Our second visit to Lake Powell at Page Arizona, reminded us once again just how beautiful a sight it is with the mountains rising out of the lake.
Glen Canyon Dam/Lake Powell Shore - Took the free guided tour of Glen Canyon Dam with a very informative guide. The Dam staff have stocked a little stream inside the Dam walls with fish but a Heron had found his way in somehow and was eyeing up his Lunch & Dinner!
After the very enjoyable tour we drove to the east shore of lake Powell for a picnic on the beach. Fortunately the wind was quite strong and although it caused difficulty finding a spot on the beach where the sand did not get into our eyes, it made it seem a lot cooler than it actually was. Eating salad and sandwiches, drinking wine, paddling in the lake, rock inspecting and other beach activities ate up the afternoon.
Rainbow Bridge National Monument - Repeated the boat trip to rainbow Bridge on a very hot day (90's) which meant we made some of the return trip in the shade of the inside deck. Linda said she had enough photographs from our previous visit so she wouldn't need any more! The sheer beauty of the Lake Powell scenery put that resolution on the back-burner and she was snapping away just like everyone else. There were a few more people on the boat this time but there was still lots of space for everyone.
Navajo Bridge & Historic Lees Ferry - The Navajo bridge across the Colorado river put Lee's Ferry out of business. The ferry was operated by a Mormon gentleman (a certain Mr Lee). We met a descendant of his later on in Utah and apparently he had 20+ wives, numerous children, god knows how many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Our informant was a great, great grandchild. It could be that a large portion of the population of Utah is related to Mr Lee also. We picnicked at Lee's Ferry where the Paria river joins the Colorado for the trip into the Grand Canyon. Many float trips into the Grand Canyon start here. We were told that there is a one year waiting list for commercial trips, and if you want to use your own boat/dingy a ten year waiting list, unless you add your name to the cancellation list, then you must be willing to go within 24 hours if required.
Flagstaff Shops/ Black Bart's Saloon - The journey from Page to Flagstaff was not as scenic as our previous journey from Flagstaff to Page. That may sound strange but thats the way it seemed to us.
The main purpose of visiting Flagstaff was a trip to Sedona and lots of shops for Margaret to get her "fix" as well as all her holiday presents (well most). Black Bart RV Park alongside two highways with a railway nearby made for some interesting lullabies. Black Barts Steakhouse (on-site) is advertised as having entertainment whilst you eat with singing waiters/waitresses. Now remember this is Arizona, where John Wayne, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and many others played and worked so the music has to be Country & Western right? Wrong, the entertainment was first class but was mainly songs from famous "Musicals", right up Margaret's street. The waiters/waitresses were all students from the Flagstaff College of Music & Dramatic Arts and we reckon many of them will make it big in the future. They were all excellent - so were the large steaks.
Sedona - Flagstaff was not too hot (60's) so a trip to Sedona seemed a good idea (high 70's). Stopped at Oak Creek Canyon overlook for views down into the canyon of the creek and the road. Margaret had her first real look at the Native American craft stalls that line the path to the viewpoints, and even made a couple of purchases. We stopped for a picnic at Slide Rock State Park which has beautiful rock formations surrounding the park and Oak Creek. We dangled our feet in the creek, watched children and adults swimming and playing in the creek before departing for Sedona in brilliant sunshine. Took a scenic drive around and through Sedona before returning home. By the time got back to Flagstaff it was late so a meal out was called for. We found Sizzler a well patronized family restaurant just off the highway with very good and reasonably priced food.
| The 200 mile journey was completed in brilliant sunshine. As we crossed over London Bridge the temperature was over 100 degrees. We were staying here in an RV resort alongside the lake for 4 nights to rest up before returning to hectic Las Vegas. This resort is ideal for the boating fraternity, and we watched these expensive and beautiful boats being towed through the park adorned by bikini clad beauties - this could have been Margaret & Linda a few? years ago!!
