Salli’s journal recollections day-by-day-ish of our camping trip travelling from Georgia to Colorado. (Tay has officially opted out of journaling at this point)

October 6th – 8th, 2025

After thoroughly enjoying our stay at the dispersed site in Crested Butte, we decided it was time to move on if we wanted to beat the cold weather that seemed to be moving into the higher elevations. We made a pit stop in Gunnison for groceries and fuel for the bikes and diesel heater, then we went on to Mesa Campground to fill our water tank, and to dump our trash and grey water. We checked out a potential campsite, but ultimately decided to move on since the road going in seemed more aggressive than we’d like.

It took until now for us to realize that the government had shut down at some point, and that included some national parks, campgrounds, and recreation sites. After driving around the Lake Fork campground and talking to a nice older couple, staying the night in what was essentially a parking lot with a lake view was good enough as a stopover. Payment systems being down, and the other folks admitting doing so as well, we stayed for free. We didn’t use any of the amenities, respected the grounds, and quietly packed out the next morning.

We wanted to see if Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was open since we were so close by, knowing that the government was doing their whole shutdown thing. So we pointed ourselves in that direction after a quick few photo ops presented themselves along the way in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, then off we went to hopefully see the canyon. The national park was open, although the visitor’s center was closed. There were many other seemingly respectful visitors, beautiful views along several lookout points, and we were glad to have gotten to see this incredible park. We stopped at the Black Canyon Corner store on the way out where we got several fun rock gifts since the park’s gift shop was closed, but we think this shop was likely better anyway. (super friendly owner!)

Having a plan in mind of a general flexible route we wanted to take before we left Georgia, we technically should have been heading down towards Ouray after leaving the park. However, locals informed us that it was likely about to get frigid, and that there was a huge front of precipitation coming in from the pacific that would likely dump snow in that area. Motorcycle riding was the main focus for the most part where we wanted to head, but we let the locals scare us into choosing another spot to aim. Where to was the question? South to New Mexico to head in the direction of home? Nah, we definitely weren’t ready for that. A decision was made after a quick pan around the map. A whole new mini adventure awaited us in: (drumroll please…) Moab, Utah! Oh yeah. Totally unplanned, but hey, it was milder in temperature there, we weren’t that far, and we could stay and ride epic famous off-road trails freely for as long as we’d like. So that’s what we did. After stopping for a burger at Five Guys in Grand Junction, (if you’re counting our eating out habits, that’s only the 3rd stop in nearly a whole month) we stayed at a dispersed campsite by the interstate just outside of Moab along the outskirts of Arches National Park.

Our parents knew we’d be out west for about a month, but they definitely were surprised to see that we weren’t in fact looping around to head back home when we sent photos of the “Welcome to Utah” sign that night.

With only a short drive into Moab from the night’s campsite, it felt like we had entered a completely different planet as we approached the huge red cliffs along the roadside. Mouths agape, we now understood the luster of this place. We cruised through town, taking in all the views that surrounded us, only hindered by the fact that finding a laundromat was way past due. Parking can be an issue sometimes for a larger truck like ours, and the Moab Laundry Express was no exception. An empty lot across the road would have to do as we heaved our bags slap full of laundry up, and hauled them over to do the very un-fun chore that we tend to avoid as long as possible.

Utilizing Campendium per usual, a campground called Lone Mesa would be the first for us to scout out. The road wasn’t tooooo bad, just heavy washboards. Slow is our middle name, so we ambled our way down to the sites. There were a number of huge fifth wheels and even a few motorhomes along with some vans and even a regular ol truck bed camper posted up in this large open camping area. The driveway was a gully of rutted out, hard-packed clay. Given that it was dry, it posed no issues for any of the folks camping. However, we’d been watching the weather pretty closely after previously learning about the sketchy front heading in from the Pacific. We went back and forth on whether we’d just stay put and ride out the potential squishy muddy mess, or leave out the next morning before the rain could cause any problems for exiting.. Opting for the latter, we later decided that we made the right decision to go to higher ground. Imagine all those big rigs and SxS rutting out the wet desert mud trying to exit the one and only driveway out..