Exploring Bluff

Bluff, Utah

After a very restful night (that’s what happens when your cowboy gets up at 4:30am to get on the road by 6am! ) we loaded into Larry and Geri’s truck, heading off to explore Bluff and boondocking options. 

First stop was Bluff Fort—how many times have we driven by and never stopped??  What a wealth of information this well done visitors center turned out to be.  In the 1800’s a group of Mormons received a call from their church to establish a mission in never explored country, southeastern Utah.  The journey was to have taken six weeks and instead took six months.  They blazed a trail and at one point stopped for several weeks to blast/build a trail down to the river.  This trail was so steep that men with ropes hung onto the back of the wagons to keep from having a runaway as the horses pulled in front.  The photographs in the museum and the movie made it all seem so real—those pioneers were made of sturdy stock!  There were no deaths and no serious injuries on this arduous journey!

The cowboy wrote the next part of this blog (he dictated to me)--To you folks who have experience with horse drawn wagons, take note of the braking system on these wagons.  There is no linkage and lever run to the driver’s seat—these cranks were used to set the brakes—this wagon had brakes on the front and rear wheels which is not common to anything I had ever seen.  I asked one of the docents if anyone knew the history of this braking system—they found a man who told me this story.  These wagons were not made in America—instead they were made in Germany.  A visitor to the Bluff Fort offered these wagons to the Fort for display with one catch—they had get the wagons to the US from Germany!  They raised the funds, sending containers to Germany, dismantled the wagons and brought them to Bluff.  The man I spoke with said, “no one else has ever noticed the braking system, you are the first person to ask about it.”  This man was raised in southern Arizona and his dad manufactured stagecoaches for the movie industry.

 

One of the settlers original cabins.

Michael, Larry and Geri, hearing a story.

We had lunch at Twin Rocks Café and Pam—that chicken noodle soup was the best I’ve ever eaten—it had big fat homemade noodles, a thick rich broth and lots of chicken and veggies—delicious!!

After lunch we headed toward Blanding and Combs Wash to gather reconnaissance about boondocking spots—Nina and Paul have great info on their blog plus we used Frugal-RV-Travel book about Utah to provide more info.  Blanding also has a great visitors center with a wealth of information. 

Rain is predicted for tonight and tomorrow—we will stay put, visit some more of this area and move to Combs Wash when the weather straightens out.  We had a great day here in Bluff, Utah!  As I am writing my blog I see my fellow campers down the way around a campfire wearing coats and stocking caps, eating their dinner.  I am sitting in my warm motorhome typing a blog—I think I prefer our method of “camping!”