Epic RV Trip of 2017, That I Never Made Time to Document...Until Now

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Morning Fiends,

 

I took a trip last summer with the family and never made time to document it, though I have always wanted to share it with the community and because I like remembering it.  So, here we go!

 

I've always wanted to get a RV.  I've rented them a few times for NASCAR races and stayed with friends.  DW wasn't so sure.  I managed to convince that we could rent one an take a roadtrip for vacation to see if this is what we wanted to do.  We rented a RV travel trailer from RVshare.  I found the right owner.  He didn't think I needed to pay off his whole note in two nights of rental and he was easy to work with.  I recommend the technique and the website, but you need to find the right owner to make your experience as pleasurable as ours.  The TT is unremarkable.  It got the job done, so not going to cover much on it.

 

We mapped out a 9 day trip through AZ, UT, and CO centered on NPS properties.  The kids are in love with the Junior Ranger program and I didn't want to hold back their badge collecting!  

 

Day 1 - El Paso to Petrified Forest NP to Williams, AZ:

We're road warriors, so 508 miles didn't make us blink (would much rather take our time to smell the roses, but I don't get to take big chunks of vacation all the time, so we squeezed a lot in on this trip).  The drive from ELP to Silver City, NM is really boring.  Mostly flat, not much scenery, and not much on the side of the road for a potty break, gas, or snacks.  North of Silver City, we got into the Gila and Apache National Forests.  The scenery improved greatly:

Roadside park in the Apache National Forest.  What a view.

DS and DD in their sweet Jr Ranger vests ready to collect their loot and enjoying a leg stretch and a run to the back of the trailer to empty the tanks...with a view.

We arrived to Petrified Forest NP late morning.  PFNP is separated by the highway (connected by bridge) and you can enter from the North or South.  I did some research and the consensus of my research said to enter from the southern end of the park and exit to the north IF you are doing the park in a day or less.  First reason, the southern part of the part is the actual petrified forest where you'll want to spend a lot of time and if you run out in the south, you don't miss the most interesting part of the park.  Second reason, the access to get back on the highway from the northern gate is much easier.  I recommend this technique if you are approaching from the South or the West.  It'd be too many extra miles coming from North/East.

We stopped at the southern Visitor Center and grabbed our Jr Ranger books and a quick lunch before setting out into the park:

One of the 100s of spots to view petrified wood.  IT'S EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

The southern end of the park is reminiscent of the Badlands with a TON of wood scattered all over the ground.

We continued our way north through the park.  We stopped to hike 2 or 3 short trails.  Crystal Forest was one of them.  The others escape my memory a year later.  It was worth to stop for one, but there is so much wood, the unbelievable work of nature got a little repetitive despite the impressive sight of it all.  Near the bridge over the highway there is a old roadbed for Rte 66 with a pull off with some markers about the history of the park and how Rte 66 and the automobile made it grow.  Worth a stop for Mother Road junkies.

The northern part of the park is called the Painted Desert.  It's very picturesque.  Not much to do from the car than a pull off or two.  If you want to get into the heart of it, you have to go on some significant hikes.  Due to time and kids nearing fun expiration dates for the day, we snapped some pictures and moved along.

Sweeping view of the "Painted Desert" with the park road winding along the rim of the valley

We stopped in the northern Visitor Center for some Jr Ranger iron and emptied the bladders for the run to Williams.

The moment DS was begging for all day...gimme that badge!

 

The drive on 40 to Williams, AZ is nice. We didn't take anymore pictures for the day, but I remember being impressed with the mountains and forests.  We arrived to Grand Canyon Railway Hotel and RV Park around dinner time.  We set up camp, ate some grub (spaghetti according to my trip planner.  We didn't follow all the details to the letter...particularly when we ate what meal and what trails we hiked...but this is where I collected all my research and planning for the trip.  And yes, I'm a bit of a planning nerd.  It's basically my job, but we don't fight the plan.  If a trail I researched wasn't recommended by the rangers or the kids revolted on another lunch of cold cuts, we don't always stick to the plan).  We grabbed some showers and some sack time to get ready for 2 days in the Grand Canyon.

