Valley of the Gods

April 14th -- I left the trailer in the campground at Sand Island and headed to Valley of the Gods. The east entrance is very close to mile post 29 on Highway 163. It is a fairly steep slope from the highway. No problem up or down for 2WD when it’s dry, but I’d like the extra confidence of 4WD if I was planning to pull our Scamp out the east entrance.

Near the entrance was a standard BLM sign board, complete with a container for guides that provided names for some of the buttes. This one is called Seven Sailors, although one of them was hiding from my camera angle.

Sitting Hen

Battleship

Much of the road was in very good condition. There were some spots that had significant washboard, some tight turns, some steep and abrupt slope changes, etc. With everything dry, I’d be willing to pull the Scamp through here, but there are a couple slopes where I might be grateful for my locking rear-end. I wouldn’t consider driving a beast sized rig or one with a long overhang through here.

There are lots of available boondock spots along, or very near, the road. There is a small handful of spots that are further away from the road. This one is a Mercedes van.

This is called Castle Butte. It looks like it may be falling apart.

I thought the road around the north side of Castle Butte would be challenging for a trailer because of the tight turns and sudden slope changes. This is the view south after making the turn.

I asked this fellow which way he’d come. He’d come in the same direction I did, so obviously, the turns and slope changes weren’t that big a deal. While I was chatting with him about his Scamp, a 26ish ft. class C passed us headed the other way.

There were lots more spots along the western section of the road, including one that was hidden behind a little hill, but with a massive, private view to the southeast.

Most of the Valley of the Gods has reasonable 3G cell connectivity from the same tower to serves Goosenecks State Park.

I spotted this cowboy on the way home and couldn’t resist including it for Ellen.

This post was uploaded and scheduled thanks to the reasonably fast and complementary wifi at the Blanding Visitor Center.