Evening in Horsethief Campground
Yesterday was not much of a tourist day. We did laundry, I had two conference calls to make for the National Officials Committee, and then we bought groceries before heading back for our last night at Horsethief Campground, and a wiener roast.
Today we stopped in Moab on our way through and I updated the Verizon USB modem so that I have enough data on it for the next month. I am really not pleased with the Roam Mobility (T-Mobile) that I have on the phone. There is little T-Mobile coverage in the areas we are travelling, and the data really is very, very slow. We won’t be renewing it when the coverage expires at the end of this week.
Anasazi pottery
After that we drove south for about an hour to Blanding. When we checked in to the Blue Mountain RV park they showed us some pictures of the Anasazi ruins here. We knew about the Edge of the Cedars State Park museum, but not the other sites. First we did tour the museum, then we went to the visitor center to see if we could get directions to the other sites. The lady in the information office gave us a couple of area maps, but they weren’t very specific about directions.
Butler Wash ruins
We drove until we eventually found the Butler Wash ruins site (which is clearly marked off highway 95). It is a short walk of about 800 m in to an overlook over a canyon. There are several pueblo buildings in the caves of the cliffs.
The woman at the information office told us that the National Parks would likely be closed tomorrow, since the US government is shutting down because of the Republican refusal to accept Obamacare. It doesn’t sound very promising for us to go to Natural Bridges tomorrow, which was really the reason we came to Blanding. We aren’t sure what we will do now. Almost all of our plans over the next couple of weeks involve touring in US national parks, so if they are closed we will have to reconsider our options.