Tuesday October 1, Walmart, Cedar City

Overnighting in a Walmart, a bit of a shame, we should be in a National Park!!!

It has been a strange sort of a day with the uncertainty of the closing of all Federal facilities overnight which not only includes National Parks but also the Forest Service, places that we love visitng and staying in. The Park Ranger came around this morning to explain the situation and they, like everyone else don’t know how long these closures will last for. We were able to continue staying in the camp for a further 48 hours but were not allowed to walk on any of the trails and could be liable to a fine of $150. Felt sorry for him as it is all completely out of his control. It was interesting as a number of the campers were meandering around trying to decide what to do, most like us wanting to go into the parks, and we ended up having a good chat with them.

It was late morning when we left, deciding to come to Cedar City and spend a few days looking around this area and seeing how the situation develops. We took Route 31 South, soon crossing into Utah and a change of time zones putting our clocks forward an hour.  And if the road through Nevada was called “The Lonliest Road”, I don’t know what they should have called this one as there was hardly a vehicle on it, yet it was a really great drive, once again through vast open plains surrounded by mountains. Stopped in the small mining town of Milford before heading down to Cedar City.

We would have preferred to have stayed in one of the Forest Camps just out of town, but of course they are closed, so for the first time this trip we are parked at Walmart along with a number of other campers, much different to where we have spent the nights over the last few weeks. We are in a quiet corner and going to walk over the road for dinner tonight. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

The long roads into Utah