Arches National Park Update!
We left Rocky Mountain National Park and headed into Wyoming, then south into Colorado. I still was not used to how strong the winds get out there with nothing to stop them! Wyoming was windy, and Colorado got really windy.
We got to I-70, then to Silverthorne Colorado without too much trouble. Then the winds picked up (High Wind Advisory!) and the hill into Vail is really steep and long. It was everything the bus could do to hold 40 mph without the cylinder head temps shooting into the 420s! It went up, and up, and up, then up! When we go to Vail, it went down, then down, then down, and then down some more.
The downhill eventually stopped, but the winds didn't. We fought high winds through the rest of Colorado and into Utah. I started to wonder if the bus was actually being damaged. But once we got off the highway and out of the wind it was back the being my bus again, and we had a pleasant drive until the police officer pulled me over to tell me about my defective license plate light.
After the discussion with the nice officer, we found a campground, popped the top, and went to sleep. This was on Utah 128, which folks here told me I must drive down to get to Moab. By the time we got there, it was dark. I told my wife "I bet the view here is awesome. Wish we could see it!" We woke in the morning to this sight:
Arches is a beautiful place. Much of it can be seen right from the road, like Balanced Rock:
Some of it requires a bit of a hike, like Delicate Arch (please pardon the non-bus pictures)
We stayed in Arches for 2 days. We did not go to Canyonlands, nor the state park nearby. My wife was not happy about the heat, and we moved on for Grand Teton a bit early. Still, the pictures do not do Arches justice. If you have not been, and you like this type of scenery, I highly recommend it!