January

Sunday December 31st 2017

Happy New Year.

This blog entry is a look back at the year 2017. Be warned this is a long entry. I put over 7,000 miles on the motorhome and many more on the Honda CR-V. Starting the year in Florida I spent at least one night in ten states, traveled through 2 more and did the tourist thing in 2 others. That doesn’t include the long weekend I flew to North Carolina during July.

Over the course of the year I learned that I have to plan better. At this time last year my plan was to spend January in Florida, March in Arizona for spring training and the rest of the year traveling in the area west of the Rockies and east of the Sierras. My only specific goal for the summer was to visit Glacier National Park. Sometime in March I added in the plan to be near a major airport at the end of July. That turned out to be Salt Lake City, Utah.

The thing that complicated the plan were finding places to stay. In the popular areas I was touring it is necessary to make reservations a long time ahead of time. When I departed my month long stay in Arizona, I tried an approach of making reservations no more than a week or two ahead of time. I wanted to be flexible. What happened is I had to settle for what I could get. It was often shorter in duration than I wanted, at a less than ideal place or in an entirely different direction. I enjoyed everything, but ended up rushing my visit to some areas, grouping other areas into a single stop and spending longer in some places than made sense. As I breakdown the year in rest of this blog entry hopefully it will become clear. Use the monthly archives on the right of the blog page to visit the details of each month for additional information.

I started the year with a month long stay at the Tampa South RV Resort. It is located in Ruskin Florida at the southern end of Tampa Bay. This location allowed me to explore the Bradenton and the south bay. The manatee viewing area at the Tampa Power and Light generating plant in Apollo was fun to visit. I also took advantage of the location to attend the Tampa RV Super Show.

Manatee moving under the viewing platform.

Today’s Pelican Picture

Horses and riders back at the shore.

February

I spent the first three quarters of February in the northeast corner of Florida completing a few things relative to my Florida domicile. Since I didn’t have reservations ahead of time, I had to move several times. The last moves for the Presidents Day holiday were well into Georgia.

The last week of February was spent crossing the country to Arizona. I had several long driving days to complete the transit in time for my March 1st reservation. I was introduced to the western winds in New Mexico. I had to hole up and wait for the wind to die down before completing my travels.

March

The month of may was spent at the Silverado RV Resort in Eloy Arizona. It’s located just south of Casa Grande about halfway between Tuscon and Pheonix. The area of desert is irrigated and cultivated for a number of different crops.

During the month I attended several spring training games on the east side of Phoenix. Most of the games were at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in the Scottsdale area. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies are based at the facility. The other game was in Tempe AZ at the home of the Los Angeles Angels.

Strike three and he’s out.

It was a busy month of touring. I also toured the following.

The Sonora Desert Museum
The Boyce Thompson Arboretum
The Pima Air and Space Museum
The Titan Missile Museum

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F-18 used by Blue Angels

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Organ Pipe Cactu’s

I also spent a week commuting to the Escapees Escapade at the Pima county fair grounds. This was a last minute add on to my plans. In the middle of February I realized it was going to be in the area during the event. You don’t get the full experience as a commuter, but I enjoyed the seminars and entertainment. I also bought a few necessary items from the vendors.

April

After a month’s stay in one place I was ready to get moving again. I started slowly moving west in Arizona during the first half of the month with stays on the Colorado River and in the Kingman Az area. In Kingman I explored some of historic route 66 from Kingman to Oatman AZ. Watching the old west shootout in Oatman with the wild burros wandering trough the crowds was a memorable event.

The second half of April was spent in Las Vegas. I was in vacation for most of my stay. I saw several shows and toured the Valley of Fire State Park and the Spring Preserve Botanical gardens. Using the flexibility in my schedule I extended my stay in Las Vegas for a third week to see another show.

The valley floor transitions quickly to rock in the Valley of Fire State Park.

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Petroglyphs on the stone face.

White sand on along the trail in the area of the white rocks.

Rock formation at Valley of Fire State Park.

May

On the first of May I started north. I had successfully reserved a site in the Reno area for about a week. Once I found all of the interesting things to do in the area I attempted to extend the reservation for another week, but could only get three more days. I packed a lot of touring of Reno and the Lake Tahoe area. It was a little early to be visiting this area. The snow still covered the peaks and the tourist things around Lake Tahoe had closed for the winter season and hadn’t opened for the summer season.

View out the front window of the car of a mountain on the west side of the lake that I will be navigating around in a little while.

Marker buoys waiting to moor all of the summer boats.

Long west bound freight train. It had three engines in the front and one at the rear.

