US Travel Journal Part 8

September 9, 2008

Hmm, the day was so long, I’ve forgotten what happened!! Well, first of all, scratch the plans that I told you all about yesterday and this is what we did instead. Don’t you love how we just change our minds all the time! At least David and I are both that way or one of us would get really annoyed at the other. :P Instead of going to Salt Lake City to walk around the city, we decided to head south to Arches National Park instead. The weather wasn’t really good for pictures in SLC so we’ll come back to it another time when we just have a car.

It was a long day of driving. We had to drive south to Provo, Utah and then head east along Hwy 6 towards and past Price, UT. Next we headed east on I-70 east to Crescent Junction and then south on Hwy 191 to Arches National Park. We stopped at a rest stop along the way for lunch and arrived at Arches around 4 pm. As we approached the park, these towering red mountains came into view. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon except there wasn’t a deep gorge with a river in it.


There’s supposed to be shattered thunderstorms all week in Utah, so Arches NP was covered in clouds too but we were still able to get some pretty good pics when the sun came out.


click image for gallery
The visitor center was at the bottom of a mountain and the road into the park wound up this mountain. The landscape was formed by vertical spits in the rock and water slowly wore away at it leaving tall pillars. The park was amazing. The colors of the rocks shown so brightly in the sun: reds, oranges, yellows and even some green. We stopped at Balancing Rock. We hiked the short loop around the formation and waited awhile for the sun to come out.


We drove through the rest of the park without stopping until the back portion called Desert Garden. The light was starting to fade as the sun was sinking low into the sky and was masked by thick gray clouds. We hiked part of the trail.


Once we finished the small hike, the light of the day was almost gone as we walked back to the RV. We drove out of the park in twilight. It’s pretty neat at night too. With just a touch of light left, the dark blue sky silhouetted the tall black pillars. Deciding to stay at a rest stop further south, we drove through Moab. It looks like a pretty happening town. I would love to go back there and walk up and down the main street. Not sure if we will tho but if we come back! :)

Well, that’s it for today. I’m pooped. Good night.


September 10, 2008

Pretty tired tonight so will only have a short entry. We went back to Arches NP and drove through it again but this time we stopped and hiked more of the trails. It was so beautiful in the morning with nearly clear skies. The sun was bright and the rock formations in the park were lit up in a bright orangish-red color. We stopped at the Courthouse towers first and took a few pics.


click on image for gallery
Next we headed over to Turret Arch and North and South Window Arches. The North and South Window Arches were joined together by a large concentration of rocks and the whole structure looked like ET’s face. :)


We hiked up to Turret Arch and then Southern Window Arch.


Turret Arch
We took the primate trail around the back of the Northern Window Arch but the best viewing of it was on the other side. The primate trail took us back to the RV so we hiked back to the better viewed side of Northern Window Arch for some good pics. Then we hiked back to the RV for more water and lunch. It looked like it was gonna rain but it never did. I only felt a few drops on my face here and there.


On the other side of the parking loop (leaving the RV in the same spot), we hiked to Double Arch. This Arch was amazing. I hiked up to the top of one and David took a picture of me. The wind was blowing so hard it almost took my hat off my head and blew me off. Luckily, I had places to hold on to.


The formation is called Double Arch because there are two arches that connect at one junction.


Next, we drove to Delicate Arch. To see this arch up close, you have to hike 1.5 miles up a not so difficult trail, 3 miles round trip. It was pretty easy; just my lungs like to slow me down on the uphill parts. :P The first part of the trail is well marked and on gravel. We stopped to see some petroglyphs along the way.


Next, the trail turns to walking on the slickrock and being guided by small flat stones stacked on top of each other called rock cairns.


It wasn’t slippery at all but I could imagine how slippery it would become if it started to rain. Parts of the trail were also just on very fine sand. It was like the finest beach sand that you could find but it was bright orange.


Once up to the top and around a mountain, there it was, ever so delicate, resting on the edge of a rounded rock that was worn away like a bowl. Delicate Arch was my favorite arch in the park. When the sun hit it just right, it lit up bright orange.




