(Editor’s Note: If anyone is following our original itinerary, they might be lost. Although we’ve followed it for the most part, it has varied. We are on track, however, and spending the night in towns we anticipated, even though at different campgrounds than we planned).

Packing up the camper before we make a trip into Moab to do some sightseeing, a neighbor in Row D at the Arches View campground walks by with her Italian Greyhound (IG) on a leash. I greet her and immediately we begin a conversation centered on dogs. Her IG and two 14-year-old whippets back home in San Antonio, and Brinsley, Arlie and Champ. She and her husband are avid "jeepers" pulling their Wrangler behind a big RV motor home. They had been jeeping in Big Bend, TX last week and here in Moab for a few days on the way to a conference in Salt Lake City. We tell her about our Rte 50 fund-raising trip, give her the info and a few NDSDF bookmarks and she resumes her walk. Before we’re ready to leave camp she and her husband are back to lend us their copy of a great book on 4-wheeling the backroads here in Moab. They give us some pointers should we decide to the take the Yukon on the trails and/or rent a jeep, and take a picture of the pups. Seems Mrs. San Antonio has a scrapbook back home with pictures of all the whippets, greyhounds and IG’s they meet during their travels.

After spending an hour in Moab (we could have stayed longer) we head back to Arches View for the camper, hitch it up and begin our drive through Arches National Park. We pay the $10 fee on our way in and get prepared for some of the best scenery you’d ever want to see. We spend almost three hours here in the Park enjoying this beautiful area. The National Service brochure tells us the Park "lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for the arches, spines, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths…" Some 300 million years ago, this salt bed was deposited across the Colorado Plateau when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over the years, residue from floods, winds and the oceans that came and went covered the salt bed. Most of the debris was compressed into rock, and at one time may have been more than a mile thick. Under the pressure of the rock the salt layer shifted, buckled, liquefied and repositioned itself, causing the rocks to shift upward and into domes.

Due to deep faults in the Earth vertical cracks were produced contributing to the development of Arches. The major formations seen in the park today are salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, and buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. Most of the arches form in the Entrada Sandstone and over time water seeped into the cracks, joints and folds. Ice formed in the fissures, the rock expanded and pressure caused breaking off of pieces. Wind cleaned out loose particles and what remains are freestanding fins. As wind and water attacked these fins some of the cementing material gave way and rocks tumbled out. Damaged fins collapsed while some survived and became the famous arches.

In brief, this is the geological story of Arches as it has been interpreted. The evidence is largely circumstantial say the guidebooks.

The Arches does have some greenery-juniper trees, and wildflowers from April-July. The area is home to nocturnal mammals (six species), mule deer, kit fox, jackrabbits and cottontails, kangaroo rats, other rodents and small reptiles (22 kind). Nine amphibians, eight fish and numerous insects are also here, as are poisonous snakes, scorpions and black widow spiders. We saw ravens, but didn’t spot any blue pinyon jays, mountain bluebirds or eagles.

We walked two trails in the Windows section-North and South and the Turret Arch-taking us up into the arches. There are easy, moderate and strenuous trails to hike, camping in designated areas only and off-roading for 4-wheelers. The scenery is impossible to describe and just as hard to do justice to in a photograph. It has to be seen in person for its magnitude to be appreciated and the silence to be heard.

Linda has canoed and backpacked this area so she is our tour guide taking us to all the most beautiful overlooks. We quickly run out of film as we shoot picture after picture at the Petrified Dunes, Rock Pinnacles, Island in the Sky and Fiery Furnace. We didn’t drive the entire Park as we needed to hit the road for Salina.

We drive through the Canyonlands National Park next, enjoying more scenery of arches, spires and unusual rock formations The Green and Colorado Rivers join and continue in a series of rapids. There is no ranger to take our money for a fee as we enter the Canyonlands. Headed for the Island in the Sky District, Linda again guides us as she’s spent time here too. In the northern district, Island in the Sky is one big mesa. There is so much to see here. We forego going to the Needles District, but do see the Indian pictograph panels before leaving the Park.

Going through Green River (pop. 973) we stop for gas. On nearly every corner we spot truck stands with melons to sell. We talk about buying one but get distracted. We’re kicking ourselves after reading it’s the self-proclaimed "Watermelon Capital of the World," and that the melons are very, very good. A short distance north of I-70/US 50 Green River sits in two counties: Green River, the stream divides Grand and Emery Counties. Not much more than an oasis in the desert, Green River became a town in 1878 starting out as a mail-order relay station. It is today an attraction for tourists, fishermen, golfers and boaters.

