Didn’t Know You Can Camp Here.

23rd trip – days 123-125, Aug 6-8, 2021 Gladstan Golf Course, Payson, UT

Friday 08/06/21 What a find! Who knew you some golf courses have an RV campground. The golf course restaurant is where we had our wedding rehearsal dinner 32 years ago! It was brand new. It has an amazing view of the valley but we can’t see it because the wildfire smoke from CA & OR have made this area “the worse air on the entire planet” according to the news this morning. 😦 We followed the instructions on our confirmation that said to check in at the Golf Pro Shop. So we went there. The parking lot was tight for HOWE (our 26 ft travel trailer, Home On WhEels) but Kevin made it fine. He went to check in and a worker met him outside and said, “You followed the instructions on the internet, right?” Laugh. Well, he said, you don’t have to check in at the shop, just go down the road, past the church, turn down the dead end road and it is there. We call that “farmer’s directions.” We found the dead end road, went to the end that was a cul-de-sac and not a campground. Turned around (thankfully it was big enough for one turn) and found a gravel side road. Up the hill and as we crested it, we saw the campground. It looks new and only 2 other trailers here. We are in the middle of the golf course, next to the pond. Green gorgeous grass everywhere. We sat outside and watched the golfers. Kevin can even hear them talking. One of the rules here we have to be quiet during the day so as not to disturb the golfers. Well, Kevin said he hears all sorts of the worst swear words from some of the golfers! Maybe they need a rule, too. 🙂 We got set up and then drove a few miles to Mi Rancherito in Payson. It is a favorite Mexican restaurant. We got right in and got a nice corner seat by the water fountain. However, it took a long time to get our food. It did’t bother us because we had a great time visiting with each other and eating chips and salsa. We know a lot of places are short staffed due to Covid. The food was delicious, as always. Chicken enchiladas and tacos. On the way driving down through Spanish Fork, we saw that this weekend is the Utah County Fair. Kevin and I looked up the schedule to see if there is anything we are interested in. We found antique tractor pull for tomorrow. We think that will be fun. Kevin suggested we invited Mom & Dad for Dad’s birthday which is next week. I texted them and they said that sounds like a lot of fun, yes, they would go. After dinner, we came back to HOWE and relaxed outside. I watched a golfer hit a ball in front of us. I remembered that Kevin and I had talked about how hard it is to see the ball and how do cameras on TV always follow it. Anyway, as this guy hit it, I tried to follow the ball but couldn’t see it. All of a sudden, I see a huge “kur-plop” in the pond! HAHA The ball went into the water. I looked at Kevin and he looked at me and we started laughing so hard. But, of course, the guy is so close to us that he could probably hear us so we were trying not to laugh out loud…which made us laugh even harder. We were crying we were laughing so hard, trying to hold it in. 🙂 We saw more than 25 deer walk right in front of us, eating grass and leaves from the trees.

Saturday 08/07/21 After a great night sleep, and sleeping in, we sat outside. At 10:30, we left to meet Mom & Dad and brother for an early lunch. Dad said he wanted to meet for lunch before the tractor pull and since it is his birthday week, we had him decide. They wanted to know all about our Glacier trip. Off to the fairgrounds we went. It is free. We sat in the grandstand and seriously, there was us and one other couple in the entire grandstand! Nice. It was fun to watch the tractors. It ended at 2:00 and we parted ways. We decided to drive Nebo Loop, Payson Canyon to Nephi. Very pretty. We both commented that Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier had nothing on this road. This one has drop offs with no stones/boards/rails and the landscape is stunning with tall mountains, green pine trees, white aspen trees, grass, wildflowers, and bushes. And smoke. 😦 We couldn’t see the view of the valley but that is fine. It made it a unique beauty. At one point, we decided to take the road that goes down Santaquin Canyon. This road immediately turned to gravel. We saw campers tucked up in the trees along the way. The road got a bit rough like it hadn’t been maintained for a long time. From the top to Santaquin is 11 miles. After driving 1/2 hour, we came to a “road closed” sign. We couldn’t believe it. The gate was open on one side so we stopped and asked a guy who was parked near and getting ready to hike. He said the road was definitely closed just a bit farther down and had been since the big fire. A mud slide (due to vegetation being burned away) had wiped out the road completely and hadn’t been rebuilt. Hum, I think there should have been a sign at the top of this road. So we turned around, laughing all the way and enjoying the scenery from the other direction. 🙂 Back to the top and we verified there was no sign. Back on the main road, we continued our way through Nephi Canyon. We got into several traffic jams…the “traffic” being cows in the road. This is grazing country and it is fun to see them just moseying along. We decided to drive back on I-15. We picked up burgers, English chips, and shakes at Polar Queen in Payson and took it back to HOWE. We ate outside, enjoying watching the golfers.

Sunday 08/08/21 We took our time getting awake and packed up. This is a great campground and the whole time, there was only us and then two others on the far side. A very beautiful and unique spot to camp.