Breakfast was a good meal to eat outside under the awning before the day got too hot. Spent late mornings and afternoon by the swimming pool, sunbathing, swimming to cool off, reading and generally relaxing. Once the sun had gone down (around 6.00 PM) it was cool enough to get the BBQ out, although our outside light did attracted a lot of non-biting flies which drove us inside earlier than we planned. |
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| Our Truck had developed a very loud squeak when turning in either direction - quite worrying. Took it in to the Ford dealer to get it checked as we are only 500 miles from the end of the Warranty. They advised us that the problem was the Power Steering Pump, but they didn't have one in stock. As we were moving to Las Vegas the next day it was decided to get it sorted there. While the Truck was off the road did the tourist trip around London Bridge - souvenir shops, Island Boat tour, pint of beer in the London Pub until the late afternoon sun got too hot. We still find it strange here in the western USA as the temperature at 5.00 PM is usually higher than the temperature at 2.00 PM? |
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During our journey to Las Vegas we intended to stop at the Hoover dam but we were unable to do so. It was very busy with lots of other people wanting to do the same as us, but having the advantage of only wanting to park a car not a large RV. The area is very congested as the highway gets narrow and winding down around the dam. Jim maanged to take some video film through the truck window while we were stopped in the traffic, so all was not lost. Booked into Circus Circus RV park right on the Strip. The next 3/4 days/nights were spent visiting different Casino's, eating, drinking, photographing and gambling a few quarters. We came away about even.
We took a trip to downtown Las Vegas to visit the "Fremont Experience". They have pedestrianised the area and provided a cover over all the Casino's so you can wander at your leisure whatever the weather. Street entertainers, souvenir shops and a terrific series of Laser light shows provide relief from the gambling. The casino's are not as grand as those on the Strip, but if you only want to gamble, eat & drink they are a lot less expensive.
Whilst in Las Vegas we canceled our AT&T cellular phone as we had reached the end of our tether with that company and signed up with Sprint. Perhaps we will have a better relationship with them? Linda has her doubts.
Squeaky Truck - The Las Vegas Ford dealer could find nothing wrong with our truck and quite rightly would not replace the steering pump as they could find nothing wrong. The only noise they could find when road testing was "normal brake noise" which they cleared. They spent a few hours on the truck and couldn't charge the time to anyone as they found nothing wrong. When we picked it up the very loud squeak had gone? (it's now November and it hasn't reappeared).
Our visitors Margaret and Jim were flying home on the Saturday morning at 8.50 a.m. so it was early to rise to get them to the airport by 6.30 a.m. We did enjoy their company and will miss them now they are gone. It's back to Linda talking and Wullie listening (sometimes).
Our next major port of call is Canyonlands & Arches National Parks in southeastern Utah. However that is a very long trip from Las Vegas so we will stop somewhere quiet to get the RV back into shape and generally relax after a hectic and enjoyable 3 weeks of travelling and talking. This very tidy, sunny and reasonably priced site was just the place to do that, and in fact over the next four days we only went out once and that was into St George for supplies. While visiting the laundry Linda met a great, great granddaughter of MR Lee of Lee's ferry who provided all the information previously related. She also related the story of a new breakaway branch of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) who practise Polygamy. There is apparently a village in the Panguitch area where they are very strong. Linda was told they send young girls to Canada and other places to become wives as early as 12 years of age. Look out for them in K-Mart & Walmart, they have long black dresses & hordes of kids - we looked but we didn't see any? Wullie finds it difficult to believe anybody would want several wives? several mistresses maybe?
Our batteries are now re-charged and we're ready for some serious hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks - our next stop.
Leeds to Moab - . The move to the Moab area, 300 miles on a clear sunny day was very enjoyable - the scenic Interstate 15 followed by an even more scenic Interstate 70 which passes through more astounding Utah countryside including the San Rafael Swell. We stopped at three main Vista points and once again marvelled at colourful Utah - took photos - and remarked how we find it hard not to take for granted all the beautiful scenery/sights we see on our travels. We passed by Big Rock Candy Mountain, where there probably was a bluebird singing, we couldn't see the lemonade springs and Burl Ives was conspicuous by his absence. We arrived at Arch View RV Park which is centrally located for both Arches and Canyonlands NP's. Today we have a view of The Windows in Arches NP, the impressive La Sal mountain range and the Moab valley, but that did not last long!.
