Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Last Day on the Road

We got on the road about 9 o’clock this morning, not sure if we were going all the way home or would stop for one more night on the road. It was 74°.  Not looking forward to the temperatures at home.  Within the first 10 minutes, we saw a coyote cross the road in front of us. There are supposed to be a herd of Buffalo up here near the north rim park entrance, but we didn’t see any yesterday.

The first 25 minutes of our drive this morning was nothing but rough road, hills, and curves but once we got down off of that mountain and passed the Vermillion cliffs, we had a straight road. still somewhat bumpy, but not as bad as it was.  But the whole day was pretty much like this except for a 40-mile stretch between I-17 and 87 on Lake Mary Road (Hwy 3) after Flagstaff.  The Vermillion Cliffs go on for miles and miles -- like a wall on the east side of the highway.  Very pretty.

We crossed the Colorado river about 9:50. It sure is a long way down from the bridge to the water. This is one of the areas where the Indians set up their jewelry in the little shacks, but we didn’t see any of them open today through here, except in Marble Canyon.  However, once we passed the turnoff to the Grand Canyon, there were several open for business.  

 

About 20 minutes after we crossed the bridge, we reached the turn off onto Highway 89 to Flagstaff. We got to Flagstaff just before noon.  We fueled there, and I ran next door and got lunch from Del Taco to take with us.   Joe managed to negotiate the maze coming out of Flagstaff to get on Highway 3, the Lake Mary Road. This is no small task -- very confusing.  He found a pull-off and we had our lunch in the RV.  He said this road was the most pleasant road he’d  driven all day.  I  saw one elk on that strip. I guess that’s the end of the wildlife for this trip.

We made our way down off the mountains and got home about 4:00.  It has been a good trip but could’ve been better without my knee and shoulder issues. It has been a long trip and I for one am glad to be home. I’m not sure Joe shares that opinion. We came through temperatures of 78 and 84. We had a few sprinkles and a few clouds but now that we’re down in the valley, it’s blue sky and 98°, the coolest day Phoenix has had since early June.

Joe drove 327 hard miles today.  He was really happy to turn onto our dirt road, and it had actually been worked on while we were gone, and is probably the best it has ever been.  The house was a comfortable 81 degrees. Joe had turned the A/C on on his phone this morning but wasn't sure if we had left our Wifi on. The house was 97 on his phone, and he checked once and it still said 97, so we were expecting a hot welcome.  Apparently, we had left the Wifi on. Yeah for us.

I don't know if I will ever do a fuel summary.  I didn't always get everything recorded, and then there's the Canadian portion.  But I did calculate the number of miles:

RV    -  6,071

Jeep  -  8,517

           14,588 Total Miles Driven

         18 1/2 weeks (from March 31 to August 7

3 National Parks -- Glacier, Yellowstone, and North Rim of Grand

                               Canyon

PLUS -- THE NORTH RIM OF LAKE SUPERIOR

 Tuesday, August 6, 2024

North Rim.

Our "unmapped" adventures continue, having found this delightful campground in the Kaibab National Forest at Jacob's Lake. We did decide to stay another day.   I walked over to the office about 7:45, thinking it was 8:45 and had to wait 15 minutes for them to open (at 8:00, Arizona time).  While I was sitting on their patio, I saw a Kaibab squirrel. My picture of the squirrel isn't very good because it was quite a ways away, but they are black with a white, bushy tail.

 I added a day to our reservation, and I went back to the RV, fixed a cup of coffee and sat outside at the picnic table, waiting for Joe to arise (with a little prompting from me). He asked me what time it was, and I told him 9:30, but I didn't tell him that it was 8:30 Arizona time.   I had two hummingbirds attacking me right away and they continued to visit me. 

 We talked to a lady fellow camper last night and she told us about a scenic drive along the north rim -- sounds like our kind of adventure. 

So we gained back our last hour of our travels, and we’re now on Arizona time.  We started today’s adventure about 10:15.  It was 80 degrees.  The temperature range today is 71 to 81.

We did see one deer on our way to Angel Trail, where we arrived about 11:30, and walked just to the beginning of it. The trail itself is closed, but we didn’t go far enough down to see where they had closed it. However, we did stop at one of the Visitors Center Overlooks and got a couple pictures.  I'm just going to post a bunch of the canyon photos at the bottom, without regard to where they were taken.

We drove past the lodge and cabins.  It must have been shift change -- we saw 4 park rangers walking together by the cabins.  

Gas in the park was $3.71.  Joe filled up the jeep outside before we came into the park for $4.89.  Fortunately, we only needed 3 gallons.  On our way back from Bright Angel to the scenic drive -- Cape Royal Road --  we found the mule corral.  It looks like they were all settled up and ready to go.

 

Then we turned on the scenic drive our camper lady told us about.  Cape Royal Road,  23 miles one way.   With our ailments and as tired as we are, this 8000 foot elevation makes every short walk difficult. At the Wahalla overlook, Joe walked down a little ways to a second overlook, but I didn’t, my knee was hurting. 

The next stop was Cape Royal where the Angels Window Lookout is. I got a picture of the window just before we got to the lookout. I started to try to walk it. It’s 100 yards approximately, but I didn’t make it very far. I would like to have gone to the end because when we got out of the car,  a Ranger walked with us carrying a guitar.   I would’ve loved to have seen him play.  Joe walked out there a  little further, but I stayed with the jeep.  When Joe got back, he said it was a good decision on my part. He only walked partway to the first lookout, which was probably the hundred yards.  The Window was quite a bit further.

