South East Utah planning

[Telescopist]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Oh man, be still my heart. I love the desert.

You know what I'm going to ask David. What site number are you in?

This is the view from site #50. It is not David's preferred site. Sniff. But we were reasonably pleased by the view. All taken from within 15 feet of the camper.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

That is site 20, Donna. I also like 24 and 23, although it's a small campground and all the sites that accommodate trailers are pretty good.

THANKS!!

[DT6]

For WiFi we bring our T-Mobile internet tower. I have not checked to see if you can get this on a monthly basis. If you can it may be worth considering.

The Rabbit Cafe in Torry has good coffee and breakfast options.

The parks that everyone have mentioned are pretty good and worth your time. We also like Moab, and there are several dry camping options nearby as well as Dead Horse state park (worth it if you can get a spot), otherwise there are a couple of developed BLM campgrounds near Dead Horse SP that are well disbursed and fairly quiet.

If you have a telescope, bring it as the skies are nice and dark!

[iamunique127]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

As long as we're loading up your itinerary....

David:
You are certainly a wealth of information. Thank you for all the suggestions.
Feel free to keep loading up the itinerary.

[iamunique127]

Also thanks to Telescopist and DT6 for your contributions. As a couple of flatlanders from Canada this will all be new to us.

[davidmurphy02]

Not sure how long your trip will be...there is so much to see in southern Utah that it can be tempting to try to do it all, especially when you are coming from so far away. I would encourage you to spend as much time as you can, and prioritize the places that look most interesting to you and spend a while in each rather than dashing all over trying to see everything.

The weather can vary quite a bit across southern Utah. Moab will be the warmest so that would be a good place to start and then work your way west. Kodachrome Basin and especially Bryce will be much cooler (higher elevation) so go there after Moab and Torrey / Capitol Reef.

If you have never been to the Grand Canyon you should really consider stopping there, nothing else quite like it.

You may notice I haven't mentioned Zion NP. It's a beautiful place but has become really crowded (proximity to Salt Lake City) and we haven't been there in 15 years. I'm sure other forum members can offer more current info and recommendations than I can.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by DT6

For WiFi we bring our T-Mobile internet tower. I have not checked to see if you can get this on a monthly basis. If you can it may be worth considering.

What is the "T-Mobile internet tower"?

The 1st four years in the southwest we carried one phone on Verizon and one T-Mobile (Google Fi) phone. By the 4th year we no longer needed Verizon and last year only traveled with T-Mobile on both phones. There are some campgrounds you can get internet till about 8:30 am, so perhaps a better signal catcher would be all we'd need.

Thanks,

Perry

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by Perry Butler

What is the "T-Mobile internet tower"?

The 1st four years in the southwest we carried one phone on Verizon and one T-Mobile (Google Fi) phone. By the 4th year we no longer needed Verizon and last year only traveled with T-Mobile on both phones. There are some campgrounds you can get internet till about 8:30 am, so perhaps a better signal catcher would be all we'd need.

Thanks,

Perry

I just had mine delivered a few weeks ago. I had to get on a wait list for it, about 6 months later I got a email asking if I wanted a free 15 day trial.
I’ve since canceled my spectrum, better signal and only $30 a month.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Ooshkaboo

I just had mine delivered a few weeks ago. I had to get on a wait list for it, about 6 months later I got a email asking if I wanted a free 15 day trial.
I’ve since canceled my spectrum, better signal and only $30 a month.

I don't see it anywhere on T-Mobile's web site. Is this a home device or a mobile device?

What do you get for $30/month?

Thanks,

Perry

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by Perry Butler

I don't see it anywhere on T-Mobile's web site. Is this a home device or a mobile device?

What do you get for $30/month?

Thanks,

Perry

It’s now my home WiFi, I only stream.

I’ve been told it can be taken with you on the road, but I’ve yet to test it out.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

As long as we're loading up your itinerary....

The drive down highway 12 from Torrey to Kodachrome, over Boulder Mountain and then through the canyon country from Boulder to Escalante, is one of the most scenic drives in Utah.

And wait ... there's more.

