Tourist Review – Dead Horse Point State Park – SE Utah

When we stayed a couple weeks at Angostura Recreation Area (Hot Springs SD) you’ll remember that we had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with our neighbors Clark & Anita.

Clark and Anita (and their Oliver Travel Trailer)

They told us that as we traveled south from South Dakota through Wyoming and Utah, we just HAD to stop (and camp if we could) at Dead Horse Point State Park just northwest of Moab, Utah.

He told us if we didn’t make it to any of the other popular parks in that area of Utah (Arches, Canyonlands, Canyon de Chelly, Grand Staircase Escalante, Capital Reef) we’d just HAVE to visit Dead Horse.

As it turned out, our travels back to Rover’s Roost at Casa Grande Arizona found us traveling west along southern Wyoming and the east side of Utah and traveling down U.S. 191 instead of using the interstate highway system – and we’re so glad we did!

This way we stayed out of Colorado and the I-25 / I-70 yet we still got to see a LOT of beautiful scenery and ecosystems as we traveled up and down the hills and valleys, sometimes as high as 9000 feet!

But the Creme de la creme – has been Dead Horse Point State Park. The Colorado River runs through the park. The main (only) paved road through the park is Utah State Route 313 and it’s one way in and the same one way out. The $20 (non-resident) entrance fee is per vehicle so we parked our rigs in a gravel parking area just outside the park entrance and then we climbed into David and Susan’s car to visit the park.

As we all realize, photographs just never represent fully the depth and beauty of the subject. But I just had to share some with you here.

If you click on any of the thumbnails below, a larger picture will open. If you have a slower internet connection it might take a second (or a few) to sharpen up the image. Just be patient and you should be able to see and appreciate the beauty in the detail.

Here’s a short (1-1/2 minutes) video of some of the beauty we took in.

And a special thanks to Clark and Anita for putting us on to this gem. Next time we are going to be in the area, we’ll need to make campground reservations ahead of time!

Thanks once again for riding along on the journey of our lifetimes. It’s been five years now that we’ve traveled full-time and worked (volunteered) part-time along the way and it’s still fun – how about that!

Until we meet again, take care of yourselves and each other. You’re all you’ve got. Be good. And stay safe in this crazy world of ours.

Herb and Kathy

A Good Day For Travel

Well yesterday was hot and a little sticky, but we left Pecos, TX this am and a light storm rolled in to west Texas last night and our travel today to our new site at Deming, NM was a delight because it was mostly overcast and cool.  Those big glass windows on the front of a motor home can really transmit the heat!  In fact, yesterday afternoon, we not only had the dash a/c on, but we fired up the generator as we were traveling and turned on the roof air to get it down to a comfortable temp.  Wouldn’t have been that bad if we were headed east, but the late afternoon sun heading west was brutal.

This morning I-10 across west Texas showed us a lot more oil fields, miles and miles of open fields with ranches interspersed with grazing cattle.

2016-04-12 10.24.03
A View Out My Window While Driving

I had to take this picture of this distant “mountain” just to prove we were there.  There’s lots more of course, but I just took this picture because they say it’s best to keep two hands on the wheel, especially when it’s windy, which it often is in Oklahoma and Texas along these plains.

We checked into Dream Catcher’s RV Park and were warmly welcomed by the staff and volunteers.  Many of the parks we are staying in are owned by the Escapees club that we belong to.  The members are almost exclusively full-time RV’ers and it’s been great hearing their stories of how they made the switch from a “sticks ‘n bricks” home to living and working on the road.

We attended the social hour at the office/clubhouse and then went on back to our place and enjoyed a fresh cooked meal of tossed salad, cottage cheese, grilled pork loin, and brussel sprouts.2016-04-12 18.09.50

After supper we took a walk around the park to meet some of our neighbors and get a little exercise.

Here’s a panoramic view of the park.  Not a lot of trees unfortunately, we tend to like the state parks more for that reason, but staying in parks like this give us more a sense of community, since many if not all of the residents have a common interest.  2016-04-12 17.13.25.jpgWe met a nice couple tonight who had been full-timing for 15 years but just recently due to some health issues found a plot of land to park their RV on and live in most of the year, but still be able to “pull in the slides” and move on down the road whenever they want.

And some more pix of the surrounding mountains from our camp.

More tomorrow night when we get to Rover’s Roost RV Park outside of Casa Grande, AZ