We had planned on staying a week - this would have given us enough time to hike in both the National Parks and visit Moab. The dry hot weather we had encountered for weeks came to an end quickly. We had rain for three days, sleet, cloud and drizzle on some of the other days, and it was cold at nights. From the warmth of our RV we watched snow fall on the La Sal mountains which were getting whiter and whiter, quite like a picture postcard when the sun finally shone on them. When the sun started shining once again we booked in for a further three nights in the hope we could catch up on missed hiking days. It was a race against time but we managed quite a few of the planned hikes, but did not manage to visit the Needles area of Canyonlands NP - maybe next year!
| Arches National Park - A beautiful clear sunny day to visit another of those wonderful National Parks - Arches, southeastern Utah. This small NP has lots of view points and lots of small hikes with great rewards. We started with the 2 mile Park Avenue - very aptly named as we ended up with stiff necks looking up at all the tall rock formations that line this path. Our next hike was the Windows Loop which also takes in Turret Arch. We timed this hike just right as the sun really brought out the colour and beauty of these Arches. |
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Double Arch was the next short walk - we climbed so we were sitting on the base under one of the arches, this gave us great views through the arch.
We then drove to Wolfe Ranch and took the three mile hike to Delicate Arch, the most photographed arch in the NP. We completed this hike at the hottest part of the day - 4.0 p.m. It is advised that the best time to see this arch is at sunset. We did not stay to see the sun go down but certainly got some good photos. On the downward path we passed numerous people who had taken the advice of the handout and were heading up the path with camera and tripods. We highly recommend this hike but take plenty of water as this passes over rocks which reflect the heat back at you, such that a day which is relatively cool in the parking area is very hot on the hike. The number of people we seen struggling and apparently without water was astounding!
Devils Garden - The sight of the sun and blue skies through the skylight window pulled us out of bed earlier than the past three days - at last we were going to be able to do the final seven mile hike on our list in Arches NP.
We drove to Devils Garden which is at the far end of the park. This seven mile hike takes in nine arches so was a must for us. The main trail has exceptional views throughout - looking deep into the canyon below and to the distant mountains. Our chosen return journey was by way of the 'primitive trail'. This loop goes down into the canyon we were looking into from the main trail, has a side trail to Private arch. We did have to manouver our way round a few large wateholes left from the past three days rain but it was a most enjoyable and made our days hike complete.
| Canyonlands National Park, Island In The Sky - When we woke it was hard to imagine that by lunchtime heavy cloud would fill the sky and the heavens would open. Planning ahead we decided that today would be a good day to drive to Canyonlands NP and get hiking information for our future trip when the weather had settled to sunshine once again. The canyons are formed by the Green & Colorado rivers which eventually join forces in the Needles area of the NP at Cataract Canyon, heading for Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon & the Pacific Ocean. |  |
Upheaval Dome - The last time we visited the NP it was very cloudy and views were moderate, today it was reasonably bright making the views into the canyons awesome. Our first stop was at Shaffer Canyon Overlook for some photographic opportunities - just like looking into a mini Grand Canyon. We then continued to Upheaval Dome - what was to be a 8 mile loop hike around the Cincline trail and deep into the crater. We decided to do the hard part first by descending into the crater, walking deep into the canyon before ascending to the Cincline trail. The scramble down was awkward under foot in parts but we made it without any mishaps - our first impression when reaching the bottom was one of disappointment, but it improved as we made our way through the narrow canyon looking up at the rock formations that towered above us. It was decision time when we reached the Upheaval Canyon spur road - 3.4 miles to return the way we came, or 4.5 miles to continue to complete the loop - we decided to continue. All was going well until we had to start ascending out of the canyon. We had nearly made it to the top when we came across part of the trail that had eroded, (perhaps during the last few days of rain?) leaving a large expanse of loose rock underneath a cliff edge with a safety wire running along the ledge. If we had had a rope we could have climbed up easily enough. As Wullie tried to tackle the problem like an engineer would, Linda decided there was no way she was climbing up there so it was about turn. This was probably the best decision as we didn't know what lay ahead - more trail damage? Since it was past 3.0 p.m. we had to put our best foot forward as we now had about 5 miles back to the truck. With tired legs we made it back by 5.30 p.m.
