After leaving Arches National Park in the greater Moab area, it was extremely difficult to find an open campsite this evening. Moab, UT, given its proximity to a plethora of parks, monuments, and canyons is a mecca for 4WD enthusiasts and tourists the world over. This time of year it is packed with park tourists and off-roaders alike, and all-terrain vehicles, four-wheel-drive rigs, and dune buggies abound. There are plenty of Government-run (well, perhaps that's the first problem) campgrounds near the area (BLM, National Park, National Recreation Area), but unfortunately after a late evening at Arches, by the time we arrived all of them were full. After checking through at least 10 campgrounds, BLM campsites, and other public camping lands in the greater Moab area, we traveled further and further from town, finally pulling into Onion Creek about 20 miles outside of Moab around 11:30PM. Since there are so many recreation seekers desiring to camp in the Moab area, the area is pretty heavily patrolled for camping outside "designated areas" and we didn't particularly want a fine for "illegal camping," though simply pulling over and plopping the rig along the road crossed my mind more than a few times as the gas gauge plummeted while seeking camping. We had to negotiate some rough terrain and cross Onion Creek at least three times, but we finally found an open campsite in the pitch black.
Obviously the photos below are from the next morning at the Onion Creek area.
The shot below is of the Colorado River before it flows into Lake Powell and Glen Canyon; the shore on the left of the photo is the southern boundary of Arches NP.
Traversing the creek to and from our campsite, we even got to do some Moab four-wheeling of our own!
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