Finally at Arches

We finally arrived at our new home for the next two months. We pulled our rig out front and unloaded what we needed into the cabin at the entrance to Arches National Park, Devils Garden Campground.

Our "driveway" starts at the Visitors Center/Main Entrance and winds 18 miles through the park to the end of the road where Devils Garden Campground is located.


We moved the rig to it's parking spot 50' from the cabin where we are making daily trips getting more things out and putting them back. We guess this will go on for the next two months.

The cabin is small but larger than our rig and the kitchen is fully furnished; the queen bed is a pillowtop. We set up the TV and the dish so we could watch it in the evenings if we want. We had purchased a Wilson antenna with amplifier and a router so we now have Internet here and have to switch the input of the amplifier between the router and the telephone if we want service.

Dick had to mount the antenna on our flag pole and move it around the outside of the cabin until he finally found that right spot.

The power for us is from storage batteries located adjacent to the cabin and charged by solar panels on the roof. We expected the worst with this system after reading the Blog from the people that stayed here last year, but I guess they used a lot more power than we do because we have not had the system shut down yet.

The hot water is a propane "on-demand" system and what a great idea so you don't have a large tank constantly heating water day and night. The only problem is that you have to run the hot water in the sink when you shower or it will cycle on and off, and let us tell you the cold water is really cold when you least expect it while showering.

The two of us plus Robbie and Alice who are our co-hosts, took a tour around the campground wondering where we are going to put all the snow so the campers can pitch tents. The weather was cold but wow what a beautiful day to arrive here.

The snow plow did a good job of clearing the roads but sure did make a lot of big piles at the entrance to each camp site. They park people came back and did their best to clear out the driveway of most sites.

This is a typical camp site when we arrived; it took about two weeks before there was bare ground so tents could be pitched.

This was looking across Salt Vally toward the La Sal mountains. It's about halfway from the main entrance.

A lot of the snow had melted after about a week but our yard still looks great. We had the duty the day Dick took this picture as you can see the golf cart parked in front that we get to share. It's about 1 1/2 miles from the cabin around the campground and back. We walk it every morning we are on duty, but most of the rest of the time we take the cart.

The night of the 14th we got another snowstorm and Dick had to shoot the winter trees with white against some of the red rock here in the park.

Wherever you look from the campground you will find these unbelievable sights.

Looking out the other directions from the campground the view continues to amaze us.

Even at our little cabin we have a nice fire pit and when it warms up we can enjoy a relaxing time just sitting and reading.

On another trip through the park we took a few minutes to stop and look over the entrance into Park Avenue. Another incredible view.

And finally we close with another view down Park Avenue here in the park on a warm and cloudy day. Not sure how we will find the time to see it all, but we keep trying.

Next week we will start with some of the arches so check back in a week or so.

To be continued...