Category: 2026

Hanksville

We awoke to rain in Green River. Between drops, we topped up with fuel, hooked up the trailer and headed to Hanksville, where we would spend five nights camped at Duke’s RV Park.

When we arrived, the RV office was locked. Rather than wait around for the Duke to return, we headed for Stan’s Burger Shack, one of Dianne’s favorite birthday dinner destinations (and it’s not even her birthday yet).

Back at Duke’s (two burgers later), Dianne texted the Duke, got our assigned campsite and we moved in. These are double-wide sites, giving us more room than a typical RV park site.

I’ve got a long list of back-of-beyond roads I want to explore near Hanksville, but around these parts, rain can turn otherwise navigable byways into quagmires of tire grabbing muck that can mire even a 4×4 truck. Last year, we came here with the same backroad intentions but rain made sure we accomplished nothing. In spite of what today’s angry skies are telling us, we hope that this visit will be more productive than last.

Green River

Dianne, needing something to fill her retirement days, has started peddling nutritional supplements from LifeVantage.  She had a meeting to attend in Las Vegas, Nevada, so we decided to hook up the trailer and take a long, winding way there. 

Day one of our Las Vegas adventure began with a 90-mile drive from our home in Fruita to Green River State Park in Utah. 

After setting up with electric and water hookups (no sewer hookup here), we dined at Ray’s Tavern, our favorite burger place in Utah.  Ray, the original owner, is a distant cousin of Dianne’s but we still had to pay.

We downed our half-pound bacon cheese burgers with some Evolution Amber.  Gone are the old 3.2 beer days in Utah.  Beehive State brews can now have 5.0 ABF (alcohol by volume) content.

Back at the trailer, we built a campfire, downed small glasses of imported Spanish white wine and listened to trains occasionally whistle by.  All were freighters – the 6:32 p.m. Amtrak hadn’t yet passed through by the time we headed to bed at 10:00 p.m. 

We decided our layover day in Green River should be as unproductive as possible.  That was a goal we easily achieved.

After a late breakfast (granola) in the trailer, we put on our TRs and hiked down to the John Wesley Powell Colorado River History Museum here in Green River. 

They had on display a series of beautiful black-and-white photos of Glen Canyon shot before the damn dam was built and the exquisitely beautiful canyon flooded.

Before heading back to the campground, we stopped at the Invasive Weed (Tamarisk) Restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Dianne opted to go foreign (French dip sandwich) while I chose to have my favorite Indian food (Navajo taco).

No fire tonight – it’s too damn cold and windy out.  We’ll just sit comfortably in the trailer with the heat on. 

Off to Zion

 

And we’re off again, this time taking the Subaru on our annual winter pilgrimage to Zion National Park. 

The nice thing about winter in Zion is that we can drive where we want and not have to take these damn shuttle busses around.

 First stop on the drive was for lunch at Mom’s Café in Salina, Utah.

 We first stopped here years ago and were unimpressed with the menu at the time.  This year, we opted for conventional road food.  I enjoyed a double bacon cheeseburger that was pretty damn good.

 We turned down U.S. 89 and entered the park on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway.  A herd of bighorn sheep greeted us at a roadside potty stop.

 It was late afternoon by the time we approached the Virgin River Canyon with the nearby cliffs blushing in the late afternoon sunlight.

We turned up the canyon to the lodge where we got keys to our cabin where we would bunk for the next four nights.

We had two full-size beds, a gas fireplace, a small desk and unlike a few years ago, the cabins now have decent Wi-Fi coverage.   

Best of all, the view from our cabin was delightful.

Hike to Emerald Pools

Our first hike on this trip was one we’ve done on previous winter visits to Zion. We would walk to the three Emerald Pools. The trailhead lies across the river from the lodge.

It’s a relatively easy hike with most of the route on a paved trail.

There are three pools. We began with Lower Emerald Pool, which had a bit of snow and ice around it.

Next came Middle Emerald Pool, it’s surface mirroring the cliffs across the river.

And finally, we reached Upper Emerald Pool.

That night at dinner, I kept hoping that Jesus would stop by and turn this into wine, but that didn’t happen.

The Watchman

Our final day in Zion, we decided to do something new and hike the Watchman Trail, which begins at the visitor center.

It offers a scenic route up the cliffs behind the visitor center…

…with nice views of the cliffs across the valley.

The trail was well maintained, complete with steps…

And retaining walls.

The trail topped out, offering view of the Watchman.

Long Way Home

All good things must finally come to an end. We had two routes we could take to get home. One would have involved around 350 miles of freeway driving. The other would take us on a scenic drive through familiar Southeast Utah backcountry.

We, of course, chose the backcountry. Our first stop was in the town of Mt. Carmel Junction where we had breakfast at the Thunderbird Restaurant. Over the years, I’ve stopped here with every one of my wives and handful of girlfriends, but never together.

We next turned down Scenic Byway 12 and headed for a quick visit of Bryce Canyon.

From there, we continued on through Escalante to Boulder…

…where we turned down the Burr Trail…

…which we followed to the Notom-Bullfrog Road in Capitol Reef National Park.

We continued south to the marina town of Bullfrog in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

From there, it was on Stan’s gas station and “Burger Shak” in Hanksville for fuel and milkshakes.

From there, continued on to I-70, which we followed through the San Rafael Reef…

…and on to home.