Day 5: Moab to Monticello
We only had an hour's drive ahead to the next town and they are small towns (but it is interesting that municipal buildings state they are a City of...). These people had obviously not been to a real city. We had planned to make a gentle start for Monticello at about 10 am, but we were in the car and chugging along just after 8:30 am.
The first stop was Ken's Lake. We had ignored signs to turn off a mile or two earlier and followed TomTom who wanted to take us down a rubble road with sharp stones poised to take out our tyres whilst industrial juggernauts thundered past. We gently did a three point turn and headed back to tarmac to seek out and follow the sign that we had earlier ignored. We were not disappointed. Nearly 3 acres of a blue lake. We wondered how the water remained in the late given that the whole area is bone dry - and it is all to do with the lining.... There were many Don'ts for the lake including not ripping the bottom or water will leak away. The city spent 46,000 dollars in 2008 just to maintain the bottom. It is a well maintained bottom.
We then asked TomTom to take us to the Hole in the Wall but again we came a cropper by following TomTom, it lead us off-road into the hills where only kids driving 4x4s with a deathwish would want to follow... 2.5miles in we wisely decided to turn around thinking we would skip the next stop. Our route was something like this (I am surprised we still have the bottom of the car to be honest).
The Hole in the Wall was a joy to see... Not sure if you can spot the sign.
The family had used hand tools and TNT to blow out rooms in a giant rock and make it their home. 20 years in the making and the husband was a keen amateur taxidermist. His efforts at stuffing his donkey and two horses were pretty scary.
A little zoo was interesting, a white raccoon, ostriches, a camel, and mini-pigs were some of the animals I am not allowed to take back home with me... many were professional biters but I left with my fingers intact and only had the snot from a bison to wash off when it tagged me (I am pleased I didn't gip).
We then had a mission to find Wilson's Arch. There wasn't an address but luckily it was at the side of the road. Matt took photos while I shook stones out of my shoe.
We arrived at Monticello with a few hours to check-in at a house, so we killed time by having lunch, going to a museum and seeing a giant tractor (#4 on TripAdvisors things to do) before settling into a lovely house for two nights. I liked the Town (City). It was quite quirky with the biggest churches and smallest shop for alcohol. The Morman church is replacing their 6ft gold topping with a 9ft gold topping. They also had some lovely parks. After the roar of quad bikes in Moab this gentle town dressed in autumn colours was a scenic holiday.