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Day 2 and 3 - Grand Canyon NP:

 

We set out in the morning for the big ditch.  GCNP is a common destination, won't make a huge post on these days with bunches of hole pictures.  If you have some specific questions, please ask.

We spent Day 2 at the S Rim Visitor Center and nearby POIs on the S Rim, got our Jr Ranger Badges, and got the chance to attend their star festival.  The star festival was great.  Many amateur astronomers and a smattering of pros with telescopes set up, lectures, and more looking up at the sky.  The only tough part was the kids were pooped.  DW and I could've gone longer, but they were done.  We drove back to the camper and recocked for Day 3.

 

We got a slower start this day, better prepared knowing we wanted to document the sunset.  I watched the kids play around in the campground's playground for a bit while DW went to the store to buy a few essentials that we left on the counter back home.  We got up to GCNP and spent the afternoon near the Desert Tower on the east side of the park.  We worked our way back to the S Rim Visitor Center in the late afternoon, grabbed a quickie dinner from the cooler, and found our perch for the sunset.  With my kids being 5 and 8, we didn't want to be so close to the rim.  So our spot was great, but there was some real estate in front of us that a group of about 30 college kids thought would be a great place to set up and be noisy and stand so my kids couldn't see.  We issues enough passive-aggressive dirty looks until we felt satisfied (I'm sure they were really upset.....) and found another perch just before the light show began.  After the sunset, we boogied back to the camper to get ready for another big day on the road.  

 

A few pics:

Showing little man something of interest through my monocular.  I wished I had it handier and had trained them how to use it before we got to the park.  They enjoyed seeing things way out there.

Jr Ranger badges, baby!

Ah-mazing sunset.  Highly recommend it.  The rim erupted in applause when the sun finally dipped below the horizon.  It was quite a view.

 

It's the Grand Canyon.  Must go.  Each day throughout the whole trip, not just here, I carried a backpack with lickies and chewies for the kids, hats, jackets, and water.  It is standard procedure for us and recommend it.  There is ample opportunity to refill water, so for my family of four, we had about 3 quarts of water capacity and snacks for the day.  I regretted not planning kiddo sleep better for the trip.  If we weren't camping newbs and unfamiliar with the camper, if I had to do it again, I probably would've boondocked in the national forest south of the park.  1) We didn't need the hook ups like I feared the family would require 2) We could've gone back and forth to the camper during the day instead of been an hour away from the home on wheels.  We did like the CG overall.  It's a fancy parking lot, but there is grass between every site, so your neighbor's slide isn't threatening to ram your rig.  The amenities are adequate.  The shower house was a bit of a mess by the time we got to it each night and hot water was for the early birds only.  Williams, AZ itself is a wonderful town.  I would've liked to spend more time there, but as I mentioned in my first post, we slammed every second of NPS into our 9 days.  No time for lounging around!

 

We want to go back someday.  We want to spend more time out of the car and down in the canyon.  Also, we want to see the North Rim as well.

 

Next up:  Day 4, a grueling road day from Williams, through three NPS properties, and to our CG outside of Bryce Canyon.

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Alright, breakfast thrown at the kids.  The saga continues...

 

Day 4 - Williams, AZ to Sunset Crater Volcano NP to (unplanned) Wupatki NM to Cedar Breaks NM to CANNONVILLE / BRYCE VALLEY KOA in Cannonville, UT

 

First off, WHAT A DRIVE!  Such a beautiful part of the country.  Lots of elevation changes and some tight quarters on this day.  The route I took isn't for the unprepared or faint of heart behind the wheel.  At one point, I had the trailer almost jacknifed on an overlook in Sunset Crater (DW was not as impressed with my driving as I was with my abilities to deal with my curiosity or stupidity as she called it that day).  

We set out from Williams nice and early.  Check out at the CG was nice and easy.  We arrived at Sunset Crater Volcano NP early in the morning.  We really loved this place.  We hiked two trails and got the JR Badges for the kids.  We stayed about 3 or 4 hours.  We probably could've hiked another trail, but that's about all you need here despite it being strikingly beautiful and interesting.

