Moab Museum of Film

 There is a beautiful western resort about 15 miles out of town called the Red Cliffs Lodge - they have rooms and cabins and a restaurant - kind of like a dude ranch only on an upscale basis!  I had researched it in the hopes of staying there but decided it was just too pricey!  HOWEVER - they did have something that I wanted to see - their Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage!

So Wed. morning we packed up and checked out of our hotel - we actually ate the hotel's hot breakfast and they really had it set up nice.  There was a long table in front of the entrance to the breakfast items and you just gave your order to the lady standing there and she filled your order!  

We headed to the lodge and it was as expected - VERY nice!  The museum is inside the lodge and we headed to it as soon as we arrived.

Over 120 movies and hundreds more TV series, specials and commercials have been filmed in the Moab-Monument Valley Area - I had NO idea that much had been filmed in the Moab area!  The museum was set up very well with lots of movie posters, info on the actors and actresses (and extras in the area) and detailed information on the movies!  It was all set in a western setting which was nice!

There is a continuous movie playing with chairs you can sit on (social distanced of course but we were the only ones there while we watched the movie) and it was SO interesting to see clips of movies that we have seen, showing parts of the parks!  I had no idea some of the movies had been filmed in that area!

One of the most famous was Thelma and Louise - and if you've seen the movie, you'll recall that one of the last scenes is the car flying off the cliff!  In the picture below, you'll see the dummy that was used when the car went off the cliff - now I need to watch the movie again!

We thoroughly enjoyed the museum and actually you could have spent hours reading everything and looking at all of the photos - but this was travel day to Torrey, Utah where Capital Reef National Park is so after a couple of hours, we were on our way!

It was a nice drive but very desolate and not much around!  As we got closer to Torrey, the red cliffs came into view!

I guess I thought the town of Torrey would be fairly good size like Moab - NOT!  It's a very small town with limited places to eat and not a lot there!  I had booked us into a lodge on the outskirts of town called Capital Reef Lodge and it certainly was all I expected!  There was a restaurant on site so we didn't have to leave the lodge for nightly dinners AND the king preferred suite I had booked was just lovely - a separate bedroom and a living room with a patio that looked out on views like this!!  It was gorgeous!

There were mini cabins you could stay in, regular hotel like rooms, along with teepes and covered wagons in the summer!

When the sun was setting on the red rocks, this was the result!

I really wanted to see inside of the covered wagons and luckily there was one open that you could climb up into - cute as ever - double bunk beds on each side as you walked in and then straight ahead was a queen or king bed!  In a building next to the wagons, you had your own private bathroom!  How fun for a young family to do this!

These fire pits were all over the grounds and at about 5:00 they all turned on!!  (they were propane)  You could purchase ingredients to make s'mores if you wanted to - such a great idea!  Several people brought their wine over to drink!

We ate at the lodge that evening - no masks required as their virus count is next to nothing but a lot of people still wore them of course.  The meal was great and I took their "peach cobbler" back to the room as I was too full to eat it!  OMG - it was the best cobbler I've ever had - and no, I didn't share with Glenn either - he could have gotten his own if he'd wanted it!!  Ha!