Category: Travel (page 1 of 1)

Snow / Bryce Canyon

May 20 was one of our travel days.  Our four days in Torrey / Capitol Reef had been cold and occasionally slightly wet. On the 20th, we woke up to find our truck (and pretty much everything else) covered with snow. When we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we found even more snow along with poor visibility. We didn’t stay long.

This was the view from the parking area of the Broken Spur. In addition to standard motel rooms, guests are also lodged in the covered wagons; it provides a “glamping” experience. We spoke with a fellow who was in one during the evening snowstorm. He said that they worked very well at keeping the weather out. I had hoped to see what they looked like inside, but when I walked around, I saw that they were locked up.  (As I recall, the canvas at the end of the wagon unzips.  Beefy looking padlocks keep them secure.)

Another view from the Broken Spur in Torrey:

Views from Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon National Park:

Visibility was somewhat better from the parking lot / overlook for Fairyland Canyon (also within Bryce).

Views from just outside our room at Capitol Reef Resort

We stayed three nights at the Capitol Reef Resort just outside of Torrey, Utah. To the best of my knowledge, this motel is the closest to the Capitol Reef National Park of any in the area.  That said, Torrey isn’t that far away and there are plenty of places to stay there too.

As shown below, the views are outstanding. However, there is quite a lot of nearby exposed dirt, making it very dusty on windy days. On the day we left, the parking lot seemed to be ensconced in a dust storm.

The beds were firm and comfortable. Room size was barely adequate for the three of us with all of the stuff that we bring with us.

There is no complimentary breakfast – it’s $10 per person. The breakfast buffet provided plenty of choices, but the scrambled eggs seemed a bit greasier than I was accustomed to. Marie didn’t feel well after her breakfast there and ended up staying back on that day. We bought cereal and milk from the General Store in Torrey and ate cereal on the remaining days.

When we visit again, we’ll stay somewhere else. It’s not that the Capitol Reef Resort was bad; we just want to find out what else is available.

Goblin Valley State Park

On June 9, while traveling between Moab and Torrey, we stopped by Goblin Valley State Park. We didn’t stay very long as it was extremely windy. (It stayed windy over the next several days.) Surprisingly, visibility wasn’t too bad, but there was still a lot of dust in the air. We figured that breathing it wasn’t especially good for us.

We ate a Duke’s Slickrock Grill in Hanksville after our visit to Goblin Valley. The food and service was exceptional, possibly the best of our entire trip to Utah in 2017.

Saturday in Amsterdam

Keith, Teri, and I wandered about Amsterdam on Saturday…