While heading south down highway 12 from Torrey, you can spend a night or two in US Forest Service CG "Singletree". It is about 1/2 reservations and 1/2 FCFS. Water & flush toilets and just far enough from the highway to be quiet. It is about 8200' elevation so it will be chilly and perhaps even closed due to snow so check in advance. It makes a nice central location to visit Capitol Reef NP and sights like the Burr Trail Switchbacks (don't even think of driving with your trailer down that road). The town of Boulder has several fabulous restaurants - take your pick. And allow a couple of hours to hike thru the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park- petrified wood of first class quality. I won't vouch for the campground however. Calf Creek Falls, on the way, is very pretty plus has a population of German Brown trout - most unusual for the desert. Wow, have we scratched the surface?!

[iamunique127]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

Not sure how long your trip will be...there is so much to see in southern Utah that it can be tempting to try to do it all, especially when you are coming from so far away. I would encourage you to spend as much time as you can, and prioritize the places that look most interesting to you and spend a while in each rather than dashing all over trying to see everything.

The weather can vary quite a bit across southern Utah. Moab will be the warmest so that would be a good place to start and then work your way west. Kodachrome Basin and especially Bryce will be much cooler (higher elevation) so go there after Moab and Torrey / Capitol Reef.

If you have never been to the Grand Canyon you should really consider stopping there, nothing else quite like it.

You may notice I haven't mentioned Zion NP. It's a beautiful place but has become really crowded (proximity to Salt Lake City) and we haven't been there in 15 years. I'm sure other forum members can offer more current info and recommendations than I can.

This early in the planning stages, we're not sure exactly what our timeline is. The year we picked up our 5.0TA we'd planned to be away for a month and arrived home 9 weeks later. Our time is our own so we follow our noses and take our time. We've chosen a time period we feel we can be away from the house and the yard and we'll see what happens from there. Given the way we travel it may take us a week to get to Utah and a week back so 4-6 weeks would not be unreasonable. Parking in one place and making day drives, seeing what we see and walks with the dog is our speed. I'm really liking the options ppl are offering up and we can narrow down some areas of interest as the time gets closer.

Thanks for the specifics about the temperatures and general routing strategy.

The southeast of Utah has captured our imaginations for now so if we just see some of that big area this time, we're ok with that. Altho, where is a good place to experience the Grand Canyon?

Re: National Parks- As beautiful as Glacier National Park is we didn't enjoy the highway line ups or the line up to get into the parking lot the last time we were there. So we passed it by last summer and just stopped in the small town of East Glacier Park, MT for some fry bread at the Burger Box, then took a stroll along a roadside river. Those were a couple highlights of our whole trip.





On our return trip we found ourselves within a few miles of the Canadian side of Glacier, Waterton Lakes NP, so took a couple scenic drives there. It was far less crowded and we made some wonderful memories. So national parks are not totally off our radar but generally we prefer quieter places.

Appreciate your input, David.

[iamunique127]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

And wait ... there's more.

While heading south down highway 12 from Torrey, you can spend a night or two in US Forest Service CG "Singletree". It is about 1/2 reservations and 1/2 FCFS. Water & flush toilets and just far enough from the highway to be quiet. It is about 8200' elevation so it will be chilly and perhaps even closed due to snow so check in advance. It makes a nice central location to visit Capitol Reef NP and sights like the Burr Trail Switchbacks (don't even think of driving with your trailer down that road). The town of Boulder has several fabulous restaurants - take your pick. And allow a couple of hours to hike thru the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park- petrified wood of first class quality. I won't vouch for the campground however. Calf Creek Falls, on the way, is very pretty plus has a population of German Brown trout - most unusual for the desert. Wow, have we scratched the surface?!

I'm getting excited by all these possibilities. Thanks, Alan.

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by iamunique127

The southeast of Utah has captured our imaginations for now so if we just see some of that big area this time, we're ok with that. Altho, where is a good place to experience the Grand Canyon?

I prefer the South Rim of the Grand Canyon....and in any case, the North Rim doesn't usually open until well into May or later. There are two camping options, the National Park Mather Campground and Trailer Village, a commercial RV park. Both are in the same area, right in the middle of the main part of the South Rim. Mather may already be booked, and many of the sites there are fairly small - while some will accommodate a trailer many are too small. We have always stayed in Trailer Village. While not a garden spot, it is all about location, location, location. There is a great network of hike and bike paths and being able to step out the door of your trailer and after a short walk be on the rim is pretty wonderful. Being camped in the heart of the park allows you to avoid all the crowds of people who stay outside the park and then queue up to come in for the day. And dogs are welcome on all the trails above the rim.

