Terrain & Route Map, Sunday, Mona Farm to Moab
Step 1 – Mona, Nephi, and Interstate 15
The next morning, we packed up and headed south. Our neighbor in the parking lot had a cute little doggie with him, who asked for a selfie. The sky was still full of smoky clouds from the brush fires all over. We took the local road south through Nephi towards the next interchange with Interstate 15. Sleepy little town, especially at 7:00 o’clock AM on a Sunday morning. There was a small car lot with a couple of classic 50s and 60s era cars there. I took a shot of the Bounder across the street, and then we motored on down to the on-ramp for I-15 a few miles away.
We found our way to Interstate 15 south after a few miles, and turned on the jets. We passed several spots where little brush fires had broken out for one reason or another. The hills of the Uintah range flanked us as we rode down the valley between ranges. Farms, orchards and more farms dotted the Old West scene. We looked for the exit for the little town of Scipio.
Step 2 – Scipio to Salina on US 50
At Scipio, we exited from I-15 and looked for US Highway 50, which we’d take more or less south-southeast towards Interstate 70 down in the LaSal plateau. This neighborhood is Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid territory from back around 1905 or so with the fabled “Hole-in-the-Wall Gang” but I saw no holes and few walls. However, there were high ridges along the west side of the highway all the way down, as we rode down what was in effect, the valley floor. The little stretch was only about 30 miles or so, and the scenery was pretty much the same all the way down. We did see some honest-to-goodness cowboys wrasslin’ a herd o’ steers right off the roadway just outside of Salina, where we hooked up with Interstate 70. This would be a fairly scenic route, passing through a high plateau full of interesting sandstone formations. Salina was a sleepy looking little place, and we ate lunch at a Burger King before jumping on I-70 and entering the San Rafael Swell.
Part 3 – Interstate 70 Eastbound from Salina
7886 feet. That’s the elevation we hit crossing the San Rafael Swell, in the La Sal mountains. US 50 and the interstate were co-routed through much of this area. We took wide, sweeping turns through the hills, a little up, a little down. There were some places where we’d come around a bend, and then you could see the roadway running off in the distance for miles and miles, other spots where we wouldn’t see the road twenty yards in front because of the sharp curves. We were still running through Fishlake National Forest. Odd name, as we saw neither fish nor lake. And not a whole lot of forest, actually.
Part 4 – Crossing the San Rafael Swell
After a few dozen miles, we rose up onto a plateau that makes up a good chunk of southern Utah. It’s the San Rafael Swell, a bunch of uplifted sandstone and rock that was ancient when the dinosaurs scampered around here 100 million years ago. The road was broad and well banked, and I had to smile at one curve speed limit sign. “Don’t go around this curve over 75 miles an hour!” it warned. We stopped at two or three scenic view areas, where the native peoples had their handicrafts laid out on blanket for sale to the traveler. They must have been expecting the Rockefeller party, though, because the prices were ridiculously high. This was a very desolate stretch of Interstate 70, one length of 105 miles with no roadside services, no real exits to speak of, nothing but desert, rock and sky. I couldn’t imagine over a hundred miles of interstate with no exits. That’s Philly to NYC distance. There are a lot of pictures in these three galleries so take your time and enjoy.
Step 5 – Spotted Wolf Canyon
At the eastern edge of the plateau, the road swoops down and cuts through the plateau wall in an opening about 17 feet wide. This was a relatively recent chunk of I-70, it wasn’t widened into four lanes until sometime in the 1970s. They say that when the engineers first started laying the interstate roadway down and out through the cut, you could stand there with your arms outstretched and touch both sides. Thankfully, they widened it a bit, and Spotted Wolf Canyon is now somewhat of a Kodak-moment place.
Step 5 Green River and south on the Dinosaur Highway
Once down out of the hills, you head for Green River, the city and the river. The river is a favorite spot for kayakers and other thrill seekers who follow the river’s twists and turns down into Canyonlands National Park, where the Green feeds into the Colorado. A dozen or so miles east of Green River is Crescent Junction where you exit the interstate and head south towards Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, and then finish the day in Moab, our destination for the night. But first, we’d see those two parks.
Step 6 – Canyonlands National Park
The road out to Canyonlands NP was deceptive – very flat, just kind of wandered around out in the middle of nowhere – you don’t realize it, but you’re driving up on TOP of the big flat mesa or whatever it is that surrounds this area. So there’s not a lot of buildup or anticipation as scenery slowly comes into view or anything like that. Not like Disneyland where you see the Castle from 20 miles away… 
Canyonlands is a very basic park, not a lot of amenities, no lodge or other facilities, just a lot of land, some canyons, and the occasional bus load of tourists.
The first spot we stopped was the area called “Island in the Sky”.
After Island In The Sky, there’s really only one road through out this part of the park, and it leads to a second scenic area, the Grand View overlook. The rest of the park is about 30 miles south, but there’s no direct road to it and you have to circle around in about a 100 mile loop to get there. We decided to do that next time. The afternoon was getting a little big cloudy, and the wind was still, as it had been, ferocious but I got some decent shots anyway. Hal, ever the adventurous soul, liked to wander off on to the slick, sandstone rock in his flip-flops and peer over the edges of the precipices, just DARING gravity to try its’ best.
Step 6 – Dead Horse Point
We rode back out of Canyonlands NP and drove the short distance back towards Dead Horse Point state park.This was an area along the Colorado river where, according to legend, a bunch of horses were rounded up by local cow-pokes back in the 19th Century, and after culling out the good ones, they left the remainder penned in to starve. I don’t buy it, considering how much the cowboy depended on his horse – it’s like going to the pet store to buy a puppy and then setting fire to the place after you leave. I think it’s much more likely that some poor horse DID starve to death, or maybe just die of natural causes out here someplace, and the “dead horse” descriptor just stuck. We were losing our light as we got here, but I got some nice shots of the setting sun turning the western hills to gold. As we were leaving, the sun finally broke through the mass of clouds and haze that had been dogging us all day. We noticed shimmering spots of silver in the distance, that looked somewhat unnatural. We found out later they were potash mine drying ponds. We also found out that the odd railroad camp we saw way down by the river was a movie set for ‘The Lone Ranger’, starring Johnny Depp, due in theaters summer of 2013. The movie bombed horribly but the scenery was nice.
After Dead Horse Point, we drive the few miles back up the road, and then onto Moab. Dark clouds covered much of the sky, and it looked like a big storm was brewing, but nothing ever came of it. It did make getting photographs a bit challenging, but every now and then the setting sun broke through the clouds to light up some rocks in an interesting way. We passed high cliffs, desert scrub, and some neat rock on the way to Moab. Moab is a big 4X4 excursion spot, and is the main point of civilization in these parts. Nice little town along the Colorado River, with a high bank of mesas paralleling the roadway on the other side of town. We found our KOA campground and pulled in for the night, just as darkness fell. Tomorrow would be our visit to Arches National Park for the main part of the day, then on to Colorado.
Day 10 – 327 Miles
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