Wednesday, May 8, 2024

 The morning was sunny, 48 degrees, and no wind. We checked out of the hotel and moved the trailer to the Tusayan Montane campground then headed into the Grand Canyon.

The Bright Angel trail winds its way to the bottom of the canyon in a series of switchbacks along the side of the cliff. We knew we were not fit enough for this trail but wanted to walk down a little ways. Although the trail is about 3 – 4 feet wide the side next to the canyon is a drop off all the way to the bottom. We only walked down a few hundred feet before turning around. The views were great!

We decided that walking the rim trail was more to our liking and had an enjoyable walk stopping frequently to take photos. A mule deer was munching on some underbrush as we passed and has seen so many tourists that it did not interrupt its meal to watch us. We also had a chance to meet some of the famous Grand Canyon mules!

We ate lunch in the park then went back to the campsite. Susan went into Tusayan to work on the blog, there was no public library, so McDonald’s was the best option for internet and a space to set up the computer.

The campsite hosts stopped by to talk in the evening. It was nice to hear about their experiences and how they decided to be hosts. They are very conscientious about their jobs; the restrooms were the cleanest ones we have ever seen.

The weather turned cold once the sun went down so we bundled up in our warm clothes and closed up all the flaps on the tent and went to bed early.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

 We picked up the trailer from the KOA campsite where it has been sitting all by itself for the last few windy days and brought it to the hotel parking lot. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to calm down and we will go back to camping.

The plan for the day was to go into Flagstaff to have the oil changed in the car then have a relaxing day doing nothing. This plan changed. The Valvoline service station in Flagstaff was a model of efficiency and friendliness and we were in and out in 15 minutes.

Sedona is only about 30 miles from Flagstaff so on a whim we decided to go there. The drive was unexpectedly wonderful, the road is a series of switchbacks between towering canyon walls.

We wandered around town for a few hours in complete tourist mode and treated ourselves to ice cream. The prickly pear ice cream was delicious.

Near the end of the switchback section of the road out of Sedona we stopped at the Oak Creek Vista scenic oulook. There is a vendor project sponsored by Native Americans for Community Action in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service. We bought a ring from a Navajo artist.

We called my mother in the evening to wish her a happy 91^st birthday. We wished she could have been with us enjoying our adventures, but she sounded like she had a great time going to her favorite store, Mardens, with David and Liz.

Monday, May 6, 2024

 On the way back to the Grand Canyon we stopped at a National Forest campground to see if there was room for us when the wind dies down in a few days. The camp hosts were welcoming and informative and gave us directions to available campsites.

Entering the park was easy because of Bill’s senior pass, we did not have to stop at the check-in, the rangers just waved us through. Today we decided to drive instead of using the shuttles and headed for the Desert View Watchtower.

We stopped at several viewing sites on the way back to town and enjoyed the stunning vistas. The canyon is awe inspiring and beautiful.

In the evening, we did not want to go out to a restaurant, so we picked up some food at the Safeway and went back to our hotel and watched the documentary that the curator of the Hinton Museum had helped create, “Digging the Wagon Train”. This was an enjoyable end to an enjoyable day.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

 In the morning, we went for a hike to see the petroglyphs at Lyman Lake State Park. The trail is around a small hill on a peninsula on the lake and passes very close to the ancient drawings.

We left the park around 8:30 on a partly cloudy day and headed for Williams, Arizona. The drive was very scenic, especially when we approached Flagstaff and had views of the snow-covered Humphrey’s Peak. The wind was very strong today with blowing dust and cross-winds.

We checked in to the KOA campground in Williams but had serious concerns about camping as the winds were still 30 – 40 mph with higher gusts.

After dropping off the trailer we drove to the Grand Canyon. Because of the high winds we took advantage of the shuttle system to orient ourselves to the park. The canyon is so immense that it is hard to comprehend the sheer size and scale. Every view is breathtaking.

When we left the Grand Canyon it started sleeting sideways a few minutes after we reached our car. We decided that we did not want to stay in the tent tonight so booked a hotel room in Williams. As we were driving out it started to snow so we felt this was a good decision. We ended up sitting in an hour-long traffic jam because of an accident so it took us about two hours to get to our hotel. We had a late dinner at a local brew pub and gratefully collapsed into a comfortable bed in a warm room.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

We woke up to a beautiful morning at Lyman Lake State Park. The view of the lake from our tent was peaceful and a great start to the day. We began the day with a hike and enjoyed the views of the lake and the mountains in the distance.

