White Mountain Trading Post in Mount Carmel, Utah May 14

We left Boulder Beach Campground at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada at 9 am on Tuesday, May 14, 2024 for a 5 1/2 hour drive to our 7-night stay at the White Mountain Trading Post Campground in Mount Carmel, Utah. I know the screenshot of the map shows a 4 hour and 15 minute drive, but trust me, it was 5 1/2 hours. And while it was a beautiful drive, it was also a mountainous drive.

This part of our trip was a series of stops we had been looking forward to for the last 3 years; visiting 4 of the 5 National Parks in Utah. This stop, we’ll be enjoying the beauty of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.

We would have had a much shorter drive if we had been able to come in via the Springdale, Utah route which is where the South Entrance to Zion is located. However, our RV trip planning software indicated we should not try to take that route with an RV our size. So we “went around our elbow to get to our face” as my granddad used to say. In the end that worked out better for us because from where we were staying for the week it was only a 20 minute drive to the East Entrance of Zion National Park. Driving to the South Entrance would have taken more than an hour. So the longer trip for one day paid off for the remaining days.

Cedar Mountain Summit Snow

This drive, though long, was as I mentioned earlier, a beautiful one. We drove on the Interstate through the bases of several mountainous areas and skirted the Moapa Valley and Moapa Reservation. Then when we exited the Interstate at Cedar City, we drove up to the summits of Cedar Mountain (9,910 feet) and Black Mountain where there was still snow on the peaks and sides of the road.

We finally arrived at White Mountain Trading Post in Mount Carmel, Utah around 2:30 pm. This RV park is part of and next to a Shell gas station. It was a gravel lot, fairly level and with full hook ups. After the heat of Boulder Beach Campground with no hook ups, Cindy was looking forward to running the air conditioner during this stay. But there was no need. The temperatures were cool and the air was dry. Our site was under a tree, so we also had a little shade during the day. Unsurprisingly, the campground is surrounded by mountains.

We spent that night and all of Wednesday resting and relaxing. Coming up Thursday; our first visit to Zion National Park!

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