Gooseberry

October 8th, 2024

My stay at Diamond Campground almost ended a night early. I was just getting started with putting things away on the evening before I left when the Sherriff showed up, lights flashing. My first thought was “what did I do wrong?” But he apologized and told me they were evacuating the canyon because of a wildfire that had started about 7 miles further up the stream. It was coming our way. I sped my preparations up. I was not sure where I was going to go that late in the evening. But, about 10 minutes later, as I was hitching up the truck, he returned. The wind started blowing the other way, and we would be allowed to stay the night, unless otherwise notified. I continued to get ready, just in case. I got everything rigged so that I could leave within as little as 5 minutes.

I made it through the night, and left at 7 a.m. the next morning, October 1st. I headed south for a 2 hour drive to Salina. Just to the southeast of there was Gooseberry Campground. I wasn’t sure if it would be open, or if it was, for how much longer. I stocked up on water and groceries before I left Spanish Fork as a precaution. I had heard about the dock worker’s strike on the east coast, and the problems due to the hurricane that passed up the eastern seaboard, causing devastation all the way up through North Carolina. I didn’t want to take a chance on any shortages the might occur.

It turned out that Gooseberry was still open. It appears that it will not close until the end of October. I picked out a campsite and paid for 7 nights. At almost 8,000 feet in elevation, it will probably be cooler during the day and cold at night. No more 85 degree afternoons. The campground was situated in a grove of Aspen trees on the mountainside along Gooseberry Creek. The Aspens were at their peak for color. The saturation of their golden leaves contrasting against the pines and the blue sky was amazing. As it was mid-week, I was the only camper there.

I decided to do a little scouting and a scenic loop up and over to Fish Lake and around the Sevier Plateau back to Salina and the campground. I checked a number of possible camping areas, some as high as 10,000 feet. All but one was closed. The USFS campgrounds along Fish Lake were all closed. I would not need to drive over the pass when I leave Gooseberry, as there was no good place to camp. Instead, I would backtrack down to I-70 and down to Sevier and Highway 89 towards Bryce Canyon National Park. Some campgrounds down there may also be closed, but there is dispersed camping near Bryce. It also appears that the North Campground in the National Park is now on a First Come First Serve basis, and I may be able to find a spot there. That would all depend on the night time weather being above freezing. So far it appears to still be in the 40s and 50s there. That will put me in a nice area until my final couple of moves to my winter destination in Arizona.

The scenery on my loop trip was nice, though the Aspen leaves on the eastern side of the plateau at higher elevations had mostly fallen. As it was a Saturday, there were many vehicles parked at the turnouts and trailheads along the way. The early hunting season had started. I stopped in Salina for a burrito and one of the very large bags of buttered popcorn that I would occasionally come across at the small town “mom and pop” grocery stores during my travels. The brand is Red Button Vintage Creamery, and is quite good.

Most afternoons, the open range cattle, (Black Angus) seem to like gathering near my camper. I have found that a quick, jerking move scares them into retreating to a safe distance, where they then stand quivering and curiously stare back at the weird spastic human.

I am spending the afternoon re-hitching the truck and putting things away in preparation for my next move south in the early morning. I have about two weeks left of my 2024 tour, and then will find some place, hopefully safe, to hunker down and ride out the election and the winter. To pass the days, I’ll start plans for next spring and summer’s travels. I think I will spend most of next year in Colorado.