We had driven out to Utah in order to get Harmony’s house in Saratoga Springs ready to sell. This required a fresh coat of paint throughout the inside, new carpet and cleaning. Fortunately, we were helped by friends and family, as the two of us would never have been able to complete the job in the 3 day time-frame we had to complete it.
When this was completed we planned to take an adventurous week long trip for my birthday through some amazing areas in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. So keep an eye out for upcoming posts…
After three days of back breaking labor getting the Utah house ready, we were up at 3:30 am to pack up and make the 5+ hour drive to The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. We were optimistic that if we arrived early we would be able to secure a campsite at the small campground.
We arrived at 10 am only to find the park service campground was full. This was the first time that I have been “skunked” at this campground. So we had to drop back to Plan B… Which was the nearby Needles Outpost. I had never stayed there and was not sure what to expect.
The lady at The Outpost was very nice and told us they did have availability which was a big relief! She gave us the rundown on the facilities and we were off to pick a site. We found a very nice one slightly elevated up against the rock formations with a distant view of The Needles. We couldn’t be more pleased!
After camp was set up we were off to the The Needles District Visitor Center to aquire our annual National Parks Pass and give Harmony a tour of the area accessible via paved road.
Upon reaching the end of the pavement at the canyon overlook, we were greeted with the first sign of what was to come… A gentleman at the parking area said “You better hold on to your hats out there… Doesn’t seem so bad here, but it is really windy out there!”
You would think I would know by now that if they are predicting high winds out here that you are in for a rather unpleasant experience at best! It was indeed very gusty out there, requiring synching the chin strap on my wide brimmed hat to keep it from sailing off into the canyon!
We then returned to camp for a little siesta as we were completely hammered from the previous 3 days and our early start…
The wind continued to gain force after reaching camp and we retired to the tent and tried to take a nap to the sound of the tent flapping. I have been here and done that in these types of desert wind storms and it is not fun! The fine red dust finds its way through every seam and zipper of the finest tents that money can buy… And after awhile you and everything else is covered in the red gritty stuff!
After trying to snooze for an hour or so, we decided on giving a go at preparing an early dinner. This went surprisingly well under the conditions and the grilled burgers were delicious!
After dinner we decided to get out of the dust bowl we were camped in and explore for locations to photograph the Golden Hour and sunset. I got some great shots from a couple of different locations and we enjoyed a pretty sunset before retiring back to the gusty camp…
Awesome, honey!!
Thank you so much Harmony!