Torrey, Utah was a beautiful, cool, peaceful, and friendly little town.  It is quite isolated, so shopping is very limited, but the majestic beauty of this place warrants our return visit sometime.  We drove around the Capital Reef National Park, a very casual park, in that there is no ranger station that requires payment to enter the park.  We thought that was strange.  The only place where you could make payment is a scenic highway where there is a voluntary payment station, but we have senior passes and had no need to stop there.

We took many photos, some while driving back to the RV park with the window down, shooting one after another along Rt 24.  When we left for Moab on Tuesday, we shot a long video just as we had done along Rt 12.  It will take time to edit all that footage, but it was that kind of location that required capturing as much as possible before leaving.  It was hard to say goodbye to Torrey, small and limited as it is, because the cool, clear air was a joy to breathe.  It had a small town feeling like some of the wholesome movies made in the 1950s.  I guess you just had to be there to know what I mean.

Thousand Lakes RV Park

Capital Reef Panorama

Goosenecks Panorama

 Along the way to Moab we stopped off at Goblin Valley State Park, a valley within tall walls of majestic rock formations.  The valley is filled with a seemingly random collection of independent hoodoos of a sort.  Instead of the huge hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, these are relatively small and appear to be petrified mushrooms.  Someone must have thought they looked like goblins (hence the name of the park).  Walking through this valley played upon the imagination, as it has done elsewhere in this part of the country.  It was sort of like being in the Alice in Wonderland tale.  It was also like being in an old Western movie.  I could see now how this association was put in place for all viewers of these movies.  The origin of those movies was some movie producer's or director's fascination with a particular place like this valley.  Then powerful, energetic music was added.  The level of suspense and expectation was elevated.  Then a morality tale plot line was conceived to carry the story along.  The formula worked and was repeated over and over. Yet it was not the story line that kept drawing audiences back; it was the suspenseful music and beautiful mysterious scenery.  Great photography also helped. Walking through that valley (and I admit it was pretty hot out there) I felt like I was riding horseback through canyon after canyon looking for the bad guys in a Western.  I guess you had to be there.

Goblin Valley Panorama

Closer Goblin Valley Panorama

A few goblins

Some more goblins

More goblins

A whole tribe of goblins

And more ... 

And more . . .

And more . . .

And more . . .

And more . . .

And more . . .

And more . . .

And more . . .

Goblins everywhere

After that we stopped off at the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River.  The main attraction there is a movie on the life of Powell, but the projector was broken and we could not see the movie.  The rest of the museum and book store was nice enough, but we already knew a good deal about Powell, so we left a bit disappointed.

We made it to highway 191 leading to Moab.  This is another picturesque drive with huge rock formations along the way.  We entered Moab from the north and proceeded through familiar ground, where Betty fell and broke her arm near the Delicate Arch in 2011.  We drove past one RV park after another.  The whole area is full of them, every kind of them.  Out west there are RV retailers, RV services, RV parks, etc everywhere, very unlike back east.  We stopped at Spanish Trails RV Park, where we have a small pull-through like others on this trip, which require unhooking the dinghy in order to position the motorhome for correct hookups to electric and water.   We went shopping that night to catch up on supplies, since there was nowhere to shop in Torrey.

Spanish Trails RV Park

Wednesday morning we missed the bus tour of Arches National Park since I had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at the doctors building beside Moab Regional Hospital.  Returning to that hospital was nostalgic since Betty had her surgery there in 2011.  After extensive examination of my right knee (actually making the pain worse as he checked for damage to the ACL, MCL, etc) the surgeon had several exrays taken of my knees.  His diagnosis was a common issue that results from sitting too long and holding the knee bent too long (as in driving).  I had always suspected that the long tedious and cramped drive wearing hiking boots to the cliff dwellings in New Mexico caused the problem.  It was not related to the following hike up to the cliff dwellings.  The doctor gave me another prescription for ibuprofen, said to ice the knee at night, and limit hiking or other activity that bends the knee too much.

Wednesday afternoon we went on a "dinner cruise" which turned out to be nothing like any dinner cruise we had seen before.  First of all the dinner was not on the cruise.  There was no cruise ship to have it on.  We went through a serving line in a large room where people dressed in cowboy outfits dipped out servings of beef, pork, and chicken.  There also were corn, beans, bread, salad, drinks, and a dessert.  After dinner we went outside, where it began to rain a sprinkle of water.  The wind also began to bluster, so we did not know what would follow.  Then a large rainbow was displayed, then a double rainbow.  It appeared the rain was over so we boarded a large jet boat.  The boat began a slow pace and continued that pace the entire "cruise."  A guide told us about the history of the place and the geology of the rock formations.  As the sun went down completely, the stars came out and even the Milky Way became visible.  Finally a light show began, performed by large trucks on the highway that skirt the Colorado River which shine search lights on the rock formations while they play a recorded narration of the significance of the origin and development of the geological formations.  What struck me was the reciting of the Book of Genesis on creation of the world.  I suppose this is due to the Mormon influence here.  Most national parks and surrounding areas emphasize the natural rather than the supernatural.  After that was an old-earth interpretation of the millions and millions of years over which this all came about.  This melded into a jolly Americana singing of "This is My Country" and such that reminded me of the America of the early 1960s.   Overall it was a pleasant experience.

Light on distant mountains while waiting for cruise

Rainbow appearing waiting for cruise

Rainbow appearing while beginning cruise

 This morning, Thursday, we got on the same bus (I thought I was done with bus tours) and rode this sardine can on wheels to Dead Horse Point State Park.  This was a very impressive park that the bus guide said he preferred to the Grand Canyon.  It is less crowded than the Grand Canyon, which makes it a favorite of Hollywood producers that refer to it as the Grand Canyon in their films. Thelma and Louise was filmed there, sending two cars over the edge with life-like dummies in them to represent the two women committing suicide at the end.  Several other movies were also cited as filmed there, pretending it was the Grand Canyon.

Dead Horse Point Panorama

Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse Point after rain

Enlargement of dead horse image

Outline of horse drawn above (head on left side)

Betty at Island in the Sky at Canyonlands

Island in the Sky at Canyonlands

Petroglyphs

As we moved on to other areas, the skies clouded over and a serious (but spectacular) thunderstorm drove us out.  On the way back to the RV park, we stopped off at areas where native American petroglyphs were displayed.  We stopped for many photos.  We got back early enough for a good nap, then went outside to see that the surrounding mountain range had fresh snow on the peaks.  The weather system has also brought the temperature down a lot.