United States


22/03/11

Moab, Capitol Reef National Park

145 days away

Cloudy

300 km / 186 miles since last post

53,446 km / 33,210 miles total

Sarah

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The Wide Angle Is Back

Our Route (to 22/03/2011)

The Wide Angle Is Back

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Yesterday Stu spoke to his insurance company in the morning regarding the claim for his broken camera and wide angle lens. They advised that he needed to get confirmation from a camera shop about whether they are repairable first. If they are, they will need repairing. If not, then Stu would be able to buy replacements and claim for them.

Fortunately, Moab does have a camera shop and we drove back into town so Stu could find out if they do repairs. The guy in the shop told him that both were not repairable. He also had the wide angle lens for sale but would need to order the camera body in, for which he wanted a hefty deposit.

Stu was unsure if he was required to buy the replacements from the same shop that advised they were not repairable, and by now it was too late to contact the insurance company as they would be shut in the UK. If we wanted to buy the camera body here it would mean waiting another whole day as the shop would need to order it in which takes 24 hours. Stu wanted to be sure about things, as we all know how insurance companies love to wriggle out of paying a claim.

We decided that we would have to stay in Moab for another night so Stu could give the insurance company a call in the morning to clarify things. We hadn't really planned on another day in Moab, but the weather wasn't great. It was really windy, and it even rained a bit later, and it meant that we could get our massive bag of laundry done so not a total waste of a day. In fact, it was nice to have a bit of a lazy day again.

Today, Stu contacted the insurance company and they were fine with him buying the camera gear anywhere, which is great. We popped back into Moab again so Stu could buy a new wide angle lens. He will buy the camera body when we are next in a big enough town that has a shop which has it in stock - probably Las Vegas.

We finally left Moab and continued our drive along the route 191 out of Moab heading north, just as far as the interstate 70 heading west and then we joined this route.

The interstate is a faster road - the speed limit is 75 mph and the road condition is great too. However, it's not the most interesting drive. We could have taken this road all the way along until we reach the highway taking us straight down towards Bryce Canyon (our next big destination) but from the map it didn't look very interesting. Instead, we decided to come off the interstate 70 on the slightly smaller and slower route 24. This would take us south-west through some more scenic areas and eventually lead us to the Capitol Reef National Park.

We are both so glad we took this route as there was some stunning scenery to see. Some amazing rock formations all the way along. In the National Park we made quite a few stops to look and take pictures. There was also a trail taking us to Hickman Bridge. This was quite a steep trail but certainly worth the effort. At the end of the trail (which we did find after first taking a bit of a wrong turn) there was a magnificent natural bridge. It was not unlike some of the arches we saw in Arches Nationl Park, but the good thing here was that there was hardly anyone around. It was a massive arch, and another great justification for taking this route rather than the interstate 70. We would have missed so much!

Continuing our drive we came across some deer and interesting looking birds. We then found ourselves continuing our drive as the sun was starting to set.

We came across a trail, funnily enough called 'Sunset Trail'. There was a fantastic, clear view over to the snow-capped peaks many miles away. Apparently this area has some of the clearest air in America, offering superb visibility for miles around.

The sunset was OK, but there was a bit of cloud. It was also incredibly cold, and I'm almost glad there was a bit of cloud so we could leave before it got really dark - I'm not sure I would have lasted much longer.

There was another lookout back at the car park, just a short walk up to an overlook called Goosenecks. It was a 800 feet high rim overlooking the winding river below. Then we headed back to the motorhome, cranked up the heating and drove into the next town to find an RV park.

At first it looked like the RV park in town was closed, but we saw a couple of caravans in there and just parked up on one of the pitches anyway. The office was obviously shut by this time (around 8pm) so we would pay them in the morning. Unfortunately, the water wasn't on - but thankfully we have a full tank of water anyway. They had electricity and free wi-fi so that's the main thing!

First thing that was needed was a nice, hot cup of tea. Then I cooked us up a beef and vegetable stir fry and we settled in for the night.