Goosenecks State Park, Valley of the Gods and the Moki Dugway

3/25-3/27/18

Goosenecks park is in the southeast corner of Utah.  It has been on our bucket list for a while.  We stayed three days.  The next day after arriving, we made the 50 mile loop drive north to Natural Bridges National Monument, then lunch in Blanding, and south thru Bluff to return to Goosenecks.

The San Juan river makes several hairpin turns over its six miles of stream to cover only about two miles.

 

The park has no designated parking places.  Campers simply drive along the canyon rim pitching camp as close to the edge as they desire (or dare). And as you can see, you don't want to be walking in your sleep here.

 We parked about 30 feet from the cliff's edge.  The river is about 1000 feet below.

 There is a path down to the river from the park.  We saw some people hiking on the lower levels.  It looks incredibly dangerous.

Over our three day stay there were about 6-8 campers staying along the edge with many day use visitors just stopping for pictures.

 The colors of the nearby mesas are incredible.

 Our loop drive to Natural Bridges included a section of Utah 261 known as the Moki Dugway.  The road appears to head right into the foot of the mesa.  The road makes some amazing hairpin turns to scale the cliff.

The view from the top is at least 30 miles to the horizon.  

 The ranch house in the center of this picture is a Bed and Breakfast.  It is the only house in at least 20 miles in any direction.

It was a little too hazy to see Monument Valley from here (about 50 miles away)

 About 30 miles north of the Moki Dugway is Natural Bridges National Monument.

The monument has several natural bridge.  Note that the bridges are carved by running water while arches are usually shaped by wind and rain.

East of Natural Bridges is a little known area of Indian ruins in an area named Mule Canyon. We were interested in the ruins known as House on Fire.  We hiked about a a mile up a dry wash.

Some fellow hikers told us that there were more ruins about three more miles up the canyon.  Us old folks were too tired to hike six more miles. After a long day we headed on to the town of Blanding to enjoy a late lunch at a local steak house.

On our last day at Goosenecks, we drove thru the area known as Valley of the Gods between the Moki Dugway southeast to US191 (about 30 miles of fairly good gravel road).

Although not as spectacular as Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods is quite impressive (and free).

The valley is BLM land and is open to camp for free for up to 14 days.  Only a few miles from US191 are navigable by a rig of our size (too many sharp dips for a long bus).

Our drive thru Valley of the Gods concluded our stay at Goosenecks.  The next morning we left for the Glen Canyon Recreation area near Page, AZ.