We hung out here for quite awhile, waiting for the sun to come out for the best pictures. As I sat on a big rock, David walked around trying to take pictures from every angle. I saw a squirrel as I waited hoping it would come closer so I could take a picture of it, but he was scared of me like he should be. There were 2 ravens that were not so people shy. There were a few couples relaxing on other rocks feeding the birds so they could take pictures of them. Dumb people! Don’t they think before they feed animals. They treat everything like it is their domesticated pet. Makes me mad. But, I digress. :) The sun would only come out for a minute or two and then would hide behind the clouds again. We waited for at least a half hour before returning back to the RV. The hike back was mainly all downhill so it went by very fast. We even saw a couple small lizards on the trail running at full speed away from us.

Lastly, for the day, we drove up to the Devils Garden area and attempted to hike to Double O Arch. Along the way, we saw Landscape arch and the arch that recently fell in August of this year: Wall Arch.

The hike up to Landscape Arch was pretty easy but soon after the trail became a “Primate trail” on one part of it (next to the remnants of Wall Arch) you had to scramble up sandstone rocks. The light was starting to dim and we didn’t want to hike that in the dark on the way back, so we turned around and headed back to the RV. We stopped at Balancing Rock on the way out of the park. David was able to get some good sunset pics here.


We decided to stay at the same rest stop that we stayed at the night prior since we left the park at 8 pm again tonight. We made a couple of pit stops in the town of Moab first. Got some gas, supplies and souvenirs before heading to the rest stop. We took some wonderful showers and had a snack. Now, I’m off to bed. All that walking in the sun has made me pretty tired. Night!


September 11, 2008

It was soooo nice to sleep in this morning!!! We didn’t need to leave super early since we were at a rest stop and not at an RV park, so David made me pancakes :) and we took our time getting ready. We’re heading in the direction of 4 corners today. 4 corners is where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado all share a border and there’s a marker there. So, that should be cool to stand in 4 states all at once! :)

We got on the road about 9:30 and headed south. I was consulting the map to determine the best route when I realized that we would be only 10 miles from the turn off to go to Mesa Verde NP. David’s really been wanting to go there and had heard that you couldn’t drive an RV through it. I figured that since we were so close we should check it out and inquire about the RV. When we got to Cortez we headed east towards the park entrance.

At the entrance, there was a sign that said no trailers or towed vehicles allowed on the road. That must have been what he had heard. When we arrived at the ranger station, the ranger took one look at the RV and said, “Ya, your length is fine.” Sweet! We get to see the pueblos!

Mesa Verde NP contains the ruins of homes of the ancient Pueblo people. There are 3 guided tours that you could sign up for and were only $3 per person per tour. That’s a deal! So, we signed up for the Cliff Palace tour which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It was pretty neat! The tour starts up on the road about the cliff. Then a ranger takes you down to the site and talks about the history of the site. The tour walks onto the site and takes you up a few ladders. It was fun to climb around. And, it was a very easy walk, only a 1/4 of a mile in length. Our ranger, Joe (a woman), was an excellent ranger. She made the tour very enjoyable and we had so much fun listening to her jokes and antics. She said that on one of her tours she had an old Pueblo Indian with her; she called him “Grandfather” so she talked about his stories in a funny way. She was a crowd pleaser!

Cliff Palace was awesome. Everything is made out of stone, wood and mortar. The Indians built multi-story buildings and sunken rooms called kivas into the cliffs. As far as Cliff Palace, the cliff is on a south facing wall so in the winter, it is shielded from the wind and in the summer as the sun orbits higher in the sky, it is shielded by the sun! Pretty neat, huh!

