Small Home – Big Yard

Three Gossips and The Organ – Arches National Park

After the short trip from Palisade, we arrived in Moab at about 2pm.  Two years ago we found a public water faucet at Lion’s Head park, a small trailhead parking lot at the intersection of highways 191 and 128.  This year the park is full of construction equipment and supplies, but the faucet is still there, hidden behind a large rock next to the biking trail.  We’ll fill the fresh water tank here since there are no threaded faucets available inside the park.

It’s about 18 miles from the entrance gate to Devil’s Garden Campground.  All 50 sites in this campground are reservable within a 6 month window which opened for this trip way back in November.  The campsites are organized along a single two-way road that runs along an open ridge.  Many of the sites along the outside of the ridge have nearly unlimited views to the north and east.  The sites on the inside offer a bit more protection from the wind, more trees/shade and in some, large rock formations that are great for climbing.  The road climbs up a small hill to about site #20, then descends into the remainder of the sites and a loop which has a large group tent site.  There are a few long deep sites, a couple of pull-throughs, some small side-road sites and many shallow sites best left to smaller rigs or truck campers.

Our two sites (#15 & #17) are deep enough for the trailers and the trucks along side.  There are picnic tables and fire rings at each site.  In #17, the fire ring ends up nearly underneath the trailer, so not usable.  There are plenty of flat spots for tents behind both of our sites.  There are 3 or 4 restroom facilities with clean flush toilets, cold running water and outside dish washing facilities.  There are unthreaded water faucets at these locations, but nothing that can have a hose attached.  A centrally located amphitheater  provides an evening program every night of the week during this very busy season.  Cellular service was spotty at best within the campground.  Some of our phones were occasionally able to make calls or receive text messages from the highest points along the ridge.  The Verizon broadband card worked when perched on top of the extended TV antenna.  Generators are allowed within the campground, but only during a 2 hour morning period and  4 hours in the afternoon.   Campfires are allowed in the fire pits.  Quiet hours seem to be well honored (or well enforced by the 2 campground hosts) and the evenings produce some of the quietest nights along with some of the darkest and most impressive starry skies we’ve seen in a long time.