Grand View - Quite bright at the start of the day so we paid our last visit to the Island In The Sky region of Canyonlands in the hope of seeing all the viewpoints while the sun shone. Our luck ran out by early afternoon, but we did manage to visit all the viewpoints on our list and even do the mile hike around the rim at Grand View - a very aptly named viewpoint.
It was time to start making our way to Texas. We have booked into a site at Port Aransas, near Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico from November 5th for two months.Time to put the feet down, mull over the past year and make plans for next year. People ask us if we get bored? - we don't have time for that.
It was cool but sunny for most of this 212 mile journey giving us some nice scenery to enjoy. Four Corners was a 'must'`place to call into. As its name suggests four States meet - New Mexico and Colorado (which we had not visited yet), Utah and Arizona. The actual site is on the Navajo reservation and is administered by the Navajo people. We were somewhat disappointed by the site but stood in the small square where the four States meet and took some photos. Quite a few Native American stalls had handmade jewelry, pottery etc. on sale - Linda bought her first Christmas present before we continued on our way. We arrived at Down's RV park nice and early - hooked the water and electric only, and left the RV hooked to the truck for a quick start in the morning. When we arrived we wondered why this RV Park was so busy, and discovered it's right next to a Casino and a Horse Racing Course. They had just finished racing when we arrived but we watched the horses being walked around the stables.
Rio Rancho is on the outskirts of Albuquerque which would enable us to re-supply at COSTCO. Thought we may stay two nights and do some sightseeing but the forecast is for gales and temperatures in the 40's (too cold for us) so we decided on just the one night.
We have mentioned before the length of road works here, but today takes the biscuit, SR44 has roadworks for over 120 miles which will not be completed until Autumn 2001. They are converting it to a dual-carriageway so it just meant changing carriageways every few miles. They are so well organised we still made good time, arriving at Stagecoach Stop RV Resort, Rio Rancho by early afternoon. Before we started relaxing we went to Costco for supplies, then decided as we were only going to stay one night here we would partake of the "all you can eat buffet" at the local casino to save work.
Our first time in New Mexico and we like it already - gas prices are the cheapest for months - average $1.55 - Costco $1.45. What a difference from Utah and Arizona where we paid between $1.64 - $1.85.
We woke to sun and light cloud but as we were packing up to leave the heavier cloud descended fast over the mountains and started dropping rain on us which continued until we were on the south side of Albuquerque. It cleared very slowly and the sun started shinning, but the temperature did not start rising until we reached the Texas border.
Apart from the Albuquerque and El Paso areas where the traffic was at its busiest this journey was a doddle as it was completed on Interstates 25 and 10. We did not have a lot of exciting scenery but still enjoyed this easy 315 mile journey. As we passed Truth & Consequences in southern New Mexico it was brought to mind how this town got it's name. There was a very popular Radio Gameshow in the 1950's of that name and the residents of "Hot Springs NM" changed the name of their town. We don't know if that was as a result of the show visiting town or to entice the show to town? (Perhaps the people of Ballingry could change the name of the town to Blind Date? or maybe Gladiators would be more appropriate?)
We called into the Texas Tourist Information Office to pick up a multitude of tourist info before arriving at Cotton Valley RV Park mid afternoon in a welcome 68 degrees - nice to feel warm again!.
Miles travelled this month: 2,802
Accumulative miles: 37,192
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