Tabitha’s Way

Utah – Sunday, September 15

Today I was going to start heading to eastern Utah, with the hopes of seeing some of the national parks that are out that way. Utah has also been the target of more rain than normal, but I think things have more or less cleared up in the areas I’m headed for. So after I got packed up, I headed south toward Riverton, where I hoped to make one of my donations today – to another organization that my friend Perrine had recommended. But I hadn’t been able to connect with the person I need yet, and couldn’t find her location, so this particular donation will just have to wait a few days…

I continued on to the town of Spanish Fork, where I wanted to make a donation to Tabitha’s Way, which is an organization that is set up to help people in many different ways. They have a food pantry, thrift shop, and participate in other things like Back to School programs, recycling, and a half dozen other fundraisers. They have a variety of ways to help out those who need assistance of any kind, and seem to be very resourceful about taking in anything and everything and giving it a new or better use. The shop was closed on Sundays, so I’ll just have to mail in my donation. Tula and I walked about a mile and a half in Spanish Fork.

Then I headed east, driving for quite a long time through dry countryside with lots of big rocks and bluffs and towering sandstone formations. At times I got up to 7,000 feet in elevation. And then I saw yet another rainbow – faint, but there. The few towns I came to weren’t really good walking towns, so I just kept rolling through the countryside. When I got to Green River, Tula and I got out to walk a mile by a park, and since towns are few and far between, I filled up the gas tank, and got a bite to eat, and a bag of ice. I was planning to camp somewhere tonight. From Green River I headed south in the direction of Arches National Park and Moab. Perrine had told me Arches would still be crowded, even though it’s after Labor Day and school has started. She said many of the European visitors would have come and gone by this time of year, but with temps dropping a bit, the locals would again be visiting the parks. She also told me which road had numerous BLM campgrounds, and since it was evening by the time I got to the national park, I figured I better start the hunt for a campsite because there were many signs saying camping is only allowed in posted campgrounds. There were 10-11 small campgrounds along the river outside of Arches National Park, but I didn’t find a vacant campsite until I got to the Big Bend campsground, which was the 5th or 6th one up the mountain. I’m glad I didn’t delay any longer. Tula and I did a little more walking after I got everything set up. It was pretty dark, and we were in a canyon and I was curious to see what it would look like in the morning light. I did a little record keeping work at the picnic table, then called it a day – we covered a lot of miles in the van, but I fell behind with my walking. At least I shouldn’t have trouble making those up in the upcoming days!