We drove our truck around the Monument Valley tribal park. Fun bumpy dirt and rock roads, interesting mesas, and more. If you’ve ever seen a Western movie, you’ve seen Monument Valley.
(The music is titled “Monumental Journey”, so seemed appropriate!)
A timelapse video of driving our truck on Notom-Bullfrog Road, Burr Trail Road, and Utah Highways 12 & 24, in a big loop around Capitol Reef National Park’s Waterpocket District, including many miles of dirt roads and fun switchbacks.
As a fun day trip, we did the “Loop the Fold” scenic drive, using a guide booklet we purchased at the Capitol Reef visitor center.
This 125 mile driving loop goes around the Waterpocket Fold, through the Capitol Reef park, along Burr Trail Road in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and through Dixie and Fishlake National Forests.
Here’s the “Loop the Fold” road guide:
The included map, with stop markers:
We started from the RV park in Torrey, and continued clockwise, through Capitol Reef:
Chimney Rock, stop number 37 in the guide (see the map above):
Panorama Point (stop 38):
The guide is numbered from the Visitor Center, with total miles given from that point, so the Fruta schoolhouse is stop number 1 at mile 0.8:
At the petroglyphs (stop 2, mile 1.1), Jenn took a survey:
Hickman Bridge Trailhead (stop 3, mile 1.9):
Navajo Dome view (stop 4, mile 2.3):
Historic cabin (stop 6, mile 6.0):
Rocks:
We left the Capitol Reef park at the east entrance (stop 7, mile 9.1):
A historical marker for the settlement of Notom (stop 8, mile 14.0):
View:
Hoodoos (stop 10, mile 17.6):
We had a picnic lunch in our truck at that stop:
Views:
The pavement ends at mile 19.3:
Driving across a wash:
Washboarded road:
Rough road:
The Summerville Formation (stop 15, mile 28.1):
Re-entering the park (mile 28.4):
Ridge:
Our truck parked on the side of the road:
Oyster Shell Reef (stop 17, mile 32.3):
Oyster fossils:
View:
Selfie:
Dirt road:
The road changes color:
Spike:
Morrison Formation (stop 18, mile 39); 150-million-year-old Brushy Basin layer of soft claystone on the left, and Salt Wash layer of coarse sandstone on the right:
Rocks:
Junction (stop 20, mile 42.1):
We took a detour off the route:
Driving across a wash:
The post horse corral:
Back across the wash:
The Burr Trail Switchbacks (stop 22, mile 42.9):
Don’t look down:
At the top:
We stopped for a pie snack:
Pavement resumes when leaving the park (stop 24, mile 45.3):
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument:
Views:
Singing Canyon (stop 26, mile 66.9):
Long Canyon viewpoint (stop 28, mile 68.7):
Navajo sandstone (stop 29, mile 76.5):
Sub-alpine trees:
Homestead Overlook (stop 32, mile 90.4):
Larb Hollow Overlook (stop 34, mile 101.4):
A fun day trip.
A short timelapse video of driving through Red Canyon, then around Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah, including a dirt road portion.
We drove our truck through Zion National Park (a second time). This is a timelapse from the dashcam of driving all the way through and back again, with some nice alpenglow.
We visited Zion National Park again, in the late afternoon and evening, and took several hundred more photos. Here are a bunch of the nice ones.
Heading through the mile-long tunnel:
A couple of the tunnel windows:
A fun game we play when visiting parks is to look for and pick up garbage. Because people suck, and we want to leave our parks better than we found them. This is my haul from one viewpoint:
We had dinner at a Thai restaurant just outside the park:
We’ve seen a couple of restaurants that have checkboxes for tips. I wish every restaurant would do this; it’s so much more convenient:
(Bringing an ApplePay terminal to the table is even nicer. Better yet, how about paying a living wage and getting rid of tipping, but this is an improvement over having to do the math.)
Back into the park:
Back through the tunnel:
The smaller tunnel:
We drove our truck in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, along Burr Trail Road to the Singing Canyon, a delightful little slot canyon that is easy to access from the road (most require a several mile hike to reach). This is a timelapse of driving to and from there, with lots of interesting rocks on the way. Plus a couple of cows.
A timelapse video of driving our truck through snowy Cedar Breaks National Monument, then out and along highways towards Cedar City, enjoying the many interesting colors and shapes of Utah rocks and scenery.
A timelapse of driving our truck through the east and west parts of the Saguaro National Park.
We departed Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California, and headed to a week at Ocean Mesa RV Resort in Santa Barbara, California. Or more specifically El Capitan beach, near Goleta.
Here’s the route map (right to left); 144 miles, a non-stop four hour drive in our coach:
Departing Orange:
As usual, Paladin wasn’t thrilled that his house was moving again, though only complained once:
Heading towards LA on I-5:
Fork to route 101:
Downtown LA:
A couple glimpses of the Hollywood sign:
Sign for Universal Studios etc:
Paladin loafing on the mat between us:
Suddenly we’re out of the city and into some hills:
Whenever Paladin was in the cockpit area I kept a close eye on him, to make sure he didn’t go by Jenn’s feet, and risk interfering with the pedals. When he showed interest in heading in that direction, I picked him up and put him on my lap. He wasn’t thrilled about that:
There were no rest stops on this route, so I grabbed some salami and a slice of cheese as a quick lunch (we had more food after we arrived):
7% grade downhill:
Continuing along 101:
Reached the coast:
Paladin on my lap again; still not too keen:
Countryside:
Our exit:
Arriving at Ocean Mesa RV Resort:
We followed another Tiffin in, a Phaeton:
Our coach when checking in, after unhooking our truck:
As usual, I’ll have a timelapse video of this drive tomorrow, and a post about our time here later.