From Mesa Verde to Moab, Utah

When we left Mesa Verde National Park, on our vacation in the spring of 2009, we headed for Moab, Utah and Arches National Park.

The scenery along the route was just gorgeous. We had a bright and beautiful day for our travel and stopped frequently to take photographs of the various and interesting rock formations.

Church Rock

Wilson Arch

We reached Moab about noon and priced a couple of motels. The Sleep Inn was $115 per night, and the Best Western was $149 per night. We wound up choosing the Apache Motel, a little motel about four blocks off the main drag, whose claim to fame is that John Wayne used to stay there when he was making movies in the area. They had a 1950s-style room with two queen beds that they could give us for $69, or we could have the John Wayne suite for $99.

The motel manager was very forthcoming about the shortcomings of the accommodations. Our room, in her words, was not updated. Actually, it was pathetically outdated. We considered the John Wayne suite, but only briefly, since she told us that only one of the beds had been "updated." And that one was the queen. The king was "not very good." Besides, it would have been hard for Doug to pay that extra amount, even to stay where the Duke had stayed.

In the end, the manager lowered the price for our outdated room to $65, partly because we told her we would probably stay two days. Later, we did decide to leave the next day. I reminded her that she had adjusted the price based on our staying two days and that we would understand if she charged us the original price, but she said, "Oh, no, no. But thanks for saying that."

A large cardboard cutout of John Wayne stands behind the desk in the lobby.

I don't want to make the Apache Motel sound bad because I actually found it quite charming. If we were to visit the area again, the Apache Motel would be our first choice for a place to stay; and, if any of you are looking for lodging in Moab, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Don't be discouraged by my description of its "run down" state. The management was in the process of updating the rooms, and I was impressed with the honesty of the lady at the desk. She knew the positives and negatives of each room and was very willing to share them with us. There were no surprises.

A wall in the lobby is lined with pictures of John Wayne and other film stars.

This photograph, on the wall in the motel lobby, shows John Wayne and his sons in front of their room at the Apache Motel.

We had stopped along the way from Mesa Verde to Moab and bought some Subway sandwiches. We ate those in our room at the Apache Motel, then filled our cooler with ice and water and pop ("soda" for those of you not from the Midwest), and headed for Arches National Park, about five miles north of town.

But we'll save Arches for the next installment.