Jun 27, 2023
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Fall
Our third day of national parks was definitely a departure from the first two.
Instead of civilization and shuttles and lots of tourists everywhere, Capitol Reef National Park was remote. Felt more like the middle of nowhere.
Even the Thousand Lakes RV Park where we spent the previous night was like that. A campground in the middle of nowhere.
It's a beautiful location, though, that RV park. It faces a distinctive mountain range and features an actual park at its center giving the location the vibe of a perpetual Sunday afternoon. There's a small town feel here with swimming and soccer and tossing football. Kids running. Families. Picnics. And simply being.
It's here I noticed a lot of "safe travels" wishes as we came across various fellow travelers. So that became my wish to fellow travelers going forward.
Now, technically, our parking spot was in the back of the property. In reality, we had front row seats to the Thousand Lakes Mountains, so-called, according to local lore, because of a cartography error wherein the mountains with all the lakes to the south was labeled "Boulder Mountains"... and the mountains opposite those that were all rock from one end to the other was labeled "Thousand Lakes Mountains".
Yup.
Cartographer’s error sounds about right.
Our neighbors directly to the east came quickly to our attention because of the snazzy ATV they were using to drive, not only between their rig and their friend's rig elsewhere on the property... they were using it to joyride the terrain between the RV park and Thousand Lakes Mountains.
Fellow empty nesters, they have kids in Idaho, Virginia, and Utah. The "kid" who's traveling with them, though, is a Yorkie named "Dasher"... which completely made me wanna see an entire team of Yorkies, each one named after those famous reindeer, pulling a Christmas themed ATV. 😉
"Dasher", of course, is the name bestowed by their daughter because they gave her the dog around Christmas... and that's what she came up with.
The Thousand Lakes RV Park is also where we met the first person on our trip to mention and agree how odd it is there seems to be no recycling effort in Utah.
All these beautiful national parks, all this wonderful Nature...
And somehow no recycling.
This was one of the women in the front office who checked us in upon our arrival. She's from Delaware where recycling's a daily habit.
Not sure why...
I can't even imagine they have trees there. 😉
Her partner in crime, the other woman working the front office who set us up with an adapter for our extension cord first thing... as well as hot chocolates the next morning... she was the person to whom I finally had to admit not knowing what day it was. Neither the day nor the date.
I had to think hard about it whenever the need arose. And most of the time an answer in which I had any kind of confidence was not forthcoming.
"Me too," said the woman in the front office. "It's good you don't know what day it is."
And you know what?
When you’re on vacationi...
It kind of is.
😁
Galena view
Idahome
Idaho