July 16, 2012

July 16, 2012

The post office will only hold our mail for thirty days so we need to get back to Tucson by the end of the week. We spend most of the day driving across Utah to its southern border. Utah like all western states is huge. Despite the marvels of the interstate highway system, they have yet to cross that big monster canyon that straddles almost the whole Utah-Arizona border. Aside from a long detour into Nevada our only way across is at Page, AZ. So eventually we have to leave the highway and take back roads uphill. As we make our way the approaching red rocks of the Colorado plateau mesmerize us, so we decide to stop early and spend the night at a forest service campground. Our campsite is just yards away from stunning scenery. Up until this summer we rarely stayed at forest service campgrounds. We missed the boat. Like National Parks they are set in great locales and unlike National Parks, they are less crowded and have no problem providing more amenities; and they are usually cheaper. Or so we thought.

This year, we again bought the annual Interagency Pass; what used to be the National Parks Pass. We discovered to our delight that this pass gave us a 50% discount at every Forest Service campground. That was a bonus that has made the pass pay for itself in very short order. Unfortunately I am getting mixed signals here in Utah’s Dixie National Forest. The office said yes but the local campground host said no. Not only no, but no in every forest campground. Since I knew that to be false, I ended up getting in a heated discussion with him. To no avail; you can’t argue with the government. In the end he didn’t care enough to find out if he was right.