Summer of 2014; Tour of Utah, Colorado and Arizona National Parks

Utah, Colorado and Arizona National Parks

We had the month of June open for a quick trip.  Our kitchen refurbishing is finished and it is time to hit the road again.  We have visited Zion National Park in the past so we skipped that National Park.  First park will be Bryce Canyon. 

Wow!  Absolutely beautiful!  Every turn in the road shows us another fantastic view.  Here are a few of the spectacular rocks.  The tall skinny rock formations are called hoodoos or goblins.

We left Bryce and headed for Capital Reef National Park. 

We drove on Highway 12 over Boulder Mountain to the town of Torrey.  Highway 12 is listed as one of the most scenic byways in the US.  The very top section is called the Hogsback and it is at 9300 feet elevation. NO GUARD RAILS, NO SHOULDER AND SHEER CLIFFS!!! The passenger seat was not fun at all.  Good thing Walt can drive so well.

We stayed at Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, nestled right beneath beautiful red rocks.  We would recommend this campground.  Well maintained and has a restaurant and Indian jewelry for sale.

 We took the truck off road and drove into Capital Gorge. 

At the end of the dirt road we walked further in and saw our first of many petroglyphs. 

We also got attacked by “no see ums”.  We had heard about these tiny black bugs from our friends the Meesters. Well they went after our scalps with a vengeance.  Lesson learned; carry bug spray!

       Next stop was Moab Utah. 

From our campsite there we can visit the town of Moab, Arches National Park and Canyonlands.  We stayed at the OK Campground just outside of Moab.  It is a Passport campground and we enjoyed our stay.  Again, you can look up and see  tall red buttes above.   

We were able to golf while there; ONLY 96 degrees by mid-afternoon.

Arches National Park was just wonderful.  Way too hot for hiking but we were able to see most of the arches from roadside pullouts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canyonlands was different from all the others we have visited so far. No great red walls, instead, deeply carved gorges and the Green River was down at the bottom.  They recommended an off-road trail for us called Shafter Trail. 


Look at the pictures. Would you drive on it?  We didn’t.

 

Off to Durango Colorado to ride the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge railway.  We stayed at United Campground.  The train comes right thru the park.  We took the train up and back. It was a long hot day.  Steam train powered by coal.  It burns 5 tons of coal on the 100 mile roundtrip.  Very scenic journey along the Animas River. We are glad we did it but wouldn’t do it again. 

We added another National Park visit to our plans.  Mesa Verde is 30 miles outside of Durango so we decided to go to it too.  The highlight of this park is all the Indian ruins.  They have restored many cliff dwelling ruins that you can visit.  All of these parks are at high elevation.  Spruce Tree House was at 7000 feet. 

 We wished we stayed longer in Durango.  It was a cute town and we didn’t have enough time to explore it.

Monument Valley, is incredible.  It is not a National Park. It is an Indian Monument run by the Navajo Nation.  Just driving along the highway affords you spectacular views of mesas, buttes and spires.  We paid the fee and went into their park and drove the off-road valley road.  It meanders among the prettiest monuments.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We apologize for the number of pictures but could not seem to limit the number.  Just soooo beautiful!!

Monument Valley was made famous by the Director John Ford’s movies starring John Wayne. 

They used the Navajo’s as extras and the work saved them severe poverty in the post-depression era.  Movies like "Searchers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Stagecoach" were filmed right there.  We stayed at Goulding Campground in Monument Valley.  Mr. Goulding traded with the Navajo and was the man that convinced Hollywood to use Monument Valley as the backdrop for westerns. 

 There is not much in Monument Valley except the scenery. We decided to drive the Moki Dugway.  It was a section of road made back in the 1950s to access the uranium mines.   A section of it is unpaved and it has steep grades, no guard rails and numerous switchbacks.  There are a couple of cars way down in the ravine that appear to not have made the drive. 

 Jackie survived the trip up but was unwilling to drive it back down.  So, we drove 40 miles north to another National Park not on our itinerary; Natural Bridges.  It was not dramatic like so many of the other parks we have visited.  Its specialty are  "bridges" built by water erosion.

 Hot, hot, hot.  Thank you air conditioning.  Can't imagine the early pioneers on horseback.  Not even water around.  


Now is it time to head homeward.  Last National Park will be the Grand Canyon. We have been there before but it is worth a second trip.  We stayed in the town of Williams, Arizona.  Williams was the last Arizona town on the original Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40.  It is full of Route 66 memorabilia.  The town has been infused with tourists and new residents by the restarting of the train to the Grand Canyon in 2009.  

We took the train to the rim.  Didn't think we were ready for another train so soon but this one was quite comfortable and air conditioned.  Also, the monsoon season has started and the temperatures have dropped into the low 80's and 70's.  Yippee!   The train ride included a old fashion "hold-up" by a bunch of bandits on horses! How cool is that?  The kids loved it (Walt included).

One last stop and then home for some cool night air in Marin.  Pat and Jane (Blender Friends) live in Pahrump Nevada now and they have hookups for their RV friends.  We are headed there for a couple nights to catch up with them.  

Pat and Jane took us to a working whore house for lunch!!!!!   Scantily clad "ladies" were entertaining men...playing pool with no undies.  Sorry no pictures but the food was good.

Back home in Marin.  Next trip to Oregon for FMCA Rally and visit with friends and family.

Days: 30
Miles: 2543
Fuel: 298 gallons (approx.)