That was our half-way point in the day and right along the back roads route we were taking so we pulled in for a few hours. The main reason Capital Reef is a park is because of its waterpocket fold cliffs. I know you know what all those words are, but unless you are a western trained geologist, you have no idea what that means. It's called a reef because that's what western settlers called any huge travel hindrance like a cliff line. And a waterpocket fold is crustal fold that causes pools to form in its interior causing unique erosion elements like towers. Basically it's a fifteen mile super cliff, all colorful and rugged. It also was home to Butch Cassidy's hideout. We checked that out.
Oh and it's also home to a persevered Mormon farm settlement and orchard, which basically looks like a small failed farm in a desert canyon, but they served awesome fruit pies. Mmmmmm...
After that, there was a lot of Utah without much stuff in it other than mesas and cliffs. Until...
Moab!!! I added those exclamation points to try to psych myself up about this town. It's not charming. Not charming at all. Now all you reading this know that I (Boyd) have traveled a lot and that sometimes my standards are high. Liz backed me up on this though, it's kind of depressing. It's got that laid back, love-mother-earth crust that a lot of outdoorsy towns like it have, but just below that, there is chewy center of anger and disillusionment. The locals aren't really locals, they just live here and want you to leave. The tourists are upset that there are so many tourists and wish you weren't here. It reminds me of Santa Cruz or maybe Florida Keys in that respect. There are literally thousands of tourists packed in here all seeking their amazing Western outdoor adventure week And most of those are Germans on rented motorcycles. And those who aren't on hogs are here to go fer'byen in their lifted jeeps. Yeah, yeah, I know I may be one of these thousands of tourists too, but at least I'm not German.
The town too is kind of not all that. The "center" of town is about three blocks long and has the four lane main highway running though it and at each end of town are a few miles of soulless motels, RV parks and fast food restaurants.
Oh and it's expensive as all get out. Not just unemployed expensive, real expensive. Don't believe me, check this link. Have you ever heard of a Motel 6 going for $80 a night?! On a Monday night?!?!?!
Well anyway, we knew that we would be getting into town late to try to find a camping site and after a couple of days without a shower we decided to get a motel room for the night. Now re-reference this link and let's talk about where we ended up.
Where possible we use Liz's phone to use the Trip Adviser app to find places to stay while on the road (see Mojave, Desert Inn). The first dirtbag motel with good ratings we checked out had only two double beds and wanted $89 a night. That was the walk-in super deal. Yeah no thanks. So we went to the next place, the Rustic Inn just down the road. And for $64 a night we got a double queen efficiency with a "sealed concrete floor," in the "back building." It's got a kitchen sink so it doesn't need a second sink in the bathroom, how green. And it doesn't need color when grey is a blending of all the colors. Or is what happens when you blend all the half-price wrong blend paints at Home Depot. Let's take a look.
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| Maybe there's a reason there's a vacancy. I doubt there will be any by nightfall though. |
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| The "back" building. Yeah, it was an apartment originally in life. |
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| Look, there's Liz settling in for an evening game of find the hidden camera |
Well let's end this with trying to look on the bright side. Tomorrow we are going to get up and go to Arches National Park. We're going to look at big rocks that make arches. It's got to be good, it's on Utah's license plates.
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