The temps varied from 50 degrees to 70 during the time we visited, but most often hovering around 50-60 with a fierce wind. Temps during October in this area range from 40-77 degrees with 1.6" of rainfall. The mountains invite adventure–we witnessed some rock climbers while in the Park-but warnings are everywhere about hiking etiquette, the intensity of the sun, the need to drink water (at least a gallon during summer months) and dangerous thunderstorms that can come up suddenly.

We head for Salina about 4:00 p.m. and our campground there.

We left Butch Cassidy Campground in Salina, UT at 9:00 a.m., stopped at a Phillips 66 for coffee and something that resembled breakfast before heading west on 89/50 toward Nevada. Looking for coffee, Linda spots a jar of pickled eggs on the counter for sale. "The Society would be proud," she jokes. She is referring to the big news out of Ridgeway, CO we read about in The San Juan Horseshoe, quickly becoming one of our favorite scribes:

The Uncompahgre Pickled Egg Society, a social fixture in these parts for more than 100 years has given up its charter. According to the officers of the National Fraternal Organization, reads the Horseshoe, "the local chapter filed for dissolution during last week’s heated meeting." They sited the inability to attract new, younger members and the cost of maintaining Pickle Hall as reasons for the closure. "People just have too much going on these days to sit around smoking cigars, playing cards and peeling eggs said one former official." Founded in Grand Junction, CO in 1897 by railroad workers looking for something to do on long overnight stops, The Pickled Egg Society had more than 1200 members by 1925. After Utah approved satellite lodges, the membership skyrocketed in the Rockies, said Melvin Toole, former Grand Gherkin at the Pea Green Lodge.

Most of the road today was unremarkable. Not that the scenery wasn’t magnificent. It was all desert, and again nothing for a 100 miles or so. When we crossed over the border from Utah we stopped at the Border Inn, the first restaurant/gas station/shop.g The slots are on the Nevada side of the building, the restaurant on the Utah side. Inside we’re treated to the first slot machines in the state!! I give Linda two quarters to play but she doesn’t win the big one. Better luck next time. After eating our lunch, walking the dogs and taking pictures of the Welcome signs, we’re on our way again toward Ely, NV. The time changes here to Pacific Time and we gain another hour.

It is because of this landscape that US 50 gets its name as the "Loneliest Road in America." A virtue for folks out this way, it would drive the hardcore urban person crazy. We fly by anything remotely resembling a town; they are few and far between. Baker, a small town that sits at the border of the 77,100-acre Great Basin National Park, that carries the designation as the "least visited park in the nation." We drove right by it and.it wasn’t until later in the day that I asked Linda if we’d passed it. Unfortunately, we had, and would have liked to have stopped at the park. A bristlecone pine forest sits in the park, some of its trees 4,000 years old. The Lehman Caves are also here, along with majestic Wheeler Peak, the second highest summit in Nevada (13,063-ft.).

Finally we reach Ely, our destination for the night. Up out of nowhere some of the town sits on the Shoshone Indian Reservation. Ely’s elevation (6,439) exceeds its population (4,500), but for a "small" town we found it charming and adequate. We pull into the KOA on Hwy 6 and 50, the nicest KOA we’ve seen yet. In 2003 they won the President’s Award. The grounds are neat and clean. Some mobile homes are permanent, but most RV’s and campers are travelers. Some of these RV’s resemble a bus, and in fact, are that big. Pulling a car behind, we assume most are full-time Rver’s and this is their "permanent" home. The owners of this KOA own three burros that we figure will be waking us up in the morning.

After we set up camp we drive into town to the local Visitor’s Center and collect our "The Loneliest Road in America" "survival kit" provided by the Nevada Commission on Tourism. A great PR move, the kit has been available for many years and contains a NV map, list of all the participating businesses, brochures and a comedic map with the towns listed where we collect a stamp. Once we’re done traveling Hwy 50 in NV, we send in our stamped card and receive a pin, certificate and bumper sticker ("I survived the Loneliest Road in America") commemorating our trip across the road.

Once again, we stop at the local grocer and pick up some dinner. We cook hamburgers and vegetables on the grille and retire for the night. Temps are expected to go down to 30 tonight so we’re prepared with our heater.