After the hike Bill changed one of the trailer tires, it was the one that had become chewed up by the fender before Bill fixed it with the help of Tom’s grinder when we were at Hillary’s. The tire was still okay but better safe than sorry, it is still fine to use for a spare.

In the afternoon we went in to the nearest town, St. John’s to use the library to update the blog. After spending a few hours at the very nice library we went out for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.

The afternoon was spent relaxing and reading books. It was a very pleasant day.

Friday, May 3

We left Lavaland on a bright and sunny day. The drive to our next stop was scenic and featured many long trains; several of the trains were over a mile long. For people from the east coast the enormously long trains with containers stacked two high are noteworthy.

We crossed into Arizona at 10:00 in the morning. There was another time change so we arrived at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert an hour later at 9:50 in the morning.

I have wanted to see the Petrified Forest since studying it in elementary school. Frequently things that have been anticipated for so long can disappoint, but that was not the case here. The Petrified Forest National Park was AMAZING!!!!!

The park road starts at the Painted Desert Visitor’s Center and 28 miles later ends at the Rainbow Forest Museum. The road has many overlooks and each one is more fantastic than the last. The scenery is absolutely stunning and the variety of colors and shapes in the desert defies description.

The petrified wood in the Petrified Forest is astonishingly beautiful. The size of the trees that turned to stone makes the idea of the rainforest period of the geology come to life. There are many huge stone logs that are resting on the top of rock outcroppings protecting the softer stone below. When erosion finally cuts away the underlying rock the petrified logs fall and splinter down the walls of the canyons.

After the wonderful day at the National Park we drove to Lyman Lake State Park to spend a few days. Again, the drive was beautiful. The campground is next to a large lake. We drove to Springerville for groceries and were treated to a gorgeous sunset on the drive back to camp.

Today was one of the highlights of the trip. The scenery all day was spectacular.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

We woke up to a very chilly morning and had oatmeal for breakfast then went for a short hike before packing up and heading for Petroglyph National Monument. The scenery on the drive was impressive with views of mountains in the distance and small towns and isolated adobe houses.

The weather was sunny and very hot and dry when we arrived at the Monument. The monument is part of a 17 mile long volcanic escarpment and there are several trails along the route. We hiked the Piedras Marcadas Canyon Petroglyph Viewing Trail. The petroglyphs were created between 400 and 700 years ago and are etched into the surface of the rocks. Seeing the drawings and thinking about the people who spent the time to painstakingly chip the images onto the boulders using stone tools was incredible.

We spent the night at a little RV park in Grants, NM called Lavaland. It is right alongside I40 and we did not have high expectations and ended up having a very enjoyable stay. There is a brew pub on site with good beer and the bar stories were entertaining; some of them may even have been true!  

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

 The morning was spent doing laundry and making reservations for the next few days. We do not like to plan too far ahead; this makes reservations tricky as the parks are filling up. We may need to start being more organized about our itinerary.

We left Santa Rosa around 10:30 headed for a park just outside Santa Fe. The scenery changed from flat lands with just a few sage brush to mesas with mountains in the distance. The drive was very scenic. The sun was out, the humidity was very low, and it was in the high 70s.

The road from Santa Fe to Hyde Memorial State Park was windy and steep with great views of mountains. This road would have been a lot more fun on a motorcycle rather than in a station wagon pulling a trailer.

We spend most of the afternoon in Santa Fe wandering around and taking in the sights. One of the most interesting places was the Loretto Chapel and the miraculous staircase. The chapel does not have room for a traditional staircase and the nuns prayed for a solution. A carpenter appeared, built a spiral staircase with no central support and no supports to the walls, did not use any nails, and disappeared before they could pay him. The chapel also has statues showing the stations of the cross.

In the evening we had a relaxing time at our campsite and then went to bed early as the temperature dropped. Overnight we were glad we brought our cold weather sleeping bags when it was 38 degrees.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

 The weather was partly clouding in the morning with a comfortable temperature of 71 degrees. We left Red Rock Canyon at 9:40 and were in Texas by noon time. We decided to drive straight through northern Texas as there was no convenient place to stop that looked interesting. The traffic through Amarillo was heavy and backed up and we crawled through about a half an hour of traffic jams.

We arrived in new Mexico at 3:00 and stopped at the Visitor’s Center. The wind was gusting to 30 mph which is not good for tenting so we decided to spend the night at a hotel. We drove through Tucumcari but did not see anywhere where we wanted to stay so headed on to Santa Rosa where we found a hotel and a restaurant.

