It's only been 43 years...

As we headded up and towards Provo, UT, we saw lots of snow. We also crossed Soldier Summit at 7,420 feet.

Down we came, passed the wind machines and on to Interstate 15 and to Provo.

Provo is a good sized place and the Elks Lodge is really nice.

We parked in their RV area. The water isn't turned on yet, so they only charged us $5.00 a night. The 50 Amp will come in handy as there is another cold front coming through. We may be here 3 days or so.

Time to get our States Visited stickers up to date.

Donna is doing Utah,

I am doing Colorado.

Then we went and found our first geocache in Utah.

That is geocache state number 22 now.

We are surrounded by snow capped mountains. The wind is blowing and it is raining. Pretty dreary outside.
A good place to wait out the weather.

Four Corners, Wallydocking, and Mesa Verde NP - Cortez, CO - March 20, 2016

We were on the road early (8 AM) and headed west towards Gallup on Interstate 40. No wind today, yea! From Gallup, we headed north towards Shiprock, NM.

We are starting to see crazy big rock formations.

Here is Shiprock.

The town of Shiprock really looks like a poor reservation town. And as we turned west towards four corners, the road was horrible. We got rattled to death.

After cutting in and out of a little part of Arizona, we arrived at the four corners monument. We paid our 5 bucks per person and made our way in.

There was quite a line to get your pictures taken right on the spot where the 4 states connect. We shot a few pictures of the area. Then a nice couple from Vancouver Island saw our gnome and wanted to get it in their pictures. No problem. We shared the little guy.

That was fun.

On to Colorado. A new state to claim. High elevation and yep, snow too.

We passed by the Ute Mountain Casino. We were going to check it out for some boondocking opportunities. It was a no-go. There was a casino RV park there, but not open till April, and no other RVs around the place.

We continued on to Plan B .... Cortez, Colorado Walmart. This is the first time, ever, we have done a Walmart. We read the reviews and this one looked like a good, safe one.

We unhooked our Jeep and went 10 miles down the road to Mesa Verde National Park since we were so close. We wouldn't have time to fully explore the park, but wanted to pick up a map and see what this park had to offer.

The visitor center was open 20 more minutes, but we learned about the Indian ruins and cool stuff the park has to offer. We will be back to do this one right.

On the way back to our RV, we pulled over and found our first geocache in Colorado. This makes 21 geocache states, and after our night in the Walmart parking lot, our 'States Visited' will be 24.

Back home for the night.

Home - Walmart, sweet home.