This trip was the last of several visits to Utah to see all of the national parks in the state. I was able to also get one nearby in Nevada plus a special visit to nearby Horseshoe Bend near Page AZ..

UTAH: I had been several times earlier to Utah visiting national park sites as well as the state capitol and other major building attractions.
ARIZONA: While I have been to Arizona many times, this covered a small area in the northeastern corner of the state. Specifically, for ten years or so I have wanted to visit Horseshoe Bend at Page AZ.
NEVADA: I have been to both the Las Vegas area and the Reno-Lake Tahoe-Carson City area several times in the past. I also once changed planes in Elko NV. But this was the first time to the east central part of the state. I wanted to see Great Basin National Park.

MISSED VISITING:
-- Zion National Park -- AGAIN! It was simply incredibly crowded. I heard that the day before they were turning people away because so many tried to get in and the narrow switchback roads and one-way tunnel cannot handle that many vehicles. So I left.
-- Grand Staircase-Escalante -- I thought this was a national park but could find little about what to see/do there. Learned at the Visitors Center in Kanab UT that Staircase is Bureau of Land Management and not National Park Service. Mystery solved.

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

• Southern Utah can be summed up in two words: Big Rock. All the dark brown rock formations looks pretty cool at first but then starts to all look the same after a while.
• Torrey UT is a nice little town. Much seems like it ws recently built.
• Highway 24 from Hanksville UT to I-70 was very nice, mostly straight stretch. Thus, fast to travel, easy to pass other vehicles.
• Moab is a dumpy looking town and only two grocery stores (I recalled being at that same store a few years ago). However, Moab has a very nice bike and walk path along the main drag thru town.
• Both national parks had numerous bicyclers coming and going.
• Zion had thousands and thousands of cars there. Was not worth trying to see anything. I am now oh-for-two seeing that place after driving there (oh-for-two with Glacier too but hitting a deer the day before cancelled the second visit there). Zion has become my least favorite national park, beating out Yellowstone (which also took two visits before I got to see it).
• Most of Sunday morning I had the highways to myself. Not a single vehicle going my way between Moab and Natural Bridges National Monument. Maybe a dozen semi trucks going the other way along with three dozen or so other vehicles going the other way,
• Natural Bridges National Monument -- got there just before sunrise on a cloudy morning. Had the park to myself so I had the drive nine-mile-at-20-mph loop. Never did find any of the natural bridges -- guess one must hike to them. The park had several nice scenic pulloff areas that included picnic areas. THe loop was recently resurfaced and was smooth. To get to the park from the north the elevation just kept going up and up.
• After leaving Natural Bridge National Monument I kept seeing signs with a cow on it saying "Open Ranges". Sure enough, I saw three cows on the side of the road grazing. Saw several rabbits scurry across the road today but, fortunately, no deer seen.
• Except for a single motorcycle that I passed just south of Mexican Hat UT, I continued to have the highway to myself going my direction until I actually got into Arizona heading for the town of Page. A pickup truck passed me. Then, traffic began to form.
• Just about 13 miles north of the town of Mexican Hat UT is an area called Moki Dugway. It is a nine mile gravel road of switchbacks to get vehicles down to the valley. Except for a vehcile that was parked as I got to the beginning of it on the north side, I did not see another vehicle. Thus, I had the place to myself and made several stops for photos. This drive was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLY COOL, the best part of the trip. Go to Google Maps with the coordinates 27.16.27.9 N and 109.56.24.1 W. Then look at it in 3D mode, including tilted. Then look at my photos.
• How mesas form in various spots with valley all around them is amazing to me. Seems unnatural. Thus, whenever I would be driving and all of a sudden a distant mesa catches my eye and for a split second it seems like a large office building. I got caught on that several times.
• On the Navajo Reservation they have built a huge generating station with three smoke stacks that are visible for quite a distance. The facility stands in the middle of nowhere.
• Horseshoe Bend. This place is worth a visit and is free. It had been on my TO-VISIT list for 10-12 years. Some lessons learned from visiting it: (1) the walk is much further than you might imagine, it is up and down large hills, twice. 15-20 minutes each way. (2) the walking path is all sand on top of terraced stones and is very uneven. Easy to twist an ankle for fall so watch your every step. (3) I overheard an eight year old tell his mother "We should do things like this more often". (4) Several "warning" signs say to take water with you. It was sunny and 75 degrees when I did it. However, I did not take water although most people did. (5) There were at least 2,000 people there and the flow back and forth is constant. Interestingly, a very large percent, close to half, of the visitors were of some Asian descent. I heard one Caucasian father explain to his young son as they walked past "That is a different language". (6) Like the "swimming rule", bad idea to eat at least half an hour before the walk. It will bounce inside you as you walk up and down the steep hills. (7) The town of Page AZ itself was founded in 1957 so it is young and looks new. Nice town.
• As stated by some of the locals I spoke with (e.g. hotels, parks, restaurants), they really need rain in this part of the country.
• Highway 50 between Baker NV and I-15 had many places in which it ran straight and mostly flat for many, many miles. Sometimes to the point of monotony. What was nice is that since the surrounding land is basically flat wasteland of scrubbrush, I did not have to be concerned about deer.
• The mountains of west central Utah are quite different from the ones in the southern half of the state. The west central mountains look more like real mountains although they look different among themselves. Some look like gigantic mounds of dirt. Some had huge grooves and are green. Others have trees. Others just look like very large rocks.
• I noticed many vehicles carrying bicycles on the back or on top. Usually two bikes, rarely just one.
• Of course there were the numerous signs for deer crossing (they label some of them as "Deer Migration Routes"). But there were numerous cow signs warning of the open range. And although I never saw signs for them, a few times I saw free-roaming horses grazing on the side of the road.
• With my early arrival at Great Basin -- half hour before sunrise, I really made dozens and dozens of rabbits go scurrying across the road. I later saw several deer (got one on the camera) and wild turkeys (got them also on camera). And sure enough, after I had just left the park and was heading back to the town of Baker, two deer come jolting across the road, left to right. I slammed on the brakes and we had maybe 6 - 8 feet between us. If only rabbits and birds could teach deer how to avoid traffic.
• Utah and Nevada are just photogenic. They have great shades of blues and purples and browns and white.
• The Golden Spike National Park is 25 miles west southwest of Brigham City UT. And it is out there all by itself. Nothing else around there for miles.