After the tour, we drove over to the park museum which had a brief movie on the park and several displays of Indian tools, pottery, jewelry and clothing. The Indians used everything that was around them for living. They even ate cacti! And they made sandals out of yucca leaves. We visited the gift shop before heading out of the park. Since it was after 5 pm, we decided to stay at a camp site right outside of the park’s entrance. It’s a kooky little RV park. As you drive in, there’s a mini-golf course, a tiny swimming pool and even a multicolored painted tractor tire. The laundry facilities are under the eave and outside of a building. But, somehow, they have internet and full hook-ups. It’s nice to have internet again. :) I know, I always say that! :D

That’s it for today. So, we didn’t make it to 4 corners, but we’ll get there tomorrow and hopefully this storm will blow over (it was raining not too long ago and we could hear thunder and see lightning) and it will be clear skies tomorrow. Anyway, night!

PS It’s pouring now and you can hear the thunder again. Fun! Mmm, warm bed….zzzzzz.


September 12, 2008

I awoke to clear skies this morning but you wouldn’t think that if you had been sleeping in our RV last night. Before I went to bed, it was raining pretty hard and it started to leak in the shower again. Then, I was woken up twice by thunder and loud rain pounding on our rooftop. David was up late processing pics and then the rain woke him up too. He only got a few hours of sleep in.

I woke up at 7 am like I usually do these days. David brought me tea in bed to help me wake up. He’s so sweet! :) Nothing sounded good for breakfast so we made grilled cheese sandwiches instead. We lingered at the campground until close to 11 am (which was check out time). We headed into Cortez and got gas and made a trip to Safeway. Ahhhh! Finally a normal size Safeway. We just haven’t had much luck with stores on our trip. Either they are too small and have a limited selection, they are remodeling and don’t have anything or they are located in a different country and don’t have the same things. So yes, it’s wonderful! :) We’re in CO by the way.

David almost threw me out of the front window this morning. Luckily I wasn’t up moving around the RV and was actually in my seat with my seatbelt on. We were driving out of Cortez and the light changed yellow. It would have been fine if he had ran it or stopped, but he hesitated so by the time he made a decision to stop, he had to slam on his breaks to stop. If we were in a normal car, this action would have been fine. But, it’s different in an RV. We have everything that a house has, but it’s stored away in various compartments. So, as long as it’s packed properly, transport really doesn’t shift it around too much. But, if you made sudden turns or stops, these cabinets can come open pretty easily as you all read about when the books fell on my head. :P So, I yelled at David of course cuz that’s how I am and went to see if there was anything thrown around the RV. I had to push the bed back on its wooden platform since it had slid forward until it hit the wall. Several drawers had flown open, but nothing broke which I was happy about. Anyway.

From Cortez, we headed to 4 Corners. It wasn’t crowded at all. We easily got our pics taken at the Dias.

After this, we picked up some Indian Fry bread with powdered sugar. It was very tasty and I think I prefer this more than honey, but I haven’t tried it with cinnamon and sugar yet. We sat down at a nearby picnic table to enjoy our treat and engaged other travelers, a woman and her uncle from CO and a man from AZ, in conversation. The guy said he had been on a road trip from DC and that his nephew is Steve Wozniak, the co-creator of Mac. He said he had just talked to him last week. Interesting. Wonder if he was telling the truth. Anyway, after we finished eating, David picked up a patch and got a cotton candy snow cone. I poured it into a big cup once I got back to the RV so it would be easier to pass back and for between the two of us. Once, when I took a bite, I noticed that there were tiny bits in the snow cone. On closer inspection, I realized it was a tiny ant!!! When I searched the cup, I found a ton of them and we had been eating them!!! EWWW!!! They must have crawled into the syrup and died. So, we got a little extra protein today, huh. I threw the rest out.

After 4 Corners, we drove towards Bluff. All the rocks were bright brick red and the road was so bumpy! I hate the roads in these backcountry areas. From Bluff, we drove to Mexican Hat. The town was named this because of a rock formation that looks like a sombrero.

From here, we drove through Monument Valley.

It was very hazy. The sun had a lot to do with that. My pics turned out fine if I shot away from the sun. The valley is probably very neat in the morning. The rocks and mountains here were dark brick red as well.