There are some magnificent views on this road, especially toward the end of it. Our last stop was Imperial Point. It’s breathtaking. I got to sit on the bench while Joe went to the bathroom and just soak it up for a bit. I know there are people who think they have seen other canyons comparable to the Grand Canyon but I really think this is one of a kind. 

I saw this van in the parking lot and loved the painting on the side.  This may be my next vehicle.

This wore us out and we headed back to the RV about 3:30, 137 miles in.  After a rest and dinner, we decided to take a little drive.  We wanted to see Jacob's Lake, which is not much more than a mudpuddle right up the road.  But of course we continued on forest roads to see what we could see.  The forest here suffered severe forest fire a few years ago, which is always very sad.  But what hadn't been involved in the fire is very clean.  We saw a total of 10 deer on the drive.  And only drove 33 miles, which made 170 for the day.  We got to watch this deer for a little while.

     PICTURES   OF   THE   NORTH   RIM

.

This is my panromantic picture.

Well worth the time and effort.  It is only our second visit to the North Rim.  There are not as many overlooks here as on the South Rim, but they are spectacular.

 Monday, August 5, 2024

Happy Heavenly Birthday to My Mother

On to Arizona

Moving on across Utah, I did get a picture of the pretty Morman Temple up on the hill.  I can actually see the temple from the window of the RV.

  We started out on Hwy 89, then had about 25 miles on interstate 70. The pretty mountain pictures are from I -70.  As we drove the stretch on I -70, we had mountains off on both sides, but once we turned on Hwy  89 again we were driving through the mountains right along beside the Sevier River. 

Mountains all around us.

We went through Whistle Stop where I think you can rent train cars to stay in. The Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort is also in this little burg.  This is a very pretty area with lots to do -- ATV rentals, several campgrounds, lots of mountains to explore.  

We  came through an area with what looked to be poultry barns just south of Marysville but we don't know if they are chickens or turkeys.  There was more than one row of them.

 The pretty Sevier River eventually left us, but then we came up on the Putte State Park and the Piute Reservoir. For a while, we drove along a very muddy river, but we never saw a name.  

Butch Cassidy is from this area and as we came through Junction, there was a sign that they celebrated Butch Cassidy Days just this past weekend.  We always miss these big deals, usually by just a few days.  Flags were hanging on most telephone poles. We don’t know if that’s part of the celebration or if that’s always like that.  Joe saw a loop road and thought we should take that, then he remembered we were not in the jeep. I reminded him that we were in the "making miles mode" today -- no side trips, although we went past Bryce and Zion National Parks so side trips would be a good thing. 

We came upon Butch Cassidy‘s boyhood home, just south of Circleville, Utah.  But I think this whole strip on Hwy 89 claims him.

Right after we left Panguitch, we got behind a little blue car that was swerving all over the road. He almost took out an oncoming vehicle and he almost sideswiped a vehicle pulled off on the right.  Tthat vehicle pulled out right in front of us and eventually the little blue car pulled over and that car pulled in behind him. I was just about ready to call 911 so I hope whatever the situation was they got it taken care of. It was certainly a wreck about to happen.  

Next up was the Bryce Canyon turn off with the beautiful red mountain behind it, 8 miles past that was the little town of Hatch where we stopped for lunch at 1:15.  

 We’ve got some pretty good clouds behind the Bryce mountains so I thought we might get rained on.  It was pretty cloudy when we went across the street to the restaurant. I told Joe we should take an umbrella. We are just not umbrella people, but sure enough when we came out, it was raining. We sat at an outside table for five minutes and it slacked off so we hustled across the road.  And we don't hustle very fast.  

Near Kanab, we got into the red rock country.  This little town has lots of outdoors activities available.  It would be a good destination for active people.

After we came out of Kanab, we spotted some smoke, just a small puff of smoke, in the distance.  As we continued south on 89A, the smoke continued to expand. We’re really afraid we have spotted a new forest fire.

A scrawny coyote crossed the road in front of us. It looked  like he might have a broken leg.

From Kanab to our campground in the Jacobs Lake area, it was a steady climb of 3000 feet. Joe said he felt like he was pulling the jeep sideways.  Joe said this was probably the longest and hardest pull we have had the whole trip.  It was about a 40-mile climb, slow but steady, Joe said, and we’re camping at almost 8,000 feet. We got to the campground about 4:00, ready to be off the road. 

This campground, Kaibab Camper Village, was a nice surprise. We had been at Jacob’s Lake, which is just across the road and down about a half mile, but it doesn’t have any hook-ups so we decided to come to this commercial campground with full hook-ups. It’s lovely, shaded, quiet, clean, the woods all around us are very clean , we’re really enjoying it and will probably extend another night.   We even ate dinner outside at the picnic table, a rare treat on this trip. 

Looks like I’m gonna have to pick up some pinecones before we leave though.

We drove 230 miles today, and crossed into Arizona just after 3:00 (2:00 at home, but I think we are still on Mountain Time here).  It's 70 degrees as I write this (9:00 p.m.) and is supposed to get down to 64 tonight.  That's why we will probably stay another night here.  The Phoenix heat looms on our horizon.