Tag: Road Trip June 2018

Great Basin National Park

Our camp near Great Basin National Park

Friday evening June 15 found us in Great Basin National Park. The word was that Great Basin National Park is one of the least visited parks in the country, and that said, we were hoping to find camping at one of the campgrounds in the park. We headed first for Wheeler Peak Campground, which was full, then on to Upper Lehman, which looked like a lovely campground, but it was also full. We then decided to try going off the grid, taking a dirt road near the Pole Canyon picnic area. The road took us just outside of the park where we found a quiet spot in some junipers to put the top up.A  very peaceful and pleasant spot. No services other than a fire pit, and we did not bring fire wood. Not a soul in sight, and not a single car on the road.
The next day we drove back up the mountain and we had a lovely hike up into the Bristlecone Pines. I was hoping to make it an early morning trip to catch some soft light, but given the drive and a 1 1/2 mile hike to reach the trees, that seemed unpractical.
Wheeler Peak. Great Basin National Park.
Bristlecone Pine. Great Basin National Park.

 

Camping on the Green River

Camped on the bank of the Green River at Gray Canyon Campground. Woke up to the sound of the Green River roaring by just outside our backdoor. A pleasant kind of white noise following a good nights sleep. We’re camped at Lower Gray Canyon Recreation Area, just a few miles north of the town of Green River in Utah. Today marks day six on a three week road trip. We found this camp through Campendium, one of our favorite apps for locating camp sites. We are headed for Canyon Lands and Dead Horse Point State Park and as we dallied along yesterday, time passed and we decided to look for a lesser known campsite that might have room rather than risk finding the campsites full at some of the more popular locations on our route. This turns out to be a lovely site, shaded with cottonwood trees on the bank of the river. Only a handful of campers with plenty of open spaces. Once we had settled into our site we went for a swim in the river. Weather is very pleasant this morning, 68 degrees F when we got up at 6:30. Felt a bit cool with the gentle breeze. I put a light jacket on. Now as we’re breaking camp to hit the road at 9:00 the temperature is approching 90.

 

Santa Fe Road Trip: Day Four

We’re spending the night at Diamond Campground, near Springville, Utah. Our destination is Santa Fe. We have a week to get there. So we’ll be wandering the southwest for the next few days. No WiFi here so I’m writing a short post on my iPhone. More to follow when I can sit still long enough to edit photos on the laptop. Our travels so far have brought us over the Sierra Nevada Mountains via highway 120 through Yosemite and down the east side of the Sierra to Big Pine, where our son and daughter-in-law are expecting in July. Our first grandchild. From there it was on to Great Basin National Park, and then on to Salt Lake City where we celebrated the anticipated birth of our second grandchild, due in August.