Once in the museum and trading post area of Monument Valley, we stopped at an abandoned parking lot for lunch and David took a nap. I can’t really take naps during the day anymore. The buildings in the lot looked brand new but were never used. Even the sidewalks looked new with weeds growing up from the cracks. It looked like it could have or would have been a school.

Once we were finished with lunch, we went to leave but the exit was tied off! Someone must have tied us in while we were having lunch. David got out and untied the rope to let us out. At least there wasn’t a padlock there!

From here we continued south. We drove through various Indian reservations most of the day. There were trinket boots everywhere, especially in tourist attractions like 4 Corners. David said this earlier and it is so true. These people used to live off the land and knew how to use everything to survive and thrive. They were masters of the land. Now they have been reduced to trinket sellers. It’s so sad! The White Man is just so evil.

We decided at lunch that we would put Grand Canyon off for another few days and check out the Meteor Crater by Winslow in Arizona. So, we drove thru Flagstaff, AZ and to the rest stop just past the crater. That way, we wouldn’t have to drive too far in the morning to get to it. We arrived there around 9 pm. So, we did a lot of driving today. Or, I should say David did. We started in Colorado, and then went to New Mexico, then Arizona, back to Utah and then back to Arizona again. We’ve had a very tiresome day so we’re gonna try to get some sleep. There’s a train near here and a ton of trucks so we’ll see how much we can get. Night!


September 13, 2008

Clear skies in the morning! Good sign! Maybe the storm is leaving the southwest. I’m hoping!! I slept in a bit this morning and didn’t get up until almost 8am. It was nice! :) We got ready quickly and left the rest stop to head to Meteor Crater. We were the first RV in the parking lot. It had opened at 7am and we got there just before 9am. The last time I had visited the crater was back in ’96 so it’s been 12 years for me. But, David had never been, so he was excited to see it. We walked up to the ticket booth and the guy who takes your ticket after you buy it already yelled a warm “Good morning!” to us. He started a conversation about Amsterdam (David was wearing his souvenir t-shirt). The guy was probably in his early 20’s and you could tell that he didn’t get too many people his age coming to the crater. David talked with him for about 5 minutes before more people showed up and we were able to slip past him into the center.

The center looked different from when I last visited it. There’s a test pod that I thought used to be up on the rim of the crater but was now in a court yard outside of the gift shop and Subway (ya, I don’t remember Subway either!). We walked out to the rim of the crater first before checking out the info movie and the museum. There was practically no one there that early in the off season. It made for some good pics. I like not having to wait for a crowd of people from a tour bus to move out of the way.

Back inside the center, we checked out the museum and watched the movie on meteors. After picking up some souvenirs and not eating at Subway, we headed back to Flagstaff. The plan was to get gas in Flagstaff and then head north to the Grand Canyon. Of course with us, we always get sidetracked somehow. :) First we got gas and almost got stuck in the gas station. That’s the problem with RV’s. You have to plan ahead whenever you plan on stopping somewhere. Luckily the gas station had a back alley that was large enough for the RV to fit. As we were heading out, there is the Flagstaff Mall and behind it is a Best Buy. So, we headed to Best Buy. As I case David around the store, I ask him, “what are you looking for?” He replies with, “Shh, you’re gonna mess up my vibe” or something like that. So, I continue to follow him. He picks up an external hard drive: 320 Gigs. He’s been wanting one of these for awhile now. I guess he figured now was as good time as any. Next, we head over to the cell phone area. Ahh, he’s going for one of the new 3G iPhones. And that was what he was after. But, David likes to do a lot of “window shopping” first before he makes any big purchases. So, after talking to 2 sales representatives for a very long time, he decided that now wasn’t the time. Then, he remembered that he wanted to put some more RAM in my laptop, so we put the hard drive away and went back to the RV to tear apart my computer. Luckily I knew exactly where my RAM is and how to get to it so it only took a couple minutes before we got a stick out. We took this inside Best Buy and found 1G upgrade to my 256 RAM. We picked up the hard drive and picked up a battery charger to his little camera since we accidentally left that in Phelan. :P My laptop runs so much faster now and it makes it soooo much easier to run programs. I think David finally got sick of me complaining about him having to baby my laptop if he used it. :)

After Best Buy, we headed to a nearby Del Taco for lunch. It was soooooooooooooo yummy!! I missed Del Taco. David got a bunch of tacos and I got the chicken soft taco meal. We saw a notice in Del Taco: Free Wi-Fi. ???? Ya??? So, after we finished our lunch, we hopped back in the RV, fired up the generator and enjoyed some free Del Taco Wi-Fi for a bit. Then we headed to the Grand Canyon.

