On a 40-day trip there are bound to be a few days that don't go according to plan. Today was one of those.
This was always going to be one of the more tense days of the trip for me (Matt) because we didn't have a campsite reserved in advance. I wish I was the kind of person who could be more relaxed about that. Today showed me that I'm not. We left Mesa Verde this morning for the two-hour drive to Moab, Utah, and I had my hopes set on some first-come-first-served Bureau of Land Management campgrounds right on the Colorado River. I thought that a mid-week arrival, relatively early in the day would mean we could nab a site. How naïve! I've clearly never been to this area in April. It's the height of the season and everything was full up. As my stress levels retched up, we stopped at a little beach on the Colorado, and Maggie had the highlight of her day: building sand castles with moats filled with river water. I'm not sure she even noticed the incredible canyon walls surrounding us (a tiny preview of the Grand Canyon next week).
I was itching to get back to town where we had cell service so we could start searching for a place to stay for the next two nights (did I mention we plan to be here both tonight and tomorrow night?). Marianne worked the phone as I drove, and she found an RV park with one spot available for just tonight, but we grabbed it, overpriced as it might be. Problem one solved... sort of. At least tonight was covered.
I immediately started tearing down the road in the RV to get to Canyonlands National Park, which had always been the plan for this afternoon (after securing a campsite). One thing about Canyonlands that's important to know is that it's giant. It could really be multiple parks. The Park Service helpfully divides it into regions to help you plan (for reference, the two closest ones to Moab are 100 miles apart). We were heading for the Island in the Sky area... or so we thought. ISky is just 45 minutes from Moab, but we just kept driving and driving... an hour, an hour and a quarter, an hour and a half... down seriously bumpy, windy roads. It turns out I was confidently leading us to the Needles area of Canyonlands, an hour forty-five from Moab. By the time we realized it, were way too far gone to circle back for ISky, and we didn't have enough time to make it to Needles.
But the scenery was great where we were (where that was), and we found a little trailhead with a lot of cars, so we got out and stretched our feet for just the second time today. The canyon we explored was gorgeous, even if it wasn't Canyonlands and we didn't have much time. Maggie loved climbing on the boulders and being our "trail guide."
Then it was back in Samantha for the too-long drive back to check in to our nondescript RV Park (it's best feature, the pool, is closed because of COVID). But we had a nice dinner together, and it has wifi so we watched two episodes of Little House on the Prairie with Maggie before bed.
It stinks to miss Canyonlands, and it stinks a lot more to spend most of today (which was gorgeous - 70 and sunny!) driving in an RV. But we saw amazing scenery today, and Maggie had a blast. I needed the reminder to hold onto our plans loosely, and not to get obsessed with checking the boxes of the trip. Just be where you are. Tomorrow we'll be at Arches (the nondescript RV Park is six miles from the park entrance, so I'm pretty sure we can manage that) - can't wait.
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