Day Twenty

Palisade CO - Ferron, UT
Date: 06/30/2002
Distance: 354 miles
Weather: Sunny 90's and 100's

We headed west on I-70.Took a break at a High School for Ogden to get some exercise. She found a T-Bone on the football field and was truly overjoyed. She cavorted around with it, and played keep away from us.

Once in Utah, we took the scenic 128 towards Moab and the Arches National Park. We stopped at a pull off. We ended up helping this guy who got his van stuck in the sand. He was bringing boats to the water and stupidly brought the van right down to the water. A woman with him had put her family on a raft and was going to go with the guy to pick them up, when she discovered he was stuck in the mud. We brought her back to the "ranch" where she was staying so she could send someone down to help get the van unstuck. She turned out to be from Amherst, MA.

After dropping the woman off, we continued into Moab for lunch. We got some sandwiches and ate them in the shade. Ogden found another bone. Who knew there were so many bones on the ground? Moab is quite touristy. Lots of sporty people come here to mountain bike. The main street is full of tourist shops.

After lunch we head to Arches National Park. A 18 mile road brings you close to the arches and dramatic rock formations. We only ventured a couple minutes from the car because of the 100 degree heat.

We continued on through Utah. The eastern half is not very hospitable, which the sign on the highway warned about, "No Services next 106 miles". There were, however, plenty of great views of both canyons and mountains.

Still unsure about which state park to go to, we finally picked Millsite State Park using Utah's excellent state park brochure.

The state park was right on a nice lake and there were only two other groups there.All was wonderful until 1:00 am when gusty winds stressed our tent until one of the tent poles snapped. It huffed and it puffed and blew our tent down. We packed up camp in a rush and spent the rest of the night sleeping in the car.