Today mostly involved driving, from our little cabin in Kanab through Capitol Reef National Park to a ghost town outside Moab where we are spending the next few nights. On our route we did pass some incredible views as the landscape changed from red sandstone to craggy cliffs and yellow cottonwood trees, to bleak desert without signs of civilisation.
We stopped briefly in Capitol Reef National Park. We weren’t that impressed with this park on our previous visit – compared to its neighbour parks, it’s pretty unremarkable, but this time the cottonwoods were out in full yellow glory (although it was still fairly dull).
We carried on towards Thompson Springs, an abandoned town that used to be a thriving railway stop-off before the I-70 diverted all trade and left it in ruin. Our home for the next two nights was a converted trailer on the edge of town and we immediately set to exploring the place. A deserted railway station, motel, grocery store and plenty of cute wooden houses, all left to nature and the elements, are all that’s left. An ancient train did pass through town but it didn’t stop (it might have been a ghost train, though). Sad, when people still live here. As with most ghost towns in America, it is often hard to tell which houses are empty and which still have inhabitants clinging to survival.
We went into Moab for dinner (on account of the local diner looking a little…. haunted). Moab is a pretty town but also super trendy, full of people who love both the outdoors and massive gas-guzzling trucks. Hmm, paradoxical. We had huge salads that had no business calling themselves salads in the Peace Tree restaurant where an aging jazz man serenaded no one on the patio.
Back at our ghost town, the only sounds we could hear was the wind whistling through the crawlspace and the occasional hoot of a far off train. It is definitely eerie but also a sad little place, a shell of its former bustle and success. A perfect place to spend a few, scary nights.
(as a side teaser, this was not the creepiest night I was to have on our road trip.... we still had a camping trip ahead)
Back at our ghost town, the only sounds we could hear was the wind whistling through the crawlspace and the occasional hoot of a far off train. It is definitely eerie but also a sad little place, a shell of its former bustle and success. A perfect place to spend a few, scary nights.
(as a side teaser, this was not the creepiest night I was to have on our road trip.... we still had a camping trip ahead)
RSS Feed