Kids in front of the Visitor Center.  The NM received a bunch of money for deferred maintenance last year.  The facilities were all recently redone and they were working on repaving the park road.  Really great.

My attempt at artsy photography.  Wildflowers foreground and the volcano in the background

Lava field from the most recent eruption, which is one of the most recent in the area.  It happened 1000s of years ago, but recent in Earth time.  Note that only a few types of plants have figured out how to grow through the ash and rock.  The ridge line with the evergreens in the right background had only trees on it.  It is a good geek out place coupled with beauty.

This is the mouth of the "Ice Cave".  It's actually a lava tube that goes so deep there is always ice formed in the bottom of it.  The air coming out of the cave was around 40 degrees.  It was nuts.  The tube partially collapsed some time ago, so visitors aren't allowed inside anymore, hence the grate on it. 

While we were at the SCVNM Visitor Center, the Rangers mentioned that there was another NM, Wupatki NM, just north of SCVNM.  In fact, there is a NPS maintained road that runs between the two.  The road was in great shape, but some fairly significant elevation changes that would challenge some folks.  Also, don't drive up the overlook that says no RVs over X feet even if you are only 2 feet longer than the warning.  Unless, like me (mentioned above), you want an opportunity to test your driving skills and try out the boundaries of your relationship with your SO. 

The drive to WNM is about 40 mins.  WNM and SCVNM tell an interesting tale.  Several tribes lived near the volcano (also the tribes that lived in and around the Grand Canyon) before the eruption.  In the days leading to the eruption, something tipped them off that the eruption was imminent (leading theory of NPS was animals acting strangely).  Whatever the reason they decided to leave, they all moved to the area where the NM is and set out on a new life 20-30 miles north.  It was an interesting relationship between the two NMs.  SCVNM told the geologic story and WNM told the cultural story.  

Because WNM was added to the schedule on the fly and Cedar Breaks NM was THE park I was most interested to see throughout the whole trip, we didn't get much out of WNM other than a quick lunch in the trailer at the Visitor Center parking lot and a quick drive through the park.  No badges for the kids...something I wished we would've done.  However, it's motivation to come back again and see all the things we missed.

We struck out from WNM.  The route was quite pretty.  Not too many stops or gas stations.  You have to plan your mileage so you don't run out before you get out in the boonies.  We arrived to Cedar Breaks NM mid afternoon.  The road up to CBNM is narrow, windy, and steep (a bit of a theme here, eh?).  The NM is at 10350'.  There was still snow on the ground here and there in mid-JUN.  It didn't impede our travel at all, but a consideration when you want to arrive.  Because of the elevation, the weather was absolutely amazing.  The kids wanted their jackets eventually, but I wanted to soak it in after living in the desert summer for so long.  CBNM is at least a day/overnight spot.  I wanted to hike the few trails and spend a night or two in the onsite CG once I got there.  It is most definitely on our list to return to one day.  Also unbeknownst to me in my research, CBNM is known for a huge wildflower bloom in late JUN.  We missed the bloom by several days.  Their website/facebook communicates the bloom fairly well.  Better make CG ressies early if you want to camp during the bloom (even though you have to make a guess on the bloom days, months in advance.  Be more to the minute Mother Nature!).  They're as hard or harder to get than FW ressies during Christmas.

While we were there, there was a wildfire nearby.  That's what the smoke is in the pictures (and you'll see some smoke in Bryce Canyon pictures in my next post from the fire too).

The breaks.  Very interesting colors and geology made even prettier with the elevation.  Fire off on the right.

Working on those activities for that JR badge!

Even though we missed the main part of the bloom, there were still a lot of flowers showing up early to be first for the "rope drop"

We moved out from CBNM and drove another beautiful route and arrived to our campground just east of Bryce Canyon NP in Cannonville, UT just as the sun was setting.

 

Up next Day 5 at Bryce Canyon NP.

 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Wonderful pictures!  Sounds like an amazing adventure 😊  

We did the SW this year and absolutely LOVED it.  Can't wait to go back!

Thanks for taking the time, to write a TR.  Excited to follow along!

