Thursday morning we finished the drive to Dead Horse Point and found a site for the next two nights. Perfect timing! They had a dump, and a place to fill our jugs, plus electricity. After settling in to a very nice, level spot, we hiked from the campground, five miles around the Rim Trail.
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| Dead Horse camp site |
Dead Horse Point is a peninsula with a narrow neck, looking over the canyonlands created by the Colorado and Green Rivers. There are spectacular views in all directions. The name derives from a story of cowboys rounding up wild mustang horses. Because the sides are so steep, they could corral them by building a fence across the 30 foot neck, and contain them while they chose the ones they wanted. Apparently, one time they didn't let the rest of the horses go free, and they died of thirst within view of the river. A sad story for such a stunning spot.
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| Looking toward the Colorado River from Dead Horse Point |
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| Greg communing with a raven! |
We hiked the rim from the campground, around to the end and back the other side. Check out the photos for a glimpse of what we saw. Unfortunately, this area is probably always hazy due to pollution drifting up from Las Vegas and coal-fired power plants. The Grand Canyon suffers the same problem. It still is a view that has to be seen in person to really appreciate it.
Friday morning Greg decided to take his mountain bike off the rack and try out the bike trails in the park. It was his first experience with off roading here, and his first time on some of the famous Moab slickrock bike trails. He said it was slow going at first, but then he got his “mojo” back and started to enjoy it! I stayed in camp to enjoy a down day and watched the ravens try to find food scraps from our grill. Greg used our new and first ever, grill the night before, on our covered patio at our campsite. Yummy dinner!
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| Greg with Big Manly Grill |
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| Every campsite came with fly-in cleaning service |
It was nice to have electricity to run the heater both nights as we had near freezing temperatures. The RV has no insulation. The manufacturers don't design them for fulltime or year round living, so we make do. We have a built-in propane furnace, but it is annoying as it cuts on and off all night. Besides, if we are already paying to have electric service at our site, we might as well use the portable heater.
After Greg's ride we decided a week was too long to go without a real shower. Unless you stay at a very pricey campground in Moab, you have to bring your water with you to the campground. So, you tend to get really good at water conservation strategy, using it and disposing of it. You might still have water, but if your waste tanks are full, you have a problem. The campsites also do not have dumps. Dead Horse Point has a dump station, and a faucet to fill our five gallon jugs. Greg then uses the winterizing siphon to get the water into the water tank, since there is no faucet in the camp to hook up a hose. The campgrounds don't have showers, so Greg filled up our 27 gallon tank from the five gallon jugs of water that he hauled from the campground sink. We deconstructed our shower, which has removable shelves and we use for storage, and we proceeded to turn on the hot water heater, and take Navy showers. Get wet, turn off the water, lather up, turn on the water, and rinse off. Between the two of us we showered with about 10 gallons of water. Not a luxurious soak, but it felt great to be clean and have clean hair!
After a shower, a good meal and a peaceful nights sleep, we were ready the next day to see Canyonlands National Park!
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