Hole n' the Rock & Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage

We visited the attraction Hole N' The Rock that is located 12 miles south of Moab. Basically, this is a 5,000 square home and gift shop built into solid sandstone rock by Albert and Gladys Christensen. There are 14 rooms separated by large pillars inside where the temperature stays a constant 69 to 72 degrees year round. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take interior pictures so if you would like to see more about this attraction, click here.

Albert died in 1957 and even though he had evacuated 50,000 feet of sandstone from the rock, the house was not finished. Gladys continued on with Albert's dream and wishes to develop the home for all to see. When Gladys passed away in 1974, she was laid to rest next to Albert in a simple rock alcove on the property. In 2000, the son sold the property to an investment company who now runs the attraction.

The grounds are rather eclectic as the following pictures will show:

Large lizard welcomes you

Hillbilly Lawn Mower

Old heavy duty tow truck

Golfer made out of nothing but golf club parts.

Jail House Rock

Large metal bull

Rick in front of a modified Jeep

Cottonwood trees in color in front of the red rock

After stopping for lunch in Moab, we then headed off to the beautiful Red Cliff Lodge. The Red Cliff Lodge sits alongside the Colorado River in a beautiful valley of nothing but red rocks. The Red Cliff Lodge is also a working ranch and houses the Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage. Since the late 40's, the Moab area has been the site of filming for many westerns, TV shows, movies, and commercials. The museum was free (a nice thing) and was interesting to learns about the movies that have been filmed in the area.

Here is a nice shot of the Colorado River as we head back towards Moab. We saw some rafters and kayakers enjoying themselves on this beautiful day on the river.

We made a trip to the drug store and market later in the afternoon. Moab sure gets busy on the weekends! John and I took the evening to do some reading. Y was feeling a bit under the weather so we passed on playing cards this evening in hopes that she will feel better tomorrow.

Short move and Arches National Park hike

On Thursday, we made the short move from Arch View RV Park on the north side of Moab to Spanish Trail RV Park on the south side of town. This park is more expensive (each site does have a patch of lawn and strip of pavement alongside rig), is closer to the highway, and they charged Rick and Y an additional $5 a day for their Jeep. This was the first time they have ever been charged a fee for their second vehicle. None of us were happy about that at all. As I made the reservations and did not think to inquire about any fees for a second vehicle, I felt really bad so the only way to make it a tad bit better was to spring for lunch.

This morning, John and I were up bright and early and left the rig at 8 a.m. to head to Arches with our goal being to see some of the arches that required a hike to see them. It was a beautiful morning for a hike. It wasn't long before we shed our windbreakers. A slight breeze kept the temperatures pleasant.

Tunnel Arch

Pine Tree Arch

Beautiful valley shot

John at Landscape Arch - they use to allow you to walk under the arch but in 1991 a big piece fell off so they no longer allow anyone under the arch. One must just enjoy the beauty of the arch from this viewpoint.

Another picture of Landscape Arch on the left and Partition Arch on the left. The trail got to hairy for my likening so it was at this point we turned back towards the trailhead.

We drove to another trail head to seek out two more arches. We had to go through a narrow passageway to get to Sand Dune Arch.

John under Sand Dune Arch

Broken Arch - can you see me leaning against some rocks?

It was at Broken Arch that we decided it was a good time for a lunch break. We found some comfortable rocks to sit on in the shade and enjoyed the view and peace and quiet. By the time we called our lunch break over, we were starting to get more hikers in the area. Time to move on.

We got back in the truck and drove over to the Windows Section where we took the short hike to view Double Arch. As we got closer to Double Arch, we noticed this jagged round hole in the rock. We thought the jagged edges added some uniqueness to the opening.

Spectacular Double Arch

It is amazing what the powers of nature create. Each arch has it owns personality and uniqueness although they are the essentially the same. We hiked a total of four miles today and were ready to call it quits. Diet Cokes on ice and flip flops waited at the truck.

Rick and Y invited us to join them for a spaghetti dinner at their rig . . . an offer to good to refuse. Dinner and their company was excellent as always.

Dead Horse Point State Park - Moab, Utah

We headed out to Dead Horse Point State Park this morning. What a beautiful state park; supposedly, Utah's most scenic. Legend has it that the park got its name from cowboys who rounded up wild horses and corralled them out on the point. The cowboys selected the ones they wanted and left the rest to die within the view of the Colorado River 2,000 feet below. Sadly, no one knows the reason why this occurred.

The vistas are spectacular and the pictures simply do not do the area justice. Remember, you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

Colorado River - calm but very swift moving

We took the Long Canyon Road after we left Dead Horse Point State Park. We wanted to see if we could locate the geocache that we didn't find yesterday. Once again today, we were stumped. I guess the find just isn't meant to be.

On the highway back towards Moab, we stopped to view the Petroglyphs along the roadway.

Another busy day. We had decided that we would like to spend another week here in Moab so we stopped at Arch View's office on the way back in to sign up for another week. Oh, oh! The park is full and we must vacate our sites tomorrow. That's a first, we've never had an issue about extending before. Live and learn. Luckily, I was able to find another park that we could get into. A bit more pricey but as I've been told before "if you want to play, you've got to pay". So it will be about a 15 mile move tomorrow.