April 14, 2015. Batten down the hatches!

CAMPGROUND:  Windwhistle Campground.  Another Bureau of Land Managemrnt (BLM) site.  As with others, no services except pit toilet, albeit a nice non-smelly one!  Beautiful spacious sites.  Great grills. Nice picnic tables. Spectacular views of nearby snow-capped mountains.  $7.50/night. 3 stars.

LOCATION:  40 miles south of Moah, Utah in SW Utah

WEATHER:  Sunny and very windy. Highs in 60s

We packed up in Moab, taking one last shower before we go into the wilderness again.  The wind was very strong, whipping up the dust from the road.  I needed goggles to get to the bathroom!

We drove only about 40 miles to this BLM campground that had been recommended.  Normally, we get about 15 mpg pulling the trailer, but today facing into the wind, we got just 5 mpg.  We were glad that we had only a short distance to go today.

As we were selecting our campsite (all were vacant), the camp host greeted us and warned that there was a wind advisory tonight for gusts up to 70 mph. I was frightened that the trailer might topple over, but George positioned the trailer against some old juniper trees and thought that we would be ok.  We are also tucked under Windwhistle Mountain, so we thought that would help.

We have now visited all 5 national parks in Utah....

1. Zion

2. Bryce

3. Capitol Reef

4. Canyonlands

5. Arches

Canyonlands is massive.  We are next to the southern part of the park.  We unhooked the camper and drove to different parts of the park.  This area is famous for "needles"......columns of rocks.  The skyline of a series of these needles reminds me of a big city's skyscrapers.

On our way, we stopped at this historical place to see petroglyphs, drawn by different tribes of Indians over a period of 2000 years.  It is called Newspaper Rock, as it supposedly conveyed messages from year to year.

We took a hike on one of the trails called Cave Springs.  The cowboys used to have camps in these cave shelters, and their old belongings were still there.  The trail involved climbing 2 sets of ladders, and scrambling over rocks.  Cairns were placed along the way to help one figure out the trail.  The dust  stung with the strong winds.

Returning with the wind, we got 23 mpg.  What a difference!

We didn't build a campfire as it was too windy.  During dinner, the trailer rocked a bit, but everything was fine.

DINNER:  Shrimp cocktail appetizer.  Main course was spaghetti, using leftover turkey burger as meatballs.  Lettuce and tomato salad with blue cheese dressing (from the chicken wings we had at Moab Microbrewery the other day and brought home).  Waste not!