travel dates: June, 2022
After a week in Durango, it was time to say goodbye to Dave’s family and head for another new-to-us state: Utah. Dave has long dreamed of an RV trip to all the National Parks in Utah, whereas I have long explained that I’ll be happy to go to all the National Parks in Utah…when we can do it sometime other than summer, without the heat and crowds. For this trip, we did plan couple of quick Utah stops, but we also had to drive right by Arches National Park while Dave cried. He didn’t really cry. But we did drive directly by the park; we could even see the many, many cars lined up to get in.
The good news is that some of the same amazing landscapes people go to the Utah parks to see are visible right from the highway. So we pulled over and pretended we were inside Arches.
Okay. So looking at those pictures, I definitely get why Dave wants to spend more time there. But so hot and crowded! Retirement–we are ready for you (but it’s not ready for us for another decade or so).
I was concerned about the drive through Utah–both to Helper and then from Helper to our next destination in Brigham City–but we trusted in our Mountain Directory, and it was, indeed, just fine. I think what I learned this summer on our all mountains all the time trip is that it’s usually just fine as long as you stick to main highways and do your research. There are a lot of roads that aren’t safe for RVs, but it’s usually not too hard to get safely from point A to point B, even in the Rockies, as long as you don’t do anything crazy. Our van’s brakes are actually pretty reliable it turns out! (also, you don’t even need to use the brakes that much if you’re patient enough for a lot of downshifting).
Our first Utah stop was an overnight in Helper, which we picked largely because it was on the way and had a well-reviewed RV Park. And Castle Gate RV Park (named after a nearby rock formation) is indeed a good one, and the town of Helper was a surprisingly charming stopover. There’s a good bit to do in the area, so it’s worth devoting more than one night to if you can.
Trains roll through town right next to the RV park many times a day, but Castle Gate tries to turn this into a positive by advertising the sites closest to the tracks as “train watching sites.” We decided we didn’t need to pay extra for one of these and that we’d just deal with having to look over some RVs to see the trains. The trains go very slowly through town so that the noise isn’t an issue (just in case you’re more concerned about that than about an unobstructed train view). RV sites are mostly in the $60-80/night range, and they also have cabin rentals and tent sites.
There’s easy access from the highway, and a really lovely building to greet you (which houses a camp store, bathrooms, and laundry in addition to the office where you check in):
Amenities are really well done across the board. The bathrooms are individual rooms with shower/sink/toilet and very clean. There’s a nice sprayground and playground for kids (although they shut the water off pretty early–right at 5 I want to say? which was too bad as it shut down right after Abe had changed into his swimsuit and was ready to play). Oh look–you can see a train! Train watching playground!
We did at least have time to pick up some ice cream at the store and eat it on the covered porch area:
Our non-train watching site was a pull-through toward the town side of the campground, and we were happy with it. Pretty basic, but with decent separation between sites and some landscaping. I actually have in my notes that we booked a back-in and they upgraded us to a pull-through:
And some other parts of the campground. As you can see, nice views all around, but that’s pretty much how our whole summer was. So many mountains!
Also, the west is so dry! Except when it’s not. The campground is right by a river that looked tiny while we were there, but apparently floods that shut down some of the campground are not unusual.
We had hoped to have dinner in Helper, but we were there on a Sunday, and we quickly learned that there’s really not much going on in Helper on Sunday evenings. It looked as if any restaurant that was open on Sunday at all had closed at 3. So we ate in the trailer instead and then made the quick walk to the utterly charming even when empty downtown area.
This old gas station is an AirBnb!
Oh, there was music playing, too! Dave remembers it as Sweet Caroline over and over again. And NO people. It was all a little eerie.
But it meant we had the giant miner statue all to ourselves!
We walked down the main street and then walked a couple of blocks over to the river and took the path along it on the way back to the campground.
First we walked through a fancy tunnel:
There’s a playground!
There’s a mining and railroad museum in town. The inside part was closed, but we stopped to see the outside exhibit of old mining equipment. The remains of industry!
And then back to the campground! We were all pretty impressed with what a perfect one night stay Helper turned out to be and what a lovely evening we had there.
Next up: more Utah, with art and trains!
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