On Wednesday, July 9th the temperature was again going to be over 100 we decided to just take a car trip so we headed off on the Colorado River and La Sal Mountain Loop.
The La Sal Mountain Loop tour features a wide variety of canyon country scenery. The 60-mile long route begins by following the Colorado River, then it approaches the La Sal Mountains via Castle Valley
.Before heading up to the mountains we stopped at the Castle Creek Winery which is located on the banks of the Colorado River, 15 miles upstream from Moab. Located in the Red Cliffs Lodge, this winery uses locally grown grapes suitable for producing both red and white wines.
Located in the Red Cliffs Ranch is the Film Museum. If you think that some of the scenery around here looks familiar you may have seen it in the movies or in some commercials . The museum offers highlights from film projects that have taken advantage of the spectacular scenery surrounding Moab. Many of the John Wayne movies have been made around here... you can see by the photo that John Wayne played huge round here. Back to the Future III was also made here along with Thelma and Louise and so
many others.From here we turned right and headed up to the La Sal Mountains. Tradition has it that the mountains were named by Silvestre Velez de Escalante, the Spanish missionary and explorer who saw the mountains during he expedition through Utah in the summer of 1776. He called then Sierra La Sal, or "Salt Mountains," because he thought it unlikely they could be covered with snow in the summer. Nevertheless, snow is usually visible on the higher summits of the La Sals well into July. There was a small amount of snow in the mountains.
The road winds its way upward through thick aspen and fir forests to above 10,000 feet, where you can look down on Moab and the Spanish Valley. The temperature in the mountains dropped to a cool 74 degrees and when we returned to the valley it was 105.... Hot!
It was a very relaxing day but we are looking forward to Arches National Park tomorrow.
Until then,
Candy and Johnny
