Heading home I thought I might need a place to spend a night northward of St George, Utah. Reading blogs I found someone had spent a night at the Parowan Gap petroglyphs. I tucked away that fact for possible use later. It was now later and Jan and I were heading to The Gap. We arrived at an interesting site to visit but one of marginal camping appeal. We did our best to be away from the county road and away from a dirt road hoping that neither would have much traffic that night.   We sat enjoying some wine, alternating looking at the interesting mountain of rock and looking the other way at green grass meadows outlined by trees. The area begged to be explored, it had a charming sweet feel. But exploring would have to be done by others. We were on a mission to get home and back to work.  

We bedded down for the night, Jan in her tent and myself and dogs in the trailer and fell asleep. Truck noise, headlights, and voices roused Jan from deep sleep later that night. A truck stopped seemingly feet from her tent. People were talking, the truck idled. Half-awake Jan wondered if they saw her tent; should she crawl out of her tent so she wouldn’t be run over?   Was it safe to leave the bullet proof protection of the tent? Perhaps I would solve the crisis from the safety of my trailer? Strange realities emerge during the half-awake state when dreams converge with actuality. Once fully awake she believed she was safe and heard the truck drive off. And she was safe, yet the entire episode repeated itself an hour later. Somehow it seemed at The Gap the Twilight Zone spilled through a crack in the time continuum.   In the morning we saw two trailers camped a bit away from us. Our guess is that we had camped at their rendezvous camping site causing confusion for them and requiring them to change their plans in the middle of the night.

Location Facts

• We camped at the east gap next to the petroglyphs next to the Gap Road.
• The area around the site is BLM land. My guess is there may be some nice camping sites if you drive up some of the roads.
• No facilities.
• There is an interpretive sign that explains the area.
• There wasn’t any traffic on the county road.
• A good functional place to spend a night.
• If you explore the area, let me know what you find.
• 3/2019 update.  I’ve noticed the area has changed and it looks like camping at the gap is not possible.  But it does look like camping a bit north will work.
• Map