Day 5 - June 5th - Capitol Reef to Moab

This morning, Ty again treated to a sumptuous breakfast of a cheese and vegetable frittata with all organic ingredients.  Along with the frittata was sausage, orange juice, fresh fruit and toast with jellies.  After breakfast we packed and on the road by 9:15.  Our first stop was Goblin Valley State Park.  The landscape is strange and surreal and as the name implies, the park is filled with hundreds of gnome-like rock formations.  The wind was blowing a bit strongly so we opted not to go down and walk among the gnomes, but just view from the observation point.  The following photos will give you some idea of the weird formations.

After the park we continued our drive northward along State Highway 24 north toward I-70.  The road from Hanksville to the interstate is pretty much a straight, flat, wide open nothing.  No towns along the route - an open invitation to speed, and speed we did.  Well, sure enough, a State Trooper caught us going 82 in a 65.  Thankfully he took pity on us and only gave us a warning.  I guess he thought it bad for business to give the tourists tickets.  So anyway, from then on we obeyed all speed limits.

We finally got to the Canyonlands/Arches are by lunchtime and since there is nowhere in the parks to buy food we decided to stop at a little place called Archview Resort.  Calling it a resort is a stretch.  It's nothing but a gas station and general store with souvenirs but at least they sold hotdogs and cokes.  We ate our hotdogs in the car because the wind was blowing up so much dust that it would have been impossible to eat at their picnic tables.  They also had restrooms where we paused to refresh ourselves and then off to Canyonlands National Park for the afternoon.  We saw everything in the Islands in the Sky district of the park that can be seen from the overlooks.  Most of the park appears to be for 4-wheel drives and off road vehicles.  It was very hazy in the park that day due to the wind blowing up a lot of "particulates" the ranger told us.  I think that's a fancy word for dust.  Anyway, here are the pictures from the park.

As you can tell, I was really getting into photographing the flowers.  You will see this theme a lot as we travel along. 

It was now late in the afternoon and time to check into our hotel in Moab.  I chose the Best Western Canyonlands for our room for the next two nights.  It had all the comforts of home - WiFi, flatscreen TV, a laundry facility for the guests, and comfortable beds and a free hot breakfast.  We asked the desk clerk where a good place to go for dinner was and he suggested the place across the street called Eddie McStiffs.  We took him up on his suggestion and were not disappointed.  After dinner it was early to bed again.  You may notice a pattern by now - big dinner and then early to bed.  Yeah boy, we are real party animals.  The sun barely sets before we are sawing logs.