Rifle Falls State Park

We're in Moab, Utah tonight and are all exhausted.  The drive over from Rifle, Co. was not long, but it was  tough.  Sudden, strong wind gusts had Dave white knuckling the steering wheel for a good part of the day.  That puts me on edge too, so we turned off I-70 onto Utah 128 south heading for Moab.   We were told this road was "scenic" and follows the path of the Colorado River.  It was "fine" for motorhomes....More on that in another post.

Here are some pictures of our time at Rifle Falls State Park and surrounding areas.

All the activity in this campground worried both dogs.  Lewis climbed up on Dave's chair for security.  Having Dave under him would have been better, but....any port in a storm!

It turns out the reason there were so many kids here is that the entire campground (except our campsite, of course) was occupied by one extended family.  Great!  Everyone was really having a wonderful time with each other, as they should.  That is the reason everyone was cutting through our site to visit each other.   Super soaker fights right outside my dining room, bikes whizzing past us as we tried to sit outside and read.....Ugh.

Poor Lewis had just about had it by the time we left, me too.  I'm not unhappy with the families, they were having fun, I'm unhappy with the Park Management that left one campsite open right in the middle and didn't let us know.  It sure ruined our experience.  Off the soapbox Susan.....

Around 6 p.m. or so, all the kids seemed to be in their respective campsites, eating I suppose, so we decided to try a bit of a hike along the canal.  It was a beautiful, quiet walk and we all enjoyed it.  The light at that time of night in the canyon wasn't so great for pictures, but you can get the idea.  This trail wound along
the water, higher and higher until the canal disappeared into the rock.  Just disappeared!  We never found out where it came out, so we backtracked down to the campground.

Rifle Falls!

About 10 miles closer to the town of Rife was Rifle Gap State Park.  After checking it out we wished we had made reservations there instead of going all the way in to Rifle Falls State Park.  It was almost empty and very private. Ah well, hindsight is 20/20 isn't it!

Rifle Gap...see the Flat Tops in the distance?

View of the gap from the beautiful blue lake.  It is very low, as are most of the bodies of water out here.  You can see  the normal water line.

I'll add more posts soon.  Its way hot (106) and we've got to get the dogs out for their walk.  Stay tuned!