Since we only had a four hour drive to our destination in Utah, we took our time in the morning, saying goodbye to everyone and making sure our rig was ready to roll.  The jack problem is totally fixed!!  Amazing difference, and the new stairs are wonderful.  It’s amazing what you can get used to over time, and I was super happy when we buttoned everything up.  As I mentioned before, this was our first time traveling without a set schedule, but we did get a list of places we wanted to see from Cori’s Blog, Deb’s Blog, a spreadsheet Kat and Bert sent us, and most importantly a two hour conversation with Jo and Ben.  They used to live in Colorado, and have spent a ton of time boondocking in Utah.  The hard part for them was that they were always in a truck camper, so really had to think through all the spots from the perspective of us pulling a 40 foot fifth-wheel.  Jo also turned me onto an app called Campendium, which I had heard of but never used, and it turned out to be a wonderful resource.

Based on their recommendation we had a potential spot very very near Zion and we headed to Smithsonian Butte.  The drive on Interstate 15 itself was amazing as we crossed from Nevada, to Arizona, and then Utah.  In particular I liked Virgin Gorge in Arizona and then when we entered Utah the gorgeous red rock views started almost immediately.

 

Our first stop was Smithsonian Butte, but despite the fact that we saw big rigs parked there on Google maps we learned this area was no longer open for camping.  That was such a shame because the views were stunning, but after Lee talked to a couple of locals he verified that the road ahead where we would be able to camp was definitely not big rig friendly.

Next we went to North View BLM campground, which was free and along a creek but the available spots were far too small for us.  It was also packed with tent campers and I wasn’t really crazy about the vibe so we headed to the next area. Since we don’t have a second vehicle we parked off the main road and walked in, which worked out pretty well.

I was getting a little worried at this point, especially because the reviews on the next place, Sheep Bridge Road, stated that it was great but often very full.  It is a 2 mile long graded dirt road to reach the first spot.  We ended up turning down the first side road we saw and not that long after found a prime spot with 4 bars of AT&T coverage!  (There are tons of spots here, but for the record our coordinates were 37.1893, -113.2235).   I was so happy, and we quickly set up, watched the sunset, ate some dinner, and made a fire.  Then the moon came up and the light breeze and moonlight were very romantic.  Absolutely amazing, and what a wonderful way to start our Utah adventure 🙂

 

 

 

 

(I completely forgot to put this in the original post about the reunion rally, so here’s a little video I made for the attendees with photos supplied by RV Dreamers of their travels that was shown at the potluck dinner. For those that attended the rally and want to save a copy of the video to your computer, you can start the video and then ONCE IT IS PLAYING, right click on it and select “Save Video As” to download it so you can have the file permanently on your computer. If you don’t want to download it you can just watch it. As always, video looks best full screen and in HD, and those controls can be found in the lower right corner of the video player window. Plus it looks better in this format rather than all washed out with a projector and a screen. – Lee)

 

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