This campground is REMOTE. It is AMAZING! It is a private campground at the border of Canyonlands National Park. There are only 20 spots. There are no hookups, so it’s called primitive camping. There is a bath-house. I never went in it. There is no music allowed at all at this campground. Quiet, peaceful nature sounds only, well, and distant car engines now and again driving through Canyonlands. It's completely sandy and Sharona is now the color of the sand. We changed her name temporarily to Pink Puppy! LOL. This side, the more southern side of Canyonlands, is much less accessible and much less visited because of that, than the other side of Canyonlands. It is no less amazing though! We had our pick of 5-10 sites and chose one that seemed the most level one of all. The guy who owns the place and checked Joel in told him he has 640 acres. He told us where we could fly the drone (though we didn’t because of the time crunch with the flat tire mishap, more to follow on that!). He also told us not to park near the first teepee, there were 2, because they were paying him $100/night and he didn’t want our generator noise to bother them. LOLOLOLOL! It was super windy and that pink sand was EVERYWHERE! The dryness was unreal and would make me think of just how humid it is at home, 2000 miles away. I’d remind myself of those hot, dripping with sweat hikes and be grateful for these hot and dry hikes we are about to do!
We got Miss Riggy set up and ready to hang out for 24 hours or so. We left the dogs inside with peanut butter in their kongs and the AC running with the generator on. We were off on our bikes to hike in the park! Biking through these parks is the best thing on Earth, even when you get a flat tire.
So we are riding along, enjoying the views, hardly any cars at all to share the road with and we come to our first hike. This hike is called Slickrock Trail and has 4 different viewpoints. It was too long of a hike to do it all, but we did hike to the first two view points (pic). Then we return to our bikes ready to head to the end of the road at the Big Spring Canyon hike and viewpoint. Wooohoooo! We round the last bend and see our bikes. they look just like we left them! We unlock them, hop on and ride toward the end of the road about 1/2 a mile away. Oh no!! Joel has a FLAT tire. Shoot. Now what. We do not have a repair kit, oops. After some back and forth between us about hitchhiking (I wanted to, he said nope!) it ended up that I stayed behind with the broken bike while he rode my good bike back to Miss Riggy (10 miles away) to pack up camp and drive back to pick the bike and me back up.
We split the water snacks and decided it would take him about an hour. I said if you aren’t back in 1 and a half hours, I’m hitchhiking back! He was back in a little over an hour. While I waited I took a different hike than everyone else was doing, though there were only a handful of people the whole time I was there and it was a Sunday! Anyway, I took the Confluence trail for awhile down a few hundred feet towards the river below and then turned around and went back up to look for a spot in the shade and to watch for Joel. (Pics)...always, it seems, with lipstick on m’teeth!
It was a terrific time for me. Being by myself out there was therapeutic. I did some meditation and got my mindset where it belongs. I feel like I’ve crafted a life that I love. The balance is not always easy, wait, is it ever EASY? NO. It isn’t easy, but with consistency and dedication you can create the life that you want. I love Canyonlands!!
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