On the drive to the park you can tell that we are going up to the top of the canyon rim in the area and there are some great views on the way up. On top it looks a lot like some of the dry grasslands that we've been travelling through. We eventually reach the sign for the park and there is a very large family piled out of their vehicles getting pictures in front of the sign so we drive by and decide to take the picture on the way out. We check in at the ranger booth and head to visitor center since it's on the way in anyway. We stop by, drop by the bathrooms since we have found those to be problematic in the parks themselves sometimes, do our shopping and visit our first overlook which is across the street. It's a very beautiful place. A lot of canyonland, surprise, surprise, that looks a lot like the Grand Canyon. Just maybe a little less grand is all. We continue driving through and stopping at overlooks for pictures and such and it continues to get hotter. Generally the areas that we visit are open enough that we can avoid people and we all have a good time. We attempt to stop by the Mesa Arch trail but the parking is crazy and the pathway is narrow, there are so many people, we skip it instead. We continue through the park and visit the overlooks and such without any additional issues with people or with the starter in the van for that matter.
When we are done here and headed out we get involved in a discussion and I get distracted and drive right past the sign. We are probably 5 minutes away when Court realizes we missed the sign and turn around to get the picture with the sign. At least when we arrive there is no one there so we are able to grab the picture and head back out again. Time to drive towards the hotel. Court attempts to find some food for lunch but apparently there is nothing between here and the city we are staying in tonight so we eat snacks from the van. We come to an original alignment and start driving it. There is a small town that obviously used to be mainly a stop on the road since it was mostly empty and some of the abandoned buildings were motels or cafes. Eventually outside of this town the road becomes not unpaved but not paved either. I'm not sure how to describe it other than it looks like the pavement itself is kind of just coming apart. After driving this for a while Court looks at the directions and informs me that it's 24 miles of this. Crap, we debate going back but decide to keep driving it since it does appear to be lightly maintained and it parallels the highway so we should be able to get help if needed. It's a long drive on this and there aren't any issues other than everyone getting a little anxious as the miles melted away. At one point there was an overlook from a rest area of the highway that looked out over the road we were travelling on and we could see people moving around on the ledge. We head out of here without issue and onto a state highway that was originally Route 6. This part of the alignment was nicer than before because it was paved and there were at least other cars going past us. We come across a "town" which I would definitely call a ghost town as there were a lot of structures but they were largely abandoned except for a general store with a large "Now Open" sign on it. I offer to stop for a quick lunch but no one takes me up on it.
We check into the hotel for the night and start to make plans for dinner. Court finds a place, The Goat and Clover Tavern, to go as it has a lot of Irish style food which sounds pretty good right now. While waiting out some time Gideon decides to go into the closet in the room and Court decides we should ignore him and act like he's not here. Pandemonium ensues as Gideon tries to do everything that he would normally get in trouble for to get us to act. Eventually time for dinner comes and we head out after letting Gideon know we see him again. I enjoy the look of this place pretty quickly. A lot of puns and jokes about including their soup of the day sign which was whiskey with ice croutons. The food here is really good as well which is awesome to break our one good place a day streak finally. We head back to the room for the night to watch some shows for some of us, work on blogs or pictures for others.