Friday – October 17, 2014
Goosenecks State Park
Mexican Hat, Utah
We spent a delightful three days at Mesa Verde National Park in Mancos, Colorado. We are now ready to depart for Utah. We had planned to camp at the Natural Bridges National Monument, however they only have 13 campsites there, and that might prove problematic in finding a campsite available. While we were traveling, I remembered a Goosenecks State Park campground near Mexican Hat, Utah that was recommended to us by the campground hosts at the Canyonlands campground where we camped in September 2013. We decided to try the state park first.
Our travel route from Colorado into Utah:
West on U.S. highway160
North on Colorado State highway 41
West on Utah state highway 162
South on U.S. highway 191
West on U.S. highway 163
North on Utah highway 261
West on Utah highway 316 to Goosenecks State Park
The entrance road into the Goosenecks State Park campground is a very rough, ungraded, rock-filled road. There are no designated campsite numbers. This is dispersed, primitive, camping; find a cleared spot and set up camp. There are two vault toilets, one for men and one for women. There is no water or dump station.
The spectacular views of the 1,000-foot deep gorge more than makes up for the lack of amenities at Goosenecks State Park. The gorge offers classic examples of entrenched meanders. Loop-like bends in river carved deeply into foundation rock caused by gradual uplift of once-level plain. At the bottom, the San Juan River snakes it’s way through the gorge.
We did have cell phone service available through our T-Mobile service provider. However, Internet service would have incurred roaming charges.
Camping Fee: $10.00 per night.
Total miles traveled today: 164
Tomorrow another adventure begins.
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