I traveled east from Reno on Interstate 80 when I left the area. The second day of travel at altitude east of Elko Nevada I got to experience driving my Motorhome in whiteout snow conditions. I stopped for the night in Wells NV to let the squal line pass, before heading north to Idaho.

The Twin Falls, ID area was a pleasant surprise. The Snake River Canyon, Shoshone Falls and all of the agricultural land were not what I had expected to find. This is another area that I will return to. I couldn’t stay longer because of the Memorial Day holiday. To find a place to stay I had to move another one hundred plus miles north east in Idaho to Arco Idaho.

BASE Jumper leaving the bridge over the Snake River.

Barely clearing the trees.

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls complete with rainbow.

Arco is the nearest town to two significant tourist draws. The first is the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This area of volcanic rock looks like the surface of another planet more than the moon. I visited the park twice to explore the different areas. An artifact of the Atomic age is another one of the tourist draws near Arco. On the grounds of the Idaho National Laborartory is the Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1. This structure on the registry of National Historic Landmarks is the original Breeder Reactor that once powered the town of Arco.

June

My first stop in June was at the KOA in West Yellowstone Montana. I managed to find an eight night stay. This gave me five days to tour Yellowstone. It was lots of driving, but well worth it. All of the animals and geysers were memorable.

Fountain Geyser

Old Faithful

Bison with calfs in the Mather area of the park.

Rushing water heading for the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River. The climb down to the top of the falls was not as long as the climb to the Lower falls. I made this hike but turned around a quarter the way down to the lower falls.

The little ones follow quickly.

Here are the Google Photos Albums from Yellowstone

The second stop in June was close to a week in Butte on my way to Glacier National Park. I managed to get a week near the west entrance to Glacier National Park. It was a little early to visit the park. The Going To the Sun road which crosses the continental divide in the park was not open. It didn’t open until almost a week after I left the area. The good thing was I got to walk along a long stretch of the closed road.

Lake McDonald looking southwest.

Panorama of the cliff side the road to Logan pass follows. This picture was taken near the end of my hike before I turned around.

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Here are the Google Photos Albums from Glacier National Park

By the end of the third week of June I’d accomplished all of the things on my rough plan for the year. I started heading south to be near Salt Lake City for the end of July airplane trip. I also needed to find a place to stay for the Forth of July Holiday.

July

I spent the first two weeks of July on the Nevada Utah line in the town of West Wendover NV. This is located on the west side of the Bonneville Salt Flats. I enjoyed the small town Forth of July Parade. I booked a two week stay because I was tired of the struggle to find a place to stay. It really was a mistake. Other than the salt flats the only attraction were the casinos. I spent more than a few days inside my air conditioned RV watching TV with the outside temperature in the high 90s.

Police cars from Wendover UT and West Wendover NV lead the way. They are followed by a color guard from the Civil Air Patrol cadets.

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The second stop in July was at the Utah Lake State Park in Provo Utah before moving back to Salt Lake City to be near the airport. July ended further south in Utah getting ready for a packed month of August and September visiting the National Parks of Utah.

LDS Temple

Outside of the Tabernacle.

Inside of the Tabernacle with a few people listening to the organ music.

August and September

In August and September I visited many of the National Parks and Monuments of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. I started with a stay in the Melon capital of Utah, Green River. This was my base for exploring Arches National Park and the Islands in the Sky unit of Canyonlands National Park.

Arches required quite a bit of hiking to see the good arches. It was in the 90s both days I visited the park. The exercise was well worth the views. Canyon lands National Park was more of a driving experience to look at a big hole in the ground. It was also an enjoyable visit. I didn’t get to visit the town of Mohab or the southern unit of Canyon Lands National Park. These will have to wait for another visit. Hopefully, my next visit to the area will be in the spring or the fall.

Arches National Park

Close up of Delicate Arch. Note the people that hiked up to get a close view.

Tunnel Arch

Landscape Arch

Mesa Arch at Canyon Lands National Park

Green River View. The winding green water at the bottom of the canyon is the Green River.

Grand View Point Overlook

From Green River I traveled back to the west. I stopped in Richfield UT to visit Capitol Reef National Park and to sit out the total eclipse. I didn’t want to be on the road during the eclipse. Capitol Reef National Park was different than the two previous Utah National Parks. For one thing, it wasn’t as developed. I traveled several miles on a dirt road that twisted and turned around the cliffs and boulders on a dry river bed. You’re right in the middle of the scenery.

