The last segment of our trip was taking a few days to make our way back to Arizona. Not only was the smoke really bad, it was also heating up as we drove south, which meant we didn’t do too many outdoor activities. I still enjoyed this section though, because we got to visit some new areas. From Island Lake we stopped in Cody to have lunch and walk around downtown and continued to Lander (our one night boondocking - we camped at the city park along with a bunch of other campers). The next day we drove through Flaming Gorge to Dinosaur National Monument. The gorge looked neat - will have to return for a river trip some day!

We had previously booked tickets for the Quarry Hall Exhibit at Dinosaur NM. We rode the shuttle bus to the hall and spent about an hour looking at the dinosaur bones and reading the exhibits. It’s an interesting spot. Some bones were excavated from the “dinosaur logjam” and the rest were preserved in situ and the hall was built around them. By the time we were done it was three digit hot, so we opted to just kick around Vernal during the day and return to Dinosaur NM later when it had cooled a little (we had a campsite reserved at Green River Campground). We did the Tilted Rocks auto tour along Cub Creek Road, stopping at the overlooks and doing short walks to see petroglyphs. The petroglyphs were left by the Fremont people who lived in the area around a thousand years ago. We continued to the end of the road to see Josie Morris’s cabin and Box Canyon. Josie Morris settled in Cub Creek in 1914 and lived there for 50 years (she passed away in 1964), raising livestock, field crops, vegetables, and fruit.

The final stop of our trip was Moab. We have been to Moab several times and I initially had all sorts of plans for hiking (I mean, seems like for 2020 we had to hike to Corona Arch). But between the smoke and the heat (melt your face type of hot), about all we could handle was going from air conditioned store to air conditioned store downtown and indulging in some shaved ice. More Moab hiking will have to wait for a future trip. We did enjoy our stay at Dead Horse Point State Park. A lot of improvements have been done to this park since I first visited years ago. We thought the campground was nice and we took in the pretty views before our departure the next morning.

All in all, a fun trip! I loved all the new places we got to visit and the new camper was perfect for us. As it turns out, we wouldn't have to wait long to use it again - we were only home a few days before we left with Steve for a camping and hiking trip in Colorado. Definitely an improvement over the Utah heat!