The Bests:

1. Moki Dugway: a nine-mile long switchback made mostly of gravel. It hangs on the edge of a butte and has no guardrails, just dropoff. It eventually led down to a very expansive valley. Incredibly COOL to drive, especially since I had the entire place to myself except for one vehicle going the other way. This place is on Highway 261 in southeastern Utah about 13 miles north of the town of Mexican Hat UT. Go to Google Map coordinates 37.16.27.9 N 109.56.24.1 W and look at it in 3D including tilted.
2. Utah Interstates: can do 80 MPH in most places outside the Salt Lake City - Provo metro area. In the city it is 70 MPH (not 55 MPH as most cities do). Even construction zone is 65 MPH. These people like to Go! To me, 80 MPH is the last comfortable driving speed before I finally feel like I am really moving. Now, if some state would just let 85 MPH be the speed limit, THEN, I would feel like I am moving instead of cruising.
3. Great Basin National Park: this place made my day, just like Moki Dugway did the day before. Hard to pick a favorite between those two.
4. Lake Sevier in west central Utah: near perfect image of mountains surrounding a very large lake. This lake must have been 10 or even 20 miles long. I simply could not get in all in a photo.

The Worsts:

1. Zion National Park -- oh-for-two visiting there, just like Glacier National Park. But this place is just too crowded, especially for a weekend long after Labor Day and summer vacationers. Guess I need to be there first thing in the morning on a non-summer weekday. Zion has beat out Yellowstone as my least favorite national park.
2. Airlines -- we get treated so badly, like cattle, or insects. In the future I will drive more and fly less. What a pain, especially for the rates we pay.

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 1531
• Driving: 21 hours in 3 days
• States: 3 -- Utah (mostly) and small portions of Arizona and Nevada
• Major Universities: 1 -- Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo UT
• Pictures Taken: 461 (and deleted 50 of them)
• National Parks: 5 new ones: Capitol Reef, Canyonland, Natural Bridges, Great Basin and Golden Spike. Repeated Zion, well, sort of, see above under WORSTS. Also, it was the first time I got to use my just-received-lifetime-pass-card