It seemed like we just arrived in Hurricane, UT and it was time to leave. Our one week reservation was up and we had made a reservation at a campground near Bryce Canyon, UT for the next week.
We had driven past these wigwam rental units every day and wondered what they looked like inside. They were always rented out and we never got a chance to peek inside them. Evidently people must enjoy camping in them since they seemed so popular.
As I mentioned in a previous posting we were low on fuel for the motorhome and needed to fill up before we started our 125 mile drive to Panguitch. A quick check with gasbuddy.com showed that a Texaco fuel stop had the best diesel prices and was easy to get into and out of. The only down side was that the pumps were very slow and it took a long time to fill up. It didn't help any that they also stopped every $100 and I had to start over. Finally we were ready to roll and left the station.
The easiest way for us to drive to Panguitch was I-15 north to UT 20 and cross over a mountain pass. It was an uphill drive on I-15 for a long time as we ascended from 3,000 ft to almost 6,000 ft. For the most part it was a gradual climb so it wasn't difficult. We could see the snow covered Mt. Baldy and other high peaks.
We exited I-15 on UT 20 which is a nice two lane road with pullout lanes going up the mountain grade. We were in the pullout lanes for a number of miles to let the faster vehicles pass us. I did have to pass a couple trucks that were having difficulties getting up the grade.
There was construction at the summit and the speed limit was 35mph and everyone obeyed it since the trucks were holding drivers up. We breezed over the 8,000ft pass and headed for the downhill side. They had a lot of equipment working up there and some of the bulldozers looked like they were going to tumble down the mountain side. I'm glad it was someone other than me operating those dozers.
Gerry managed to capture a good photo of some hoodoos alongside the road on our descent. First sighting of them before we got to Bryce Canyon.
The descent was 3-4 miles long and steep all the way ending at a T intersection with US89 where we took a right hand turn. Our campground is a few miles south of Panguitch at the interesection of UT12 and US89.
We pulled into a pull-thru site a couple sites down from our friends Debbie & Dale who extended their stay here to see us again. Once we got settled in with the motorhome we went to join them for a great spaghetti dinner prepared by Debbie. We sat around and visited with them until past 10pm and finally the long day took it's toll on us and we went back to our unit. It was great seeing them again and we have some trips planned with them over the Memorial Day holiday.
That was our exciting day, how was yours?
You are definitely in a beautiful part of the country to explore. We are in Las Vegas for a couple of nights visiting friends. Then we're going to head up the eastern side of Nevada towards Idaho.
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