Old Highway 89 – Beyond the Edges of Our Desk

Long drive yesterday from Santa Fe to near Mt. Carmel in preparation for our entrance to Zion National Park on Monday. 9 hour drive over truly awful roads. Straight across northern Arizona and through 3-4 different Indian Reservations. We had an idea of the area we were going to look for a spot but not quite positive of what we would find. There are 4 primitive camping areas identified on Campendium so we decided to try them all until we found a spot. Everything we heard indicated that the area around Zion would be crowded and we may be challenged to find a spot.

So we picked the first camping area (can’t really call it a campground) off the Old Highway 89. We found the turn off fairly easily, and eased into an area we saw some other Rvs. I can only identify it as a dirt parking lot with big Class C and Class A RVs parked right next to each other. Not our cup of tea. On our way out of the parking lot, we were stopped by a fellow traveler and his HUGE Rottweiler. He offered some suggestions for some areas to check that “our rig could probably get into, but you might want to walk it first”. So we turned left out of the parking lot and headed up a dirt trail. I pulled the Jeep over and left Kristy and Smith to hold the fort while I walked up the hill to scope out the route not knowing if we would be able to get up the hill or turn around.

I may be out of shape! I traipsed up the hill and found some spots off to the left after crossing some steep parts of the hill and a couple of big ruts. There was one SUV off to the left and I identified a site that would work. After walking back down the hill about 20 feet something told me to check one other spot just a little farther up the hill.

WOW! As one of the YouTubers I occasionally watch would say, This is an Epic Campspot.

I almost ran down the hill back to the Jeep where Kristy and Smith were waiting. NOTE: if you are scouting ahead, take your phone so Kristy could meet me half way at least.

I advised Kristy that we were going to do what we came out west to do with our Jeep and off-road trailer. She grimaced a bit and said Ok let’s go. I put the Jeep in 4-high and we headed up the hill with our TigerMoth tracking behind. No problems at all. Crossed the ruts with only a small eek from the passenger seat. I pointed out the spot on the left and said, now wait! Pulled the Jeep left and up another little hill. Went around a tree and we backed the trailer up the hill next to a great fire pit. We both got out and after a little maneuvering looked around and both let out a huge sigh. We sat on top of the mountain with 360° views all around. We can see for a couple hundred miles I think with amazing cliffs off to the west.

What an amazing site. Free, public lands, no one else around. A little breezy but heck we’ll deal with it cause, wow. Plus there is a slot canyon near by! I’ll let Kristy tell you about that.