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My next stop after Richfield was the larger town of Cedar City. It was my base for visiting the Cedar Breaks National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park. Cedar Breaks is on top of the mountains just to the east of Cedar City, but Bryce Canyon was a significant drive. I would have like to be closer to Bryce Canyon, but finding a decent place that had an available space wasn’t possible. On a future visit I want to stay closer to Bryce Canyon so I can visit in the early and late part of the day.

Cedar Breaks was another case of looking down into a big hole in the ground. The hole had some very interesting and colorful rock formations. I walked around the rim of the Break for a good hike at over ten thousand feet of elevation. There were also some meadows with pretty wild flowers. It would have been even prettier earlier in the year.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

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Field of yellow wildflowers along the road at the visitors center.

Bryce Canyon is another case of a hole in the ground full of impressive hoodoos and other colorful rock formations. The difference is that you can hike down into the canyon. I got suckered into one such hike by the beautiful scenery. It was very steep going down and seemed even steeper coming back up the same trail. Again it was well worth the hike.

Bryce Canyon Hoodoo.

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The trail goes through several rock fins.

My next stop in Utah was over the labor day weekend. I booked reservations for the labor day weekend in the St. George Utah area in late July. From that base I toured Zion National Park and other things in the St. George Utah area. Zion National Park around the holiday weekend was very busy. I managed to visit on a day that wasn’t to bad. I took four short hikes during my one day visit to the main canyon. A couple of days later I visited the Kolob Canyon Unit of the park. This is the opposite of the main canyon. Instead of being on the canyon floor your once again up high looking down into a big hole in the ground. It was different, but impressive.

Zion Canyon

A little water fall on the Virgin River

This deer was busy eating.

From St. George Utah I crossed the Arizona strip to Lake Powell. The Arizona Strip is the section of Arizona north of the Grand Canyon. I had reservations at the campground in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the banks of Lake Powell. I made those reservations at the end of July as well.

I booked two excursions in the Glen Canyon area. The first was a full day boat tour on Lake Powell to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument. This was very impressive. The boat passes through canyons and by rock formations that appear to grow right out of the water. The hike form the floating boat tie up to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument is fairly short and flat through some more impressive scenery.

Rainbow Bridge

Another look behind the boat at the narrow canyon the boat passed through.

Bad weather behind the boat. It never really caught up with us.

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The second excursion was a raft ride on the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. It starts at the base of the Glen Canyon dam and goes down river to the Lees Ferry just before the river enters Marble Canyon considered to be the start of the Grand Canyon area. The raft pilot was a real character.

Glen Canyon Dam from river level.

One of the outflow tunnels

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While I was at Lake Powell I also drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a long drive, but I’m glad I made the trek. The additional elevation changed the desert vegetation I’d been seeing for so long. In addition to the impressive Grand Canyon I saw some Aspen trees changing into fall colors in among the tall pines.

Grand Canyon North Rim

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After my stop at Lake Powell I was running out of energy for my National Park touring. I booked a two week stay at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Arizona. My goal was to slow down my pace of travel. On the way to Cottonwood I took a detour and paused in Holbrook AZ to visit the Petrified Forest National Park. This National Park is totally different than the ones I had been visiting. The mineralized wood that had its origin in far southern latitudes is very different. It gives an interesting view into the land at the time of the dinosaurs.

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Close-up of a piece of petrified wood.

September ended with me in Cottonwood AZ. I took an excursion train ride through the Verde River Canyon. The train starts from the old mine tailings in Clarkdale AZ and goes into the canyon and back along the same tracks. Watching the scenery from the open air cars was a pleasant afternoon.

The train before departure.

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Canyon sides were often very close to the train. In the 680 foot curving tunnel they were supposed to be closer, but it was too dark to know for sure.

Front of the train around the side of the canyon

October

I spent the first week and half of October in the Phoenix suburbs at the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. This was an interesting place I found to spend the time before my reservation at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I managed to reserve a weekend at the Trailer Village in the Grand Canyon National Park. It was fun to see the wildlife in the park as well as the canyon. I even forced myself to getup early to watch the sunrise over the canyon.

Sunrise over the Grand Canyon

From the Grand Canyon I made my way to Las Vegas. I made a five day stop on the way at the Lake Havasu State Park. I was really running out of travel energy by this point in the year. When I got the idea to book three months in Las Vegas, it was like a cow heading for the barn at milking time.

North side of the London Bridge in the Desert.

November

The big event during November was the Aviation Nation Air and Space Expo at Nellis Air Force base. This big year end celebration by the Air Force Thunderbirds and
other Air Force units was a real good show. Watching the new F-35 and F-22 jets do their thing was a lot of fun.