2018-15
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| along hwy 12, Dixie National Forest |
Mount Carmel
Junction
Dixie National
Forest
Bryce Canyon
National Park
Kodachrome State
Park
Campground: Mount
Carmel Junction. An open construction site often used for Horse
rally events, they permit Rv’s to park overnight or a few nights
for free. Boondocking site. Free. Weak to no Verizon
signal.
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| Mount Carmel Junction, at construction site |
Campground: Dixie
National Forest, off of Tom Best Road/ hwy 12. Close to Bryce
Canyon. Forest campsites, Free, limit two weeks. Good
Verizon signal. Awesome location expansive views and forested
settings. Elevation 7777 ft, could be cold at night.
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| Dixie National Forest, free camping |
Campground:
Kodachrome State Park. $30. Full hookups. No cell phone
signals, no TV signals or radio, with spectacular views all around
who needs any of that. Awesome modern campground. Mostly paved
pull-thru sites, many with full hookups. Good paved road leading to
state park which is at the end of the road. New Laundry room with
excellent machines. FIVE STAR RATING.
 |
| Kodachrome Basin State Park, 5 star rating |
Distance traveled: 100 miles
Heading out from
Lake Powell, my original plan was to stop over in the nice town of
Kanab, which has grown up nicely since I was last here. it’s also
close to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Although I was
recommended a few BLM free campsites outside of town near the Angel
Canyon Loop, I discovered that all of the dispersed sites were
located on red sandstone sand. Very fine and loose. Obviously I
could have gotten stuck. So the decision was to continue heading
north. Stopping off in Mount Carmel Junction for lunch, I had
noticed an open field south of the junction where a couple of
motor-homes were parked in a sand/gravel and asphalt staging area.
Turned out that the company that owns the land permits Rv-ers to camp
overnight. They also recently had a horse rally of some sort where
ranchers and horsemen would go on 25, 50 and even 100 mile trail
rides. That’s a lot of riding over a couple of days.
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| construction area behind my "free" campsite |
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| some Junctions corners are more interesting than others |
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| yes, I always take photos with my Store Indians |
The junction is
super busy as was the Lake Powell area with lots of tour buses and
vacationers traveling through the area especially to Zion National
Park. I decided to forgo it this time of year as the crowds are
unbelievable. My plans are to head a bit further to some parks I
haven’t experienced. Many rental Class C campers and a new rental
Van-camper with colorful graphics all over the van. Great way for
1st time campers and many foreign visitors to experience
travel in the U.S. without the excessive expense of hotels.
Distance Traveled:
50 miles
Dixie National
Forest
There are some
excellent National Forest and BLM offices in this part of the country
and the Red Canyon Visitor Center provided some great information
about forest camping. I was able to get an awesome site right off of
the main road, hwy 12. What a great site with views to die for. The
only issue boondocking at this site and this time of year, is that
the temperatures could and did get down to freezing at night.
Daytime temps were in the mid 70’s. The solar panels and 4 deep
cycle batteries were barely adequate to handle the needs to run the
furnace fan which ran quite often throughout the night, set on 65
degrees. And I even turned the furnace off completely one night as
the batteries were getting dangerously low.
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| I think I'm going to like this boondocking in National Forests |
Bryce Canyon National Park
But it was really
close to Bryce Canyon National Park, which I went to the next day.
Crowds. Can we all say crowds together. Geez, Shuttle buses
everywhere, cars, campers and tourists. Once again many foreign
visitors enjoying our wonderful parks. This time, more Asian
tourists. I did my best to enjoy the park and even descended down
onto one of the trails leading to the bottom of the canyon. I only
made it about half way, talk about a steep trail with many
switchbacks along the way. Of course I also had to climb back up.
Need I say, the trail was super crowded as well. No pushing or
shoving or one would go right over the very steep cliff edges. Well,
that was enough of that.
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| yes, I went about half way down this very steep path before turning around and getting out of the crowds |
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| the early morning light was awesome today |
Distance Traveled:
28 miles (three
times)
Kodachrome State
Park
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| Even before getting into Kodachrome State Park the scenery is breathtaking |
Deciding as much as
I really liked the forested setting, the nighttime freezing was just
a bit much. I think I had every blanket on top of my bed the last
couple of nights. After driving over to Kodachrome State Park and
discovering that they had a “first come first served” site
available, I drove back, packed up the camper and came back to
Kodachrome for a couple of nights stay. This is a park I’ve not
been to in the past and will get to enjoy the area a bit. Can we
talk 50 amp electric service, paved campsite, water and sewer
hookups. Unfortunately no cell phone service. Life is almost
perfect.
The National
Geographic Society in 1949, named the park Kodachrome with the
consent from the Kodak Film Corp. after their recent development of
Kodachrome as a superior film for capturing the true colors of
nature. The name fits the area well, as the colors in the rock
formations and the blues of the sky are quite stunning and every
changing depending on the time of day and changing light and shadow
from puffy white clouds passing by overhead.
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| all picture up to this point were taken outside of the park |
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| now for some pictures inside the park by the way, this is a corner of the new Laundry facilities |
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| Shakespeare's Arch, super nice 2 mile hike around the mountain range |
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| Inside Kodachrome State Park |
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| and all the campsites are nestled around these awesome structures |
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| cedar trees, hundreds of years old |
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| rock on top of a slick rock |
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| much debate as to how these pillars were formed |
Campers Note:
Commercial campgrounds run around $40-$55 average in this area.
There are a lot of BLM and especially National Forest campgrounds
(most are Free) Red Canyon campground (National Forest) even has
hookups at their campground. 3 State parks in the area run $30 a
night.
Bike Note: from hwy
89/ hwy 12 junction there is a superb paved bike path running 55
miles parallel to the highway to Bryce Canyon.
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| a wash inside of Kodachrome State Park |
It’s nice to be
able to see and explore an area that I’ve been close too, but have
never ventured into. Obviously a rugged area with all the unusual
rock formations and stark looking mountain ranges, yet nestled
between them are green valleys irrigated by rivers coursing through
them. The elevation at the Forest campsite was 7777 feet and Bryce
Canyon is 8,0000 feet. High enough that there are pine forests and
the ever present cedar trees with their twisted trunks and branches
from the strong winds that blow through the area. And also high
enough as I’ve mentioned that it can easily get down to freezing
temperatures as well.
Here at Kodachrome
State Park, the elevation is around 5,000 feet and the temperature is
easily 15 degrees warmer both daytime and at night.
Campers Note: I
personally rate Kodachrome State Park my highest marks for visitors
and campers alike. Campsites are excellent, laundry room is the best
I’ve ever used at any campground. Scenery and scenic view stop
offs are top notch and today I took a couple mile hike loop along
Shakespeare’s arch which not only was a great hike, but the views
along the way were pretty awesome. Best of all, the trail was a
sand/clay mixture with no rocks, making for a very pleasant hike, up,
down and around the entire mountain loop trail.
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