During the drive we noticed that the average mile per gallon was very low – around 16 mpg. The 30 mph headwind was part of the problem. The elevation change was also a contributing factor as Hinton is at 1562 feet of elevation and Santa Rosa is at 4616 feet.

Monday, April 28, 2024

The original plan was to spend one night at Red Rock Canyon, but it was so beautiful and peaceful that we decided to spend another night. In the morning William, the ranger on duty, very kindly helped us with a trailer issue. The fenders have been a little bit of an issue when we hit bumps. When we were at Hillary’s one of the tires was showing wear so Tom lent Bill a grinder to modify that fender. Today William brought his grinder and he and Bill ground off the part on the other fender that was causing a problem. Other than this minor issue the trailer is working out great.

Bill wanted to relax in the campground, so Susan went into Hinton to the Hinton Historical Museum. The curator, Art Peters, was interesting to talk to. He is a self-taught archeologist who specializes in the California Wagon Trail. He has mapped out about 25 sites as far as the Texas border where the pioneers had stopped and has a well thought out display of artifacts. He shared a story about the local educational television station wanting to do a documentary about the wagon trail but not having a budget. He was able to provide wagons, found re-enactors with period costume, people with horses, and permission from landowners in order to create the documentary. The museum had an eclectic selection of displays from old newspapers, telephones from the earliest hand crank phones to 1950s brightly colored plastic dial phones, plowshares, wagons, and old cars. The museum also has the 3^rd largest collection of barbed wire in the country with over 1500 examples. Art said that this display was a little bit of an accident. Someone came in and asked if he would like their collection and he said, “sure, bring it in”, and the man said he had to go get his truck. Art wondered what he had just agreed to, then had to sort, research, label and display all the 18 inch sections of wire.

After the museum the librarian at the Hinton Public library offered the use of the conference room and wi-fi to update the blog and catch up on emails.

The light was beautiful in the evening, and we spent some time walking around the park and taking photos of the red rock in the canyon.

Sunday, April 28, 2024

 After a night of heavy rain, we woke up to a soggy campsite with standing water. The rooftop tent is great for this kind of conditions and is much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent on the saturated ground. The stream near the campsite rose about two feet overnight and the ground is so saturated that there were small waterfalls sprouting from the sides of the hills and pouring over the stone steps to hiking trails. 

We walked over to the cafe and dam area where we had dinner the previous night. The picnic grounds were partially submerged and the color of the water in the lake and over the falls had changed from a beautiful clear color to red/brown with all of the silt that had been washed into the river.

The original plan was to spend another day at this beautiful park to explore the trails, but the weather forecast was for more rain and thunderstorms. When we left, we decided to use the longer route out of the park and avoid the road with the hairpin switchbacks.

We entered Oklahoma at 11:30 and stopped at the Visitor’s Center to pick up some maps and local knowledge about the state parks.

The driver on I40 through Oklahoma City made us glad we were doing this part of the trip on a Sunday instead of a weekday. The traffic was quite heavy and there was a lot of road construction with Jersey barriers on both sides of narrowed lanes.

We pulled into Red Rock Canyon Adventure Park about 4:00. This park was previously a state park and is now privately owned. The entrance into the park is down a very steep and winding road through red rock walls. The campsites are along the bottom of the canyon and the color of the walls in the evening was beautiful.

Saturday, April, 27, 2024

 

The weather was overcast and drizzly in the morning, so we packed up our campsite and left around 7:30 in the morning to avoid traffic in Memphis. We crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas at 8:00. Because of the weather we had planned on finding somewhere to eat breakfast. The highway signs for the historic Brinkley downtown looked interesting so we pulled off the highway looking for coffee and food. The downtown had very nice signs hanging from the light poles advertising the historic downtown, unfortunately the history part seemed the most accurate as most of the buildings were boarded up, closed, or looked abandoned. We try to avoid chain restaurants when traveling but, in this case, ended up at McDonald’s as this was the only restaurant open.

In the early afternoon, after a drive down narrow switchback roads we arrived at Devil’s Den State Park. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was instrumental in building most of the infrastructure in the park. The campground is near a river and is shaded by trees. There has been quite a lot of rain lately so the hiking trail that started near our camp site was underwater.

After some hiking we had an early dinner at the park Cafe by a dam with an impressive waterfall. 

The cafe worker is a local and warned us that there were thunderstorms and severe weather forecast for the evening. We didn’t get much sleep as it POURED rain all night and there were several thunderstorms. The tent was very impressive as it did not leak at all!