WHAT DO MONUMENTS & GOOSENECKS HAVE IN COMMON?
Day 156 – We got up a little after 7 a.m., still raining, 36 degrees. We checked the weather forecast for southeastern Utah & it looked okay for us to travel up there to Monument Valley. A couple of weeks ago when at the Grand Canyon, we’d heard from a Chinese woman who was taking her visiting relatives around to see the sites, that Monument Valley was incredible. We are glad we’re able to go there. It could be cloudy today & tomorrow, but at least it shouldn’t be snowing.
160 miles
No need to do a campground review for Wahweap Campground at Lake Powell in AZ since we did a review when we were here before, but we will say it felt just like home & we were happy to be back. Our little white-tailed bunny friend even visited briefly.
We departed at 9:15 a.m. after dumping tanks & filling up with fresh water. Light rain & 41 degrees, some partial clearing in the distance. We drove into Page via the 89 south & made two stops, getting gas & propane for the RV. Finally back on the road, we took Route 98 southeast, then Route 160 northeast. It stopped raining and the large rolling clouds were beautiful. The scenery was very nice, improving as we went along & the sun came out. Soon, around every turn or hill, the colors and contours changed. Just gorgeous.
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We turned off the 160 on to Route 163 heading northeast, and just when we thought it couldn’t get much better, around the time we were getting close to leaving Arizona and entering Utah again, we entered Monument Valley. Oh my goodness! We stopped for lunch and a break.
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Okay, that cinches it – Utah is definitely the most beautiful State we’ve traveled through so far. No doubt about it. And campground with the prettiest scenery right outside our windows? We were about to discover that.
After about 45 miles, we turned off the 163 going about a mile on Route 261W, then turning off on Route 316 at the sign for Goosenecks State Park. In about 3 ½ miles the road ended at the Park. We drove by the check-in station and came upon a small loop with a few campsites right by a sharp cliff, which dropped steeply off to the “Goosenecks” below. There was a small day use area, restrooms, and eight campsites, two of them right on the edge of the cliff. No one was there. We took a look around & grabbed one of those cliff-side sites. There were no campsite numbers; first-come, first-served. It was 1:10, 54 degrees, breezy & partly cloudy.
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Following is a description from the State Park’s website: “On the edge of a deep canyon above the sinuous river meander known as a gooseneck, this small Park affords impressive views of one of the most striking examples of an entrenched river meander on the North American continent. The San Juan River twists and turns through the meander, flowing a distance of over 6 miles while advancing 1 ½ miles west on its way to Lake Powell.”
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After unpacking and setting up, we sat outside overlooking this amazing canyon and the green water below. People came and went, stopping to take pictures at the day use area. It is a sight to see. The campground has no hook-ups, no dump station and no water, just a picnic table and fire pit at each of the 8 campsites. If you travel a little farther on a badly-maintained dirt road (one we would NEVER take the RV on), there are additional pull-outs without tables & fire pits, where one can camp. A campsite is $10 per night. The main attraction here is definitely the Goosenecks; we’ve never seen anything like it.
Because it’s supposed to be completely cloudy tomorrow, we wanted to get pictures of the Monument Valley in the best light, so we drove in the Honda to take some pictures of the rock formations (the monuments) when the sun was going down in the late afternoon.
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We got back to the RV at sunset, had dinner and watched the sun set over the Goosenecks from the dining room. The girls are doing well. They don’t yet know that there won’t be electricity for their electric heating pads. They did quite well with the drive, though. They are troopers.
So, what do monuments and goosenecks have in common? They are both geological wonders. And we saw them both in the same day, and they are awesome.
I agree that the scenes with their spectacular colors make Utah a state not to be missed.