Moab, Utah

 Hi all,
We headed out on Thursday for Moab, Utah. It was about 170 miles of very pretty scenery.

Mexican Hat

We got a site at OK RV Park 3 miles south of town. Wendy had searched the park reviews and thought it would be a good place for a few days. As luck has it we got the last site and it is looking directly at a old run down mobile home. Turns out the annual Easter Jeep Safari is this week and most everything in town is booked. So we will just make the best and carry on.
 Moab is a super mecca for the outdoor fanatic. The area is famous for off road vehicles and mountain biking. But that's not all one can do, there's tons of rocks to climb, rafting the Colorado River, along with oodles of hiking.
 You also have two major national parks, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park to explore.
 Our first goal was Arches N.P. and what a place! Over 75,000 acres and over 2000 arches. We were amazed, we spent a good six hours in the park on the first visit and saw probably 12.

  Not just arches there are plenty of balancing rocks and canyons to explore the hours away.

 Some of the arches are visible from the road and some require a hike. Finding parking spots can get crazy at times, they do have some shuttle plans in the future.
 They have a 50 site campground no hookups and reservations are usually necessary.

Monument Valley

Hi all,
Now for the exciting news you have been waiting for. We finally left Arizona after over 5 months. Arizona was great and we left some stones unturned for a return trip.
 So now onto Utah and our first stop Monument Valley.

 We camped at Goulding's Camp Park. This is part of a hotel complex that was started in the 1920's by Harry and Leone Goulding. In the 30's during the depression they heard a movie production company was searching for a southwest location. Harry set off for Hollywood with his last $60 and by luck met director John Ford. After showing him pictures of Monument Valley Ford was convinced and soon after Stagecoach with John Wayne was filmed there.

 Over the years it has become a famous backdrop for more than 50 movies. Of recent note scenes from Forest Gump, Back to the Future III, and the new Lone Ranger movie.
 The hotel now features a museum, a small theater and a cabin used by John Wayne during production. An added surprise just off the backside of the campground was a short trail that led to a hidden arch.

 And now to the Monuments, we got up early to catch a sunrise and got a couple nice shots. Later we opted to do the 17 mile self drive through. They offer tours that go further but they were in open trucks dusty and cold we thought. As it was we thought we saw all the main monuments and got to do some off roading to.)

Page AZ

Hi all,
 Well, seems we are back on vacation mode and my twice a week posts can't keep up. We left Page for Monument Valley today but never wrote about Page. So you will have to tune in later for Monument Valley and you will want to do that-(teaser).
 Page is a pretty cool place and has the claim to being the newest city in the lower 48 states. It started as a worker camp for those building Glen Valley Dam on the Colorado River. The dam is slightly smaller than Hoover Dam and created Lake Powell. It took seven years for the dam to be built and 17 years for Lake Powell to fill in. The town almost hit ghost town status after the dam completion. It sprang to life again in the early 70's with the Navajo Generating Station. It finally was incorporated in 1975.

  Most activity now in Page centers around tourism with Lake Powell activities. We saw large boat yards with humongous pontoon boats all waiting for the season to begin.

 We toured the dam visitor center and drove north along the lake. Below the dam is the famous Horseshoe Bend, quite the site to see. It required a 3/4 mile walk to view and once there you found no railings to hide behind. You view the 270 degree bend from 1000 feet above.

  Seemed we weren't there very long and Wendy wanted to leave. When I questioned her why she pointed out a large family with numerous little kids not being watched. We saw the same things with some at the Grand Canyon, it's just crazy.

 The next big thing was Antelope Canyon, a slot canyon carved in sandstone. This is on Navajo land and we scheduled a 1:00 tour with them. You get a 15 minute  truck ride down a long sandy wash to the canyon then a tour guide leads you through the canyon pointing out various features. The guide was also very helpful in getting every ones cameras set to the best settings.

Grand Canyon Finale

Hi all,
 We left the Grand Canyon today and drove about 120 miles to Page, AZ. We will post more about that later but wanted to get in one more post on Grand Canyon.
  We spent 4 full days touring the park and short of going down into the canyon we think we seen most all of the south rim. You could do it with less time with the use of the buses.
 The bus system there is wonderful, it has stops at most of the south rim points of interest including the visitor center, souvenir stores and the Hopi Museum. They stop every 15 minutes through out the day. It also enabled us to walk most of the rim without having to backtrack the route which was great.

 There was one area that the buses didn't cover about 25 miles on the east end. It features a watch tower designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. She also designed other architecture in the park including Phantom Ranch at the river.

 Our last night we took a short drive to see some wildlife. There are many Elk in the area and they are not camera shy. Mule deer and squirrels are also abundant.

 Overall it was a great visit, the weather could have been a little warmer but it was still manageable with the right gear.

 

Grand Canyon part II

Hi all,
Got bad news yesterday- the company (Millinicom) that we get our internet service through is raising rates as of May 1. We were paying $59.90 for  3G service and it is going up to $89.90 for 4 G. Many RVers have been using this service and reading in the forums seems like not much we can do. When you weigh other options it still may be the better choice. They claim the cost to them has gone up making it necessary to raise it. (
 When we made our plans to do the Grand Canyon we looked at weather forecast and tried to delay it as much as possible for warmer weather. Well we didn't hit it to good. Our temps have been in the 50s dropping to 28 at night.
 Yesterday we took a drive to the east side of the park, as we drove we noticed a very cloudy looking sky back to the west. We then started to see light snow around us. On the return trip we got into some real good snowfall. The roads were mostly just wet but it was starting to accumulate pretty good elsewhere.
 But you all know you can't change the weather, Mother Nature always does her thing.
 Well we dug out our winter coats ( for the first time in 2 years) put on our gloves and warm hats and will make the best of it. Actually Wendy says it may give her some better pics with the pretty white stuff about.

Williams to The Grand Canyon

Hi all,
 Time to catch up a bit. We have been spending a few days in Williams, AZ  as we wait for our reserved dates at the Grand Canyon.
 Williams is about 60 mi. south of the Grand Canyon and they run train rides back and forth daily. It is also the last town on Rte. 66 that was bypassed by I40. The main street on old Rt 66 has a bunch of stores selling memorabilia and also features some old diner restaurants.

 With not much in town to do, so we made a random drive in the country. We made a big loop around the San Francisco Peaks to Flagstaff and back. The San Fran Peaks are the tallest in AZ at 12633 and still showed some snow even with the lower than normal amounts.

  It was a nice sunny 60 degree day and we found a little pull off that had a 1-1/2 mile  hike. It was a nice hike through some ponderosa pines and along a open field.
 Just across from the hike we passed a unique rustic church. The Chapel of the Holy Dove an A-frame structure that at the entry end was probably 7 feet then went to over 20 feet at the other end. There was no electricity and had only stones for the floor. The back wall was large glass windows with a beautiful mountain view.

  I don't think they hold regular services there but they did have a sign up sheet for weddings. Sadly the place was covered with graffiti, although much of it prayers for such-n such I don't think they ever tried to stop.
                                          So on to The Grand Canyon.
 We made reservations at Grand Canyon Trailer Village, to be here from Mar.31 to Apr.5. It is right in the park with shuttles just a short walk away.
 Some roads you can't drive. They encourage you to take the free shuttle buses. They run from early morning in case you want to see a sunrise to 30 min after sunset. and they run about every 15 minutes so waiting is minimal.
 They are predicting some cold weather with highs in 40's and lows into the teens, I know how bad you all feel for us but we will do our best to brave it out.)
 Today we did the Hermits Rest route. We took two shuttles to the end then picked out a hiking trail along the rim for 3 miles.
  I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.