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

On 7/30/2018 at 6:58 AM, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Wonderful pictures!  Sounds like an amazing adventure 😊  

We did the SW this year and absolutely LOVED it.  Can't wait to go back!

Thanks for taking the time, to write a TR.  Excited to follow along!

Thanks.  I read your TR and saw you did White Sands.  I remember you asking me about it when I posted a TR for it.  It's a wild place.

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Day 5 - Bryce Canyon NP.

 

The campground is a few minutes away from the boundary of Bryce and about 25 min from the visitor center.  We got to the VC and picked up our JR Books.  BCNP is VERY proud of their JR program.  By that, I mean the requirements far exceeded most of the other parks we've done the program.  The kids had to see several specific things across the park, answer some more complex questions, and pick up 10 pieces of trash.  The book even came with a glove stuffed in it to pick up the trash.  It seemed a little daunting up front, but like most things with my kids, I was wrong.  They ate it up.  They enjoyed picking up the trash and still pick up trash everywhere we go based on that lesson (I guess mom and dad telling them to pick up their own trash isn't a good enough lesson...now they pick up anyone's trash because a cartoon prairie dog told them to...I'll take it though).  

 

One of the amphitheaters at Bryce.  Just one or two hoodoos out there.

 

 

FIRED UP to pick up litter!

 

We grabbed a picnic lunch in the park, per usual, and finished up the JR activities just after lunch.  Evidently all the parks in this area host Space Fests around this time of year.  We caught an interesting program at the hotel that we sat in a blow up planetarium (reminded me of playing with a parachute in gym class) and learned some interesting things about the night sky.  We went back to the VC to get our badges. Then we set out to hike one more trail before we went back to the camper.  I believe the name is Mossy Cave Trail, but it was by far our favorite part of Bryce.  The trail is south of the VC and off of the main highway, not the park road.  It follows a stream and goes back to the cave on one fork of the trail, then backtrack to the fork and then to a waterfall.  The kids were memorized by the water and the smoke from the wildfire mentioned above made the lighting in the narrows quite interesting.  That day there was even ash falling everywhere while we walked.  Quite eerie at times.

Our lunch spot, just down the hill from the lodge.  I wish there was more done with that gas station in the background.  It was starting to fall apart.  Would be a great exhibit to the days of the automobile making NPS properties popular or a gift shop.  

 

All the rangers treated the kids with respect and a large number, usually the rangers that looked like they still didn't live in their mom's basement, gave the kids a lot of attention for being interested in the JR program and curious about the parks.  However, this young man really did a great job.  The line stacked up about 15 deep behind us and he didn't bat an eye to talk to them about what they'd learned and encourage them to keep getting out into nature.  Bravo Zulu young fella.  Keep up the work.

Smoke from the wildfire playing with the light on the hoodoos.

That's the sun.  The landscape looked like Mars.  Really eerie, but strangely beautiful.

The Mossy Cave

The waterfall...on Mars

Once we finished up our hike, we made our way back to the CG.  We enjoyed the CG for it's location more than anything.  It was fairly full while we were there.  There is space between spots, but it's taken up by huge scrubby grass, so despite having about 10' between you and neighbors, it still feels crowded because the grass encroaches into the site and the CG specifically forbids trimming or stomping the grass. The entire CG is on a hill so the gravel sites are somewhat unlevel.  The shower house was OK, but the line to get in was nuts every night and no A/C, so it was also a sauna.  I'd stay there again, but I'd be better prepared for the unlevel sites and skip the shower house.  

 

We slept well and prepared for our next leg of the journey to a CG near Capitol Reef NP.

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

Wow. That was an epic trip. I'm sure that made a big impact on the kids. It did when I was a kid. 

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

5 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

Wow. That was an epic trip. I'm sure that made a big impact on the kids. It did when I was a kid. 

Yes.  Still need to get 2 more parks documented.  Such an impact, that we just closed a loan for a TT and take possession THU.

[Robin 48]

Congratulations!

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

8 hours ago, Robin said:

Congratulations!

thanks

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Day 6 - Travel from Cannonville, UT with a pit stop in Escalante, UT for groceries to Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, UT.

