Goosenecks State Park

When I hear the word meander, I think of wandering slowly or aimlessly.  Rivers meander, too.  In Colorado, I have seen slowly meandering streams that are good places to catch trout and that eventually smooth out a meadow.  But water doesn't always meander slowly; it often makes major changes in the landscape--like when it forms the Grand Canyon.

In the far south edge of Utah, near the eastern border with Colorado, the San Juan River has meandered for millions of years, resulting in a twisting, curving river that advances only 1.5 miles west over a distance of over six miles.  This is what we saw when we visited Goosenecks State Park.

The close view above shows how the river cut out layer after layer of rock over the years. The water is dark red because there had been a heavy rain the day before, washing lots of the nearby red soil into the river. Below, you can see more canyons toward the horizon.

In this photo, the meander to the right is visible. 

We walked along a point of land to the left till we came to a point where the river meandered further to our left. Looking across the area, we could see many canyons formed by the power of San Juan River water.

Years ago, we camped in Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab, Utah. There, we could look down on similar views made by the meandering Colorado River.

There is a campground at Goosenecks SP. Some of the sites overlook the river. But they are just barren spots on the ground with picnic tables and fire rings and a few trash cans. There are no hookups and you have to bring your water from somewhere else. No campsites were occupied when we were they, but it looks like your neighbors would be very close if it was full. We enjoyed the view but wouldn't be interested in camping there. You might see great sunrises and sunsets, I imagine.

Shipshewana

We enjoyed our time in Shipshewana. But it was time to leave. We had to get away from all the good food--many, many kinds of cheese, lots of different sausages, specialty breads, kettle corn and fried pies. We will need to diet for a month to make up for our time in northern Indiana.

As we walked around the Shipshewana South Campground, we enjoyed horses in the fields on both sides of the campground.





There was a Crossroads RV Rally in the campground over the weekend. They seemed to have a good time and they had several presentations that sounded really interesting. If we had tried, we could have heard the presentations because the covered picnic area was right next door. We had already been to an RV rally this summer, however, so we weren't interested in eavesdropping.

We saw horses in the campground twice. A local Amish caterer served breakfast and dinner  to the rally participants yesterday.



Yes, that is our truck we are looking across to see the horses and buggies. You can see the pavilion on the right side of the photo. We really didn't mind having the rally events so close to our site. Even when they used a microphone, it wasn't very loud. And each evening we overlooked the community fire pit, but the gatherings were quiet and broke up by about 10 pm.

We did have one issue with the group, however. Those RV owners were incredibly rude and lazy and unaware of campground etiquette. Some walked through our site several times. If you look at the above photo, you will see a motor home right across the street. The majority of the Crossroads owners walked through that campsite to get to the gatherings, even when neighboring site was empty. Doesn't anyone have the energy or consideration to walk down one road, around the corner and back up the next road?

A Great Town

We are really impressed with Prescott, Arizona, and have had a great time since we arrived on Friday. Point of Rocks Campground is on the edge of the Granite Dells. We had never even heard of the Dells before, but we sure are enjoying them. Saturday morning we took the trail out of the campground to Watson Lake, one of two man-made lakes now owned by the City of Prescott. The views of the lake were spectacular.



Today, we walked on another trail out of the campground and were able to view the lake and also explore the mounds of granite in the dells.



There are lots lizards about. This one let me take its picture this morning.



Earlier this morning we rode out bikes on a trail near Willow Lake.



Although a sign said we were near a great blue heron rookery, I really think the birds I saw on and near the nests were double crested cormorants. Anybody have a better suggestion?



In addition to hiking and biking, there are a lot of other things to do and see in Prescott. This was the first capitol of Arizona when it became a territory. The courthouse square is full of art shops and refurbished saloons from Whiskey Row where the early bars and bordellos were located. Some have colorful signs.



We saw a neat hat shop.



The Yavapai County Courthouse is very attractive.



And we saw two great bronze statues outside. The first honors Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and the local volunteers who fought with him. The second is called "Cowboy at Rest."



Prescott reminds us a little to Durango, Colorado, or Sheridan, Wyoming. It is a mile high, the same elevation as Denver. We really like it here.