Since we were so far south, we decided to check out the South Rim first before heading to the North Rim. It was so much closer and we could see it today.

As we drove into the park, we noticed smoke off in the distance. It looked like a forest fire. I hope the park isn’t on fire!! The park rangers at the entrance didn’t give us any warning so we figured it was safe. Just inside the entrance there is the Watchtower that overlooks the Grand Canyon. We stopped there for a bit to take some pics and then headed further into the park.

There’s a free shuttle that takes you around the park and a large lot for RV parking way in the back of the park next to the Backcountry Info Office, so we drove back to “Lot E”. The bus wasn’t there yet, so we popped into the Backcountry office to pick up some trail maps in case we wanted to hike tomorrow. The bus, the blue route, arrived just as we were exiting the building. Perfect timing! We hopped on that and headed east towards the view of the south rim of the Grand Canyon. David was telling me that there was a really good Grand Canyon movie in the IMAX and you could only see it here. But, I couldn’t find it anywhere on the park map. So, we took the bus to the Canyon View Information Plaza to inquire there. It turns out that the IMAX is in a city just south of the park called Tusayan. We’ll go there tomorrow and see it (and there’s a rest stop there that we can stay at tonight).

There was nothing at the Information Plaza. So, we headed over to the rim to take some pics.

The Grand Canyon was soooo hazy! It wasn’t pleasing to look at at all. I remember the last time I was here, there was a bit thunderstorm and lots of really cool looking clouds and lightning striking right in the middle of the canyon. Today, there weren’t any clouds but just haze. I’m guessing it’s from the fire nearby. We were gonna stay there to take sunset pics which was supposed to be at 6:38 pm. But, just by looking at the sun in the sky, it looked like it was still a good hour away from setting. That’s weird. Do we have the wrong time set? We should still be in Mountain Time. After checking the park paper, The Guide, we found out that Arizona is on Pacific Time until November 1. So, the past day we were going off of the wrong time. Lucky for us, we hadn’t stayed at any RV parks or we could have run the risk of checking out after the check out time!

After taking a few pics and now knowing we still had an hour until sunset, we headed back to the bookstore. David found a patch for his collection and we decided on a place for dinner. We were hoping to find a place that had southwestern food. It looked like there were two potentially good restaurants at the Bright Angel Lodge. We hopped on the bus and headed that way. As the sun was starting to set, we hopped off the bus at Yavapai Point. We found a spot that was right next to a cliff. It was a steep drop straight down to the bottom. No surviving that kind of fall! I was careful to stay away from the edge.

But, it wasn’t really that pretty or mystifying. There was a layer of dark smog or clouds above the canyon and the canyon itself was soooo hazy. We decided to head to dinner before the sunset. We only waited a couple of minutes. The shuttle service is way better in the Grand Canyon unlike Glacier NP. The buses are pretty frequent and they are a decent size. We didn’t have to worry about them filling up! We exited the bus at Bright Angel stop and headed over to the Arizona Room. It sounded southwestern so might as well look at the menu. They have an enchilada dish! Sounds good to me. We didn’t have to wait very long and we ended up getting the last table available that was setup to accommodate 5 people. At least we got a table! There were large glass windows on the canyon rim side of the restaurant. It was a lovely place for a restaurant. I ordered the veggie enchilada with a red pepper soup and David ordered baby back ribs with the soup as well. Shortly after we ordered, the sun set. The majority of people waited until the sun set to eat dinner so there was a large line of people waiting for a table. I’m glad we got there when we did!