We pulled up the stakes at a decent time and set out on our journey.  We headed on UT-12 out of Cannonville.  A fellow camper told us we were nuts to take that route, "it was twisty and curvy and I almost died several times."  That is a bit of a stretch for me, but there are several points fairly near Cannonville that have big drop offs with no guard rails.  It was pretty and wouldn't have wanted to go the longer less scenic way.

 

We stopped in Escalante, UT.  It's the dot on the map above.  It was about the midpoint and had a few gas stations.  Also, we needed a few groceries so we stopped into Griffin's Grocery and General Merchandise (no website - 30 W Main St, Escalante, UT).  It was a quaint little store, helpful staff, and felt like going to the store in my small town when I was a kid.  Good place to fill up the fridge.

 

We continued north on UT-12...😱😱the DEATH HIGHWAY😱😱... which was possibly the most scenic leg of the journey.  Lots of elevation change and curves, but well worth the work behind the wheel.  We arrived to Thousand Lakes RV Park just in time to set up camp and cook lunch.  The campground was aging and not a lot of privacy between sites, but everything else about it was great.  The scenery around it is great.  The staff is friendly and knowledgeable about Capitol Reef NP and the amenities are nice.  Pool, big grass lot for play, playground, a restaurant (didn't partake, but it was always busy), jeep rentals, on and on.  Would definitely stay here again.  Here is the big lawn and pool:

 

We went over to CRNP to scout out what we wanted to do the next day and of course, get those Jr Ranger books.  We drove around and stopped at some pull offs.  Then we went to one of the orchards that was open at the time and picked some apricots.  For the uninitiated, the area of Capitol Reef has a ton of geology nerdout, but it was also the location of several Mormon families that made the area their home for some time.  One of the ways they made a go in this rough country is cultivating orchards.  The NPS continues to work all of the original orchards.  As the fruit ripens they post it all over social media about when which fruit is ripe and what they expect to ripen next.  It was a fun activity to pick some apricots with the kids and a nice snack.  It was free to eat within the orchard and the steep price of $2/lb to take them with you.

Rocks!

The Capitol Dome.  A dome that marginally resembles the Capitol?

Picking apricots with provided picking poles

The ladder was too enticing.

We headed back to the CG for dinner and got everyting settled for the night.  The kids played soccer and on the playground for awhile.  We went for a walk around the CG and stopped to watch the sunset.

This is from the CG.  My panoramic was a little wonky, but you get the point.

 

We woke up the next morning and went out for some great hikes.  The park is really incredible and HUGE.  We explored just a portion of it.  There is a lot more of the park that recommends 4x4 (hence jeep rentals at the CG).  The park rangers said that my dually would've made most of the roads, but I wasn't interested in finding out.  There was plenty to do in the main part of the park with the time we had allotted. 

Another great young American that's motivating young kids to get out into nature.  She was great.

I really enjoyed this park.  It's my favorite of all the places we went and I could've stayed another week.  It is a great intersection of science and culture (not only the Mormon homesteaders, but also an ancient culture that the park doesn't know a whole lot about.  There are petroglyphs from this culture all over the park that were quite impressive).  This park is impressive and not very busy unlike its neighbors Bryce and Arches.  Definitely on my return back to list.

We returned to the CG and prepared for a big travel day to Mesa Verde NP.

 

 

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Great update!

I really want to drag the camper out to that section of the US, one of these days I'm going to.

Thanks for posting the trip report!

WBI

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I love western trip reports.  That scenery never gets old.  

[Humphrey Bear…Rob 42]

Wow!  What a great trip!   Awesome panoramic pics!  I wanna go now!

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

22 hours ago, WannaBeImagineer said:

Great update!

I really want to drag the camper out to that section of the US, one of these days I'm going to.

Thanks for posting the trip report!

WBI

I wished I made more trips out that way while we were in El Paso.  I'll do up a TR for a trip I did to AZ for Turkey Day 2017 sans camper soon.

21 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

I love western trip reports.  That scenery never gets old.  