You will hear a lot about crowds at the Grand Canyon and certainly lots of people go there. We have found that between 10AM and 3PM is when the day visitors who are staying outside the park tend to come. Mornings and evenings there are far less people and we really enjoy walking along the rim - there is no place else quite like the Grand Canyon. It is one of those places that is so special that we still go there despite it being heavily visited. There is a central area where the hotels and shops are located where most people tend to congregate. If you walk along the rim trail away from that area there are far fewer people.

If you wind up with Kodachrome Basin on your itinerary, from there you can go south to get to the Grand Canyon, down to Kanab and then east toward Page. There is a nice dispersed camping area at Lone Rock Beach near Page, UT that makes a good overnight stop halfway from Kodachrome to Grand Canyon...and if your dog likes water he can go for a swim in Lake Powell. It is usually best, depending on your route, to enter Grand Canyon from the eastern entrance near Desert View. Not many people enter that way so there are usually no lines at the entrance station, and then the drive over to the central part of the South Rim area has some terrific views of the canyon. The main entrance, heading south to Williams, AZ, can often be crowded with long lines of cars.

Here are a few photos from Lone Rock Beach. Depending on weather and sand conditions it is possible to camp on the beach right down near the water...but also easy to get stuck in the sand so we tend to stay back a bit on firmer ground.

[davidmurphy02]

As long as we're still filling up your itinerary...

A good possible route would be to start at Moab, then head over to Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef/Torrey, down to Kodachrome Basin / Bryce Canyon and then down to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. From Grand Canyon when you leave you could head east and go through Monument Valley. It's an iconic place to see for sure, but somewhat commercialized. We have found a small primitive campground on the north side of Monument Valley that's out of the way and very quiet - Sleeping Bear Campground, Google maps knows about it. Monument Valley is the most striking in the early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low and really makes the rock formations glow. If you arrive heading east in the afternoon the sun will be at your back and the views terrific. When you leave the next morning be sure to stop at a highway turnout and look back to see the rock formations in the morning sunlight.

[davidmurphy02]

East of Monument Valley there are several very scenic boondocking / dispersed camping possibilities. Goosenecks State Park near Mexican Hat, Utah is completely primitive - no facilities but a large area for people to spread out and camp along the canyon rim in a striking area where the river below bends back and forth.

Just east of there is Valley of the Gods - we have not camped there but if you search the forum you'll see photos from other members who have. It's a primitive area similar to Monument Valley but very few people go there. In that same area is the Sand Island BLM campground on the San Juan River, another nice spot.

[davidmurphy02]

One of our favorite remote and lightly visited national parks is the Needles
District of Canyonlands National Park. It is the southern end of Canyonlands, which has three sections. There are no services other than a campground and visitor center and it's off the beaten path so tends to be only lightly visited.

Half of the campground in the park is first-come and arriving in the morning gives you a good shot at getting a spot. There is also a primitive private campground, Needles Outpost, right outside the park and a BLM campground, Hamburger Rock, less than a mile away so you can always get a campsite in one of those.

Heading back north on 191, the Wind Whistle BLM campground is scenic and quiet, and the drive out to the Needles Overlook is well worth it for another grand view of the Canyonlands area.

First photo is site 18 in the park campground, second one is in the Needles Outpost campground, third one is Wind Whistle BLM campground.

[iamunique127]

You really seem to have spent a lot of time around there, David.
Tons of great info.
Thanks.

[DT6]

Originally Posted by Perry Butler

What is the "T-Mobile internet tower"?
Perry

The T-Mobile internet tower is just that, a Tower that is a black plastic cube about 9 inches tall and 4 inches square. I assume it is just a beefed up cell phone that acts as a WiFi hotspot. We use this at home for our Internet access, and it is powerful enough for two TV's, 5 computers, 3 cell phones, and a bunch of other WiFi enables devices like home security, etc.

The nice thing is, when we travel, I just put the T-Mobile Tower back in its box and plug it in when we get the trailer setup at our next location. As long as there is a T-Mobile signal, it will work and is much better than trying to use your cell phone as a hot spot.

[brroberts]

I used the TMobile plan here until TMobile “upgraded” the towers I was using for service. I had to suck up the cost and move to StarLink. While it worked, it worked very well. Living where we do, I had to open the TMobile box and connect it to an array of outdoor Yagi antennas to get service. It’s not allowed, but the only way I could get internet. With the new 5g towers, I simply no longer had enough signal strength to get here or I’d still have TMobile.