We were brought out cold corn bread (but it was delicious!) and rolls shortly before our soups arrived. It tasted similar to a tortilla soup and even had shredded tortilla chips on top. It was delicious as well. The waiter was very attentive and regularly refilled my water glass. My stomach had a bit of time to digest before the main courses came out. My enchilada dish was soooo good. It had this spicy sour cream sauce on top and the tortillas were filled with steamy veggies of corn, tomatoes, zucchinis and black beans. David really liked his ribs. The BBQ sauce was very good. We both ordered dessert. I ordered a raspberry sherbet and he ordered a snicker cheesecake. Mine was pretty good; David’s was average. The rest of the meal was awesome tho. From there we waited out in the cold for a bit before the shuttle came and took us back to the RV.

It was pitch black as we exited the park. It’s a full moon tonight but it didn’t seem to help brighten the road any. It was a short drive to Tusayan where the rest stop was located. We spotted the IMAX so we know where to go tomorrow. We continued south, looking for the rest area. We left town. Still no rest area in sight. We saw signs for a managed fire in the area. So the smoke from the fire that was ruining our pics is actually an intentionally set fire?! Great! Thanks guys! We passed the airport and still couldn’t find it. We knew we had passed it but didn’t have anywhere to turn around in the dark and couldn’t see any turnouts to turn around in until it was too late. Finally, we found a dirt road sign that we had time to stop for. After doing a 3 point turn, we were back heading north and intently looking for the rest stop. We never found it. We got back to Tusayan and didn’t see any sign for it, so we turned around and parked in the back of the parking lot of the IMAX theater. There was another RV here too so we figured it would be alright to stay the night here. David turned on the generator to transfer his pictures to his Mac and discovered internet. So, not only are we staying in a free parking lot, we have free fast internet. Sweet huh! And we can just exit our door in the morning to go see the Grand Canyon IMAX movie without having to drive.

So, another long day, but we are doing good on time. We decided after seeing the Grand Canyon South Rim today that we don’t need to see the North Rim, so we’ll be heading to Bryce Canyon NP tomorrow if we don’t get sidetracked along the way! Night!


September 14, 2008

We woke up bright and early at 7 am today. That was a good night of sleep! It was very quiet in the IMAX parking lot so that was nice! We wanted to make the 8:30 am showing for the Grand Canyon IMAX, so we hurried to make breakfast and take showers. We made the showing and the movie was wonderful!! I love IMAX movies. You feel like you are right there! I could picture myself rafting down the Colorado River and flying over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter or light flying craft. It can only be seen at that IMAX tho which I find disappointing. You can buy the DVD but, David said last time he watched it, it wasn’t as good as in the theater. So, you are in the Grand Canyon area and want to experience this awesome IMAX movie, head to Tusayan. That’s where it is.

We’re definitely headed to Bryce Canyon NP today, but first we made a slight detour to dump in the campground in Grand Canyon NP. After that, we were back on the road headed east and then north. The roads were pretty bumpy and shook the RV a far bit. Upon later inspect in the evening, I found an impact hole in one of the water jugs. Ugh. States need to put more money into their roads!!!! We stopped in Page, AZ for lunch at Sonic. It was great to have cherry limeade. :) Lake Powell is in Page, so we got to cross the dam that is there.

We crossed in Utah shortly after that and the roads improved for a short while, then were crappy again. Ugh. David was all too happy to leave AZ. The roads were so bad. He says he hates AZ and never wants to go back. Ever! (Note: David apologizes to everyone who is from AZ). :P We stopped for gas in Kanab and got some frostys at Wendys. It was hot in Kanab! And we had just finished our limeades so it was a welcomed treat. The teenage girl at the cash register just did not care about her job. There was this huge line of customers and that girl was totally responsible for it. I wanted to tell her that life only gets worse from here just to try to cheer her up. Ya, I’m evil, but she was rude. Oh well. At least she didn’t make my frosty. I half expected her to spit in it.