I thought it was going to be interesting, but I never knew until we moved out there how great it would be.  We really enjoyed our 2 years in El Paso.  Hard to wake up in the morning and not be surrounded by rugged mountains.

21 hours ago, Humphrey Bear…Rob said:

Wow!  What a great trip!   Awesome panoramic pics!  I wanna go now!

I've polished my pano skills since this trip, had a few goofs here and there, but thanks.  Yes, it is a must go.  Go now, run...get to the chopper.

But yes, go.  I haven't gotten a taste of all the BLM  and USFS boondocking out there coupled with all of these great places, but that's where I'm going to find myself a lot in the years to come.

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

Alright, let's finish this bad dude out.

 

Day 7 - Torrey, UT to Ancient Cedars Mesa Verde CG, Mancos, CO.

We broke camp very early to get on the road with this big drive in front of us.  As all of the drives, this leg was pretty as well.  It was interesting to start out in the unique UT landscape and finish the day in a John Denver song.  The drive was relatively easy with plenty of places to fuel and the roads weren't corkscrews (though I like it when they're like that...keeps me engaged).

To really see Mesa Verde NP, you need to buy tickets for a guided tour.  We had planned to buy them on this day get to the CG and have a lazy afternoon to wake up early and thrash through the park and drive all day home.  We thought there was no way there would be tickets left.  Well, we lucked out.  They had tickets for the late afternoon.  So we scratched the lazy day in the CG and decided to go on the tour and get home early to be lazy at home! (we really enjoyed this trip and I would've spent a year out here, but I had to get back to work and coming back to work tired from vacation wasn't sounding good).

Of course we grabbed our JR books and set out into the park.  We had a few hours to explore the park before our tour.  The drive up to the top of the mesa is quite scenic and takes some time.  You need to give yourself probably an hour to get to the top.  We got up to the top and hit the checks on the JR requirements just in time to get down to the tour start point.  The tours, especially the Cliff Palace require some agility.  They are not handicap accessible and require being not too afraid of heights.  I feared DS, who is the scaredy cat of the family, would have the biggest issues.  But as usual, kids proved dad wrong.  He loved every minute of it and scared his mom to death because he wasn't paying attention to the edge of the cliff.

 

The tour itself takes you down into a village where Pueblo People of the area moved to.  One of the going theories is that a neighboring tribe's violence forced the people off the top of the mesa onto the cliffs for protection.  They still farmed the top of the mesa, but lived in the cliffs for protection.  The whole history of the culture and seeing how the people adapted to change was fascinating (a huge reason I recommend the Jr Ranger program to those with smaller kids.  It gets them interested to mosey through the museum with you to figure out parts of their books and I get to actually read and look instead of "dad, this is boring."  Clever clever NPS).

The Cliff Palace.  An amazing feat of man.  It was mostly a natural cave that already existed, but they did carve it out in places and somehow made all those bricks.  Just incredible.

Up close with the Palace.  We didn't get to go inside unfortunately.  Like most things, tourists from the past vandalized and damaged the ruins so the NPS had to rope it off to protect it for a few jerks' lack of respect.  

Nice picture of my bum, but this was the best shot I have of us scrambling out of the Cliff Palace.  We're currently waiting in a line to get to a ladder (a ladder made from lashed timber by the way) to get back up to the top of the Mesa.  There were a few folks that freaked out and had to climb out with the Ranger on the tour with us.  I think he went up and down the ladder 3 or 4 trips before we were all out.  Again, DW and I had no issues.  The kids had a few struggles with some of the ladder rungs being a little far apart, but there weren't ever scared fortunately.

 

We got back to the CG for dinner.  The CG seemed ok.  It was a bit on the old side, but the sites were fairly level and it was clean.  It had a pool, hot tub, and mini golf (none of which we used).  It's greatest attribute is that it is literally across the street from Mesa Verde NP.  I'd stay here again if I was going to the NP or stopping through.

At the end of each day, the kids hung their badges here.  This is all of the badges lined up after Mesa Verde.  Quite a lot of loot!