From Kanab, it’s a straight shot north to Bryce Canyon NP along the 89. David was getting pretty tired as we approached. Driving this RV is stressful and exhausting to him. And since we’ve been driving a lot these days, he’s been pretty tired. I had to keep him pumped and awake as we neared the NP. As we neared the park, I noticed a big plume of smoke to my right. Great, another fire. I hope they don’t have a managed fire in Bryce too. As we made the turnoff fro Bryce, there was the sign. “Managed Fire. Do Not Report.” Great! These pics will be crap too. The road leading up to the entrance was very pretty tho and didn’t have any smoke looming over it. The hoodoos and the surrounding mountains are a bright orange clay.

We finally found the rest stop we were looking for. It was on the wrong part of the map. We’re not doing very well with rest stops lately. Stupid AAA. Anyway, David took a nap and I worked on my computer for a bit. Once David wasn’t a zombie anymore we headed into the park for park maps and info. Our plan is to check out the park tomorrow since the sun was about to set. As we neared the park, the smoke loomed overhead. We asked the park ranger about the fire and she said that it was supposed to last for a few more days. That put a damper on our hopes of seeing Bryce Canyon in its beauty. But now we know that they light fires in mid-September in the national parks. We also found out that the last 5 miles of the park is closed due to the fire. Oh well. We’ll see what we can see tomorrow. We drove into the park until we could turn around and then headed back to the rest stop. We made dinner and read the park newspaper and pamphlet. It looked like there are some cool trails to check out. Maybe we’ll get the chance. After dinner, we watched a few episodes of Deadwood and then headed to bed. Let’s hope that the fire/smoke conditions are better tomorrow. Night!


September 15, 2008

We woke up with the sun as it beat down into our bedroom window. Ugh! It’s too early. I got up and made some tea with The Music of the Night (Phantom of the Opera) stuck in my head cuz that was the song that Johnny Depp was playing on the piano in my dream as he whined about not being able to find work. Yes, it would have been nice if he was serenading me instead of complaining but I can’t manipulate my dreams. :P

As I was doing dishes, I noticed a strong smell of smoke coming into the RV. When I looked out the window, I gasped. The park was covered in smoke! Thick smoke. We’re not going to be able to hike in this, let alone walk around in this. After David exited the bathroom, I told him about the smoke. He went outside to take pics while I finished getting ready. When he returned, he was lightheaded from inhaling the smoke. Sadly, we decided to give Bryce Canyon a miss and we headed to Zion NP. Hopefully Zion isn’t covered in smoke too.

We headed west to I-15 and headed south. As we neared the exit for Zion, we noticed a haze settled over the area. We stopped by the Visitor Center for Zion that was off I-15 and asked the rangers if there was a fire near Zion. They said that there was one north of Zion but it wasn’t affecting the park. But, you could see the effect it was already having in the area. We gave Zion a miss too and headed back to California. We can always come back with a car and see these two parks pretty easily since they are so close to home.

The drive back to Phelan went pretty fast. We took I-15 back, stopped in Las Vegas for gas and Primm for lunch. It was sooooo hot in Vegas. We both thought that it would be a little bit cooler since we had left in July, but nope! We drank soooo much water on the way back to stay hydrated. To keep the RV from overheating, we had to turn the A/C off on the hills. It made the drive very uncomfortable. We stopped in Baker at Alien Fresh Jerky. We picked up several bags of jerky to bring back to the desert. The place was pretty neat. It was decorated with tons of aliens.

The drive after Baker continued to be hot and miserable and we arrived back in Phelan about 6 pm, hot and tired.

It’s good to be back in the desert and not traveling around the states. But, it was fun while it lasted. I had hoped that we could hike a little bit more and drive less but we started to run out of time and needed to cover more ground faster. My favorite place on the trip was Glacier NP in Montana. There are a lot of neat trails up there and the landscape is beautiful. I hope you all enjoyed my travel blog and maybe I have inspired you all to travel more as well. :)