We packed up and got on the road early to return to El Paso.  It was a 7 hour drive that was fine, but no time to enjoy it.  We were hammer down to get home so we could get the trailer prepped to return the next day and to take it easy.

9 days, 8 NPS properties, and about 2000 miles.  It was a wonderful trip.  The only thing that would've made it better is more time.

You're thinking, "Slap, why didn't you hit Arches and Canyonlands!?" We considered it.  But two things took us all the way out of S Utah to SW Colorado.  1) NPS scared us away some that those two parks (and Bryce) were really crowded during these weeks...and Bryce really was.  I much rather enjoyed the parks that weren't too busy.  Capitol Reef and Cedar Breaks were my favorite spots and fewer crowds made them even better.  S Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce felt way too paved and prepared than a NP.  They are sights to see, but if we go back, we'll do the N Rim of the Grand Canyon and get off the road and away from the crowds more at Bryce.   2) DW traveled to Mesa Verde when she was a kid and wanted to relive that memory with our kids.  We'll get out to Arches and Moab one day. 

All this trip has done is gotten us hooked on the desert and the SW.  In a second, I would retrace this path, see all these parks again with more time and add more time to see the parks we missed.  You can honestly spend days or weeks in these places and still not feel you've seen it all.  I'll retire from the Army in a few years and I'm seriously considering a job with the Interior so I can get paid to work in a spot like this.

 

Thanks for following along if you got this far.  Like I mentioned, we did a trip to AZ over Thanksgiving last year as well that looks like it needs to be documented based on the "West TRs are sweet" comments.

 

Regards,

Sir Slap of the Wack.

[Part-Time Paradise 4]

I'm going to be busy for a couple of days, so the next TR will have to wait awhile.  But from what I've taken from other fiends, particularly TCD, a teaser gets you Dole Whipped up into a Fiend Frenzy 😄.

 

Stay tuned for next time where the Slapwacky family avoids spending Thanksgiving with relatives to trace the path of Spanish explorers, see a valley of cactus, walk were the Frontier Army took a stand, and this:

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

On 7/31/2018 at 8:07 AM, Slapwacky said:

Thanks.  I read your TR and saw you did White Sands.  I remember you asking me about it when I posted a TR for it.  It's a wild place.

Yes!  We LOVED White Sands!  Couldn't believe how large it was!  And you were right... no problems with the rig.  It's really nice that they let you drive in there with your home.  Makes staying all day, super easy!

Loved the rest of your trip!  Isn't Capitol Reef amazing?!  I couldn't believe the colors there.  Bryce Canyon too.  All of the SW actually.  Hard not to love it all.  Arches in on our list... but not for a few years.  Next year I'm hoping to check the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque off the bucket list.  If we get to go, we'll also hit Mesa Verde.  Really wanted to do that this past trip... but (even with 4 weeks), just not enough time.  Have you hit Zion yet?  If not... that NP is a MUST do!

Thanks for taking us along on the journey.  2,000 miles in 9 days... y'all are crazy!  Great times!!

[djsamuel 322]

57 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Yes!  We LOVED White Sands!  Couldn't believe how large it was!  And you were right... no problems with the rig.  It's really nice that they let you drive in there with your home.  Makes staying all day, super easy!

Loved the rest of your trip!  Isn't Capitol Reef amazing?!  I couldn't believe the colors there.  Bryce Canyon too.  All of the SW actually.  Hard not to love it all.  Arches in on our list... but not for a few years.  Next year I'm hoping to check the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque off the bucket list.  If we get to go, we'll also hit Mesa Verde.  Really wanted to do that this past trip... but (even with 4 weeks), just not enough time.  Have you hit Zion yet?  If not... that NP is a MUST do!

Thanks for taking us along on the journey.  2,000 miles in 9 days... y'all are crazy!  Great times!!

When you go to Arches be sure to go to Canyonlands NP, which is nearby.  Another great park!

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

1 hour ago, djsamuel said:

When you go to Arches be sure to go to Canyonlands NP, which is nearby.  Another great park!

Absolutely!! 

[LONE-STAR 370]

Love the pics they make me